Dear Friend and Reader:
We have an unusual set of circumstances in the sky now — personal planets (the small ones, near the Earth) are all about to align with much larger planets. Venus, newly in Leo, is about to make a conjunction to Jupiter in Leo. Mercury, about to ingress Virgo, will soon make an opposition to Neptune in Pisces. And Mars, finally in Scorpio after eight months in Libra, is about to make a conjunction to Saturn in Scorpio.
These meetings are likely to be turning points, and they are likely to be part of the same process, since they happen in such a short time span, and because there is such interesting symmetry to the setup. The pairings of planets all have affinities to one another. Venus and Jupiter are the ‘benefic’ planets of classical astrology. Mars and Saturn are known in classical astrology as the ‘malefics’. (Fortunately, most astrologers take a less prejudiced view in current times.) Mercury, the planet of cognitive thought, is the closest official planet to the Sun, and Neptune, the planet of fantasy and the imagination, is the most distant.
That is impressive. It’s as if each of the individually focused planets, usually associated with the personality, meets something greater than itself, something from the transpersonal realm, sending the message that we really do need to think a little past the tips of our thumbs.
One question we might ask is how would all three events work together as part of a whole system? Taking them individually first, with Venus-Jupiter, there is the image of something worthwhile and small joining something worthwhile and very large to create something of even greater benefit. It’s like two essential pieces of true value coming together. There is the image of the small and the great helping one another. There is emotional intelligence applied to broad, worldly knowledge.
Mercury in Virgo meeting Neptune in Pisces is saying that neither rational logic nor unbridled fantasy is enough — there must be an integration of these two essential layers of perception. Usually we get one or the other — micromanaging the details, or total irrationality; constant rationalizing versus delusional flights of fancy. There is no better way that I can think of to activate the Virgo-Pisces axis than this particular alignment.
The opposition says, know the difference between the polarities. Then stretch across them, borrow from one and give to the other, then make some authentic attempt to integrate them. One clue that comes to mind is that it does not take much imagination to make rational thinking much more meaningful. It does not take much clarity to make what is wildly artistic into something practical or useful.
Mars conjunct Saturn in Scorpio is a study in how desire and self-assertion meet limits, boundaries and authority. This is one of those constant areas of struggle, drama, quest or life lesson. In this pairing, Mars is in its sign of rulership, which makes it the dominant planet in the equation. This says to very gently focus your willpower, and to be persistent without being pushy. Hold your position and carefully advance, though without provoking anyone.
Do not let any matter that might be a confrontation come to blows. The best martial artist knows how to avoid a fight, or only take it as far as nobody getting hurt. A martial artist knows how to work with the flow of energy and not against it.
Be flexible, because if there is a winner and a loser in this equation, the winner will be the flexible party. But take that a step further and go beyond the zero-sum-game of one person coming out on top. Focus on the mutually beneficial solution. Stay in the moment. Saturn will have a tendency to dwell within the past. Mars will have a tendency to reach into the future. Maintain a balance between the two, and consider the interests of everyone involved.
Saturn in Scorpio feels like something lurking just below the surface. The party who wants to take leadership in this equation will do well to keep everything aboveboard — to get everyone’s opinion out on the table.
I just tapped into The Oracle, that mysterious, intelligent archive of my horoscopes that does a fine job speaking to the situation, through a totally random selection. It returned the Gemini weekly horoscope from April 26, 2004, which sums up this whole scenario rather succinctly:
“This week offers you a few choice opportunities to test out your political skills, but don’t be too cocky about it. Politics is a game of give and take, and those who always insist on winning often wind up paying dearly in the end. Keep in contact with the human side of the equation: what you and the people around you need the most. To find out, you may need to initiate the discussion. In the end, your role is to protect certain key people, but to do it efficiently you need to be working with all the facts. Get them straight, and await your opportunity.”
Lovingly,
Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, August 14, 2014, #1011 | By Eric Francis
Aries (March 20-April 19) — You may be thinking you’re having too much fun, when it seems you have so much work to do. What I suggest is that you keep the fun going, then connect that frame of mind to the work you have to do. If work is not fun, it’s drudgery, and that is life-depleting. Your long-term mission is to choose situations specifically for their ability to integrate productivity and pleasure. It’s true that every minute of fun is not necessarily productive, nor is every minute of productivity a hoot, though in an integrated reality there is enough to create a mutual presence most of the time. It’s becoming apparent that you will benefit from setting specific goals, then reassessing every time you reach one of them. The central concept here is specific. It’s important to set a goal to a degree of clarity that you actually know when you’ve met the goal. Sometimes you must aim high, and sometimes you must stick to the basics.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Pay attention to a situation in your life that gradually seems to be coming to a head. It’s true that you or someone close to you is reaching a natural limit, though that limit does not mean the end. Rather, it appears as a conscious change in your relationship to structure. Usually, structure is experienced as an unconscious element; it would probably not occur to you to reorient your house, or to move a hillside. Where the mind and feelings are concerned, structure is conceptual and therefore flexible. It usually exists due to prior programming, though it can be raised to the level of a conscious understanding. One thing is clear — you need to conduct your affairs in a wider field of reality, where there is more space to move around, to experience your feelings, and to express your desire. With that in mind, you might consider visiting an actual field and noticing how that feels, or working in a place where you have plenty of room.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You seem ready to put the pieces together. That is, the pieces of yourself — which may be different interests, opinions, inner voices, plans or ideas. They are not separate and therefore they don’t need to compete. Yet you may first have to go through a tight spot where you decide that everything in your mind is irrelevant, which might feel like a crisis. If you persist, you will pop through to the other side where you may notice that your ideas are indeed irrelevant if you don’t relate them to one another. Once you start to make the connections, meaning will emerge. Said another way, meaning is always contextual. The same astrology chart can apply to a child born in a birthing center, and a car running a stop sign outside the birthing center. The meaning of astrology, or of ideas, is revealed by the context in which they are set. The first context is you; the second is their interrelationship.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — This is the time to experience what it means to feel good about yourself. Venus and Jupiter are forming a conjunction in Leo, your solar 2nd house. This is a way of saying that you have full access to your inner resources, and you have everything going for you. Now your goal is to actually experience that. I don’t mean analyze it, or prove that it’s true, or look for the ways it may not be true. I mean experience as a direct reality, like looking at the sky and noticing that it’s blue. One other element of this astrology is that you can afford to be real. Try it for a few days — say only what is true for you. Express what you want. Do nothing to conceal your reality. Wear the clothes you want to wear, skip the makeup if you want, and go only to events and functions that actually suit your fancy. Take some notes on the experiment and see what you learn.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You don’t have to push yourself so hard, especially around financial or family issues. And you don’t have to worry, even though that would seem to be one of your ‘natural’ inclinations. Worry is like driving with the brakes on; energy that could go into momentum is put into heat and unnecessary wear and tear. Focus on your resources, and on your ability to manifest more if you need them. Focus on the fact that people care about you, which has a magnetic and otherwise attractive quality. But that won’t work if you have yourself under undue pressure. If you want to use your mind, focus on ideas and putting them into action. Once you get past the thin, barely existent layer of self-critique, you will find that you are a wealth of ideas, which will go well with having the drive and the energy to put into using them well.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You seem to be straining with the need to express yourself in some way, though for whatever reason you cannot bring yourself to do it. I think you know exactly what you want to say, and you may even be ready to commit to your point of view. But something seems to be stopping you. What you’re likely to be feeling is a blockage that’s been there for a while, but now it’s being matched by a new depth of intensity and urgency, most of which is emotional. What you are yearning for is expression on the level of visceral need rather than on the level of intellect. Remember that when you make the choice to express yourself — it’s not necessary to prove anything, or to be right, or even to be precise. It’s only necessary to ‘go there’ — to go where you want and need to go, and to get your feelings out and onto paper as best you can. The temptation to analyze, dissect and disprove may be strong. Be stronger.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — What exactly are you struggling with? What is the nature of your inner conflict? Is it about what you want, or what you want but you’re denying yourself? What are those two factors involved, the desire and the denial? There’s another angle of approach to your life that will feel much more fruitful. It can start with not trying to prove, deny or disprove that you’re worthy of love, no matter how you feel. Rather, you can take the leap to loving — that is, loving everyone. This may sound crazy, or like nostalgic 1960s jive. It is anything but jive, especially for you, right now (if astrology means anything). Widen your world. Expand your sense of yourself by encountering more people in more places. Take a breath and notice how alive the people around you are, and count yourself as one of them. If you cannot quite get there, take every opportunity to learn from example — especially from people who know how to forgive themselves as a way of life. This is the key, to nearly everything.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — How honest with yourself can you be? If there is some limit, what is the hang-up? Your life story for the next couple of weeks will be about working your way to that boundary or limit. Many times in your life, you’ve found it easy to be in denial. Now, between your own inner pressure and the lurking sensation that you cannot respond to your own needs, denial will verge on impossible. Incidentally, there seems to be something here about your mom. The reason she did not respond to her own needs was not because she didn’t want to — by my estimation, it was because at key times she was not flexible enough to change when she needed to. That is the name of the tune — flexibility. The more conscious the better.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — God loves you, but what do you fear? Your charts describe a scenario where your darkest ideas of what is possible meet your most faithful expectations. I think it will be necessary to stay in contact with both sides of this equation, and to get swept away by neither of them. Your fears speak of an emotional issue that you’re trying to resolve. It’s something that prevents you from fully expressing your freedom of choice. The feeling may be some shade of, “If I do what I want, the worst thing will happen.” That is not true, but it is a feeling. On the other side of the equation, you can feel your horizons opening up and you know that much more is possible than you’ve dreamed of any time lately. There is substance to your desires, which can take on structure and form as real experiences. That is a workable tool rather than a promise or a guarantee. Therefore, stay true to your vision for yourself.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You do not have to conform to what someone else wants or says is right for you. You do, however, have the option to agree with someone’s opinion, or to tailor what you’re doing to what you think would be socially appropriate. But is that really going to help you succeed? My take is that you will cover the most ground by tuning into what you know you want to express, and saying (or doing) it in your own way. True, you might make mistakes. You might rub some people the wrong way. You might transgress a few boundaries. And what if you do? It’s necessary to experiment with the edge in order to figure out where it is, and to determine your relationship to it. This is never mastered by considering the theory alone. Experience is the key, and while experience is its own reward, you can be sure that there will be others.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may be feeling a call to take authority over certain areas of your life. If you run an organization, you may be feeling the calling to get a grip and make sure things happen right. I suggest you proceed gently, though I would caution that your astrology may be guiding you in the direction of being bossy. Keep the whole situation in mind, and spend plenty of time considering where other people are coming from before you make any additional demands on them. Your key to success is avoiding confrontation. It will help to have clear goals, then present those to people in a low-energy format and see if they are interested in signing on. This is leadership by agreement, which is a form of consensus-building. With consensus, the underlying values are the thing to focus on. Establish common ground, which will lead to common goals and the mutual desire to fulfill them. This is easier, more fun and more humane than the usual top-down school of management offered by the world.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — One of the most intriguing things about this world, as opposed to many other worlds, is the diversity of experience that is possible here. You really can go anywhere right from where you’re sitting right now. In actual fact, anything is possible, which means that many seemingly conflicting possibilities are available at the same time. There’s also a huge diversity of potential in human nature, which leads to some amazing experiences, some dismal ones and a wide variety in between. For all of these reasons, it’s essential that you always keep in mind what you want. What you want is the only guiding force that you, personally, can use to guide your own life through such a maze of possibilities. That does not mean you will get what you want all the time, but what it does mean is that you have an organizing principle you can apply when making choices about people and circumstances. It’s fair to say that the freedom to choose is your only freedom at all, which is a good reason to stay awake and alert.