Dear Friend and Reader:
Today is the first day after a solar eclipse: the Moon is still in Aquarius and will make conjunctions to both Chiron and Neptune today. When a lunar eclipse occurs in two weeks (on Feb. 9), the Moon will be exactly opposite Chiron and in a close opposition to Neptune.
How was the eclipse day for you? Did you get to do some of what you really love? In retrospect, though I didn’t plan it, I had a balanced, creative day that would make a good model for the next six months: some loving moments and good communication with the people around me, writing a weekly horoscope, finally photographing a woman who’s been buzzing around planning to do a session since the first days I had my studio, and seeing one of the very best films I’ve seen in a long time: Frost/Nixon.
Apart from the absolutely convincing acting, this was journalism class of the first order: the journalism that counts, the psychological kind, about a face-off between a talk show host widely perceived to be a powderpuff entertainer, and the most shrewd politician of modern times; notably also the most disgraced president up until recently. It’s the story of Richard Nixon’s first interview after he resigned. I think that it’s particularly relevant for our times because we have just lived to see the end of another truly shameful or is it shameless presidency, though we are not processing the trauma the same way; the anger is not there; perhaps this is a positive sign but I am one who honors anger and its value in healing.
Speaking of…today Mercury is conjunct Mars, which is an image of passion, anger, creativity, and a fast mind. I have this aspect in my natal chart. Let me tell you about it, in one manifestation: Pisces styled. If you wonder how I can write several horoscopes a week, several essays in this space, the Planet Waves lead article every Friday, write almost every night in my online personal diary Book of Blue, run a little marketing department and take photos, I’ll tell you: I have Mercury conjunct Mars.
If you wonder why I get impatient with people who don’t think fast…on their feet and in color, Mercury conjunct Mars. My conjunction is in Pisces; intuitive and imaginative, spiritual and lusty: and I do mean viscerally naughty in a sensory, linguistic and visual way; and I do mean it’s all for the Goddess (much of which is the gift of Pisces). Meanwhile as one who must coexist with writing and editing colleagues, I have to watch a tendency to get frustrated with how long (to me) it seems to take for other people to come up with words and ideas.
Today’s aspect is in Capricorn, and Mercury is retrograde. So take what you just read above and turn it inside-out and backwards. This is the “lack of imagination” on angel dust. The aspect the way we have it today inspires me profoundly to wonder which particular direction of reverse our society is going at the moment, despite all the talk of blazing ahead.
Monday was not a happy day for economic news. It was as regressive as Mercury retrograde in Capricorn conjunct Mars. My news department informs me that 76,000 jobs were lost, as announced by industry. Gee, the spirit of ’76. This is called regressive. Anyone interested in why this is happening should look into the ratio of executive pay to worker pay in the United States vs. Japan. Nobody needs to earn 1,000 times more than one of their own employees. And as one Japanese executive said in a recent interview, they learned a long time ago there that you cannot run a company based solely on the profit motive.
Mercury-Mars says think on your feet, for sure, but this particular rendition says look where you’re going. The two planets will make another conjunction after Mercury stations direct (which station happens Monday). That conjunction, in early Aquarius, happens on March 1, in a rather massive grand conjunction featuring Jupiter, Neptune, Nessus, Juno (then Mercury and Mars), Chiron and Neptune.
Gee fucking whiz. The Aquarius show is NOT over. Yes it’s been interesting but if you ask me, it hasn’t begun yet; and we may yet see some signs of progress and leadership and people power applied to this economic question. I think this is telling us we all need to be involved in the economic recovery — which is a rebuilding. I think we need to plot and scheme and make ourselves useful, helpful and productive to others.
Eco means home. If you can’t call it home, it ain’t the economy.
On a new day unlike any other, this is your astrologer,
mystes, yikes, your bio mom made you tough. I do love your spit!
wandering_yeti: per your “making a living.” Funny to read with all that you have created.
I’m keeping my expenses down, and taking the sedaris route, if need be. You know the sedaris who kinduv toured all the weirdest jobs he could find. That would open up a whole cd of experience. It is amazing what people will pay one to do. This is only surpassed by those of us who actually do those jobs.
As an old long time lover told me, when we recently talked about the past and the present and he himself and me myself. His line to me was, ‘it is hard to be an individual.’ Never expected that read from him. I think he nailed me.
As a joiner, the best route I find is working on a project. It sounds like you have a ton of creative energy that finds its way into form. The thing about projects, is that they are goal oriented and the team works together to bring it on home, on time and under budget (if possible). It is the one environment where I found that everyone operates as individuals. A good project manager will help to orchestrate the process and keep it moving to completion. This leads to healthy interaction between project members because everyone is interdependent to get the job done. Of course, we were building stuff, working with material stuff. Hmmmm. We are supposedly rebuilding infrastructure. Hmmmm.
If you are young, you ain’t supposed to have the third and final answer. Heck, I’m not sure I still want the third and final answer. I hope you find a way to find the fun in splashing about in the pond. Happy scouting!!!!
Paletiger says: “A wastrel – that’s me!!”
Yeah, me too. I had a number of awakenings on my 3×9 (27th) year, and one of them was to conclusively understand that the economy as it is currently construed is based in war-mongering. And that I could *not* under any circumstances, directly contribute to that. At the time I thought it was pride, but over the years I’ve come to see exactly *what I am* and how it could not have been any other way.
Talk about your mother’s voice. My mother actually said –at a luncheon I gave in her honor– that if I was ever picked up by the Guatemalan secret police and tortured, she and her husband (with major CIA connects) would not intervene.
Said it to a roomful of my colleagues in Latin American studies. I decided right then and there I was working waaaaay too hard. Saw that some of my “accomplishments” (I was in doctoral program at the time) were to satisfy her ambitions. Stopped dead in my tracks and began to do exactly and only what I wanted.
I am so grateful for that moment. It wasn’t just a bucket of water, it was a bucket of glacial water thrown over me, and the heat that I generated after that has been umm… well, just about enough.
So . . . languor. . . is another topic we’ll take up later. As soon as I get back from the spa.
Love,
M
Mystes:- …and I have been self-unemployed…
You come out with some great stuff…brilliant! This hits home so much because on the down days, when I am having a good go at myself and doing a bit of judging(with my mothers voice) this pretty much sums up how I view my attempt at following what I love. A wastrel – that’s me!! But, thankfully those days are definitely getting numbered as the evidence before me (rosy cheeked, happy, healthy, energised, knowledge and curiousity expanding, courageous, open…drawing the things I need to me) flies in the face of what my head (and my mother) tells me.
wandering-Yeti writes: “I’m a water Ox and a Capricorn sun squared a 6th house Aries Chiron- I don’t work well as an employee, but finding the confidence and skills to be my own boss still feel too young to withstand the real world outside school. WTF am I thinking?”
eyhhyyy… sorry I didn’t see this sooner; but you know, “Better Late…” (it’s my slogan).
Except in your case, better early. I have been an employee and I have been self-unemployed and I have owned a zillion businesses and supported a few artists here and there. My advice: Do Not Wait to begin your life. You do not need to (insert x, y, z bullshit ‘realworld’ excuse); real work is a conversion of almost unbearable chaos into an organizing energy for others. The chaos can come in the form of fear (of homelessness, of abjection, penury, social disgrace, loneliness, etc), or it can come in the form of that Goddamn Thing that drives you crazy every effing day* about your vocation.
Both are equally harrowing. But the one that brings you home at the end of the day –if in fact you are an artist– is the art. Trust me, art is no harder than the (guffah) “real world.” It is *exactly* the same level of difficulty; the question is: what do you love more.
Ask yourself, then answer HONESTLY. If you don’t love sound and feel of your chest flying open when you Strike Platinum, then sit down and shut up. Don’t waste your time, and for goddsakes, don’t waste ours. But really, don’t waste yours.
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Now, kittens what did we learn today? Art is no harder than Life. They are both hideously difficult. Choose.
And don’t look back.
(*deep bow to 43Folders)
Here’s a great photo of the eclipse:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090128.html
PaleTiger, Eliza, apainter26… glad to hear your days held you beautifully. I stayed, per my intuition, *in* the world most of the day (playing catchup at my desk today), watching what was increasingly One Face as I moved through my day.
I thought it ended with a busdriver giving me a pass when I couldn’t find mine.
Then a bit later it ended again as I called the police on a guy beating a woman downtown. I noted that he was screaming, between blows, about her ‘cheating.’ Ah yes, “adultery” – an idea I am personally (very personally) committed to extinguishing during my lifetime.
(Just repeat after me: there’s one of us for each of us.)
Very productive, all in all. But no, he didn’t smile at me.
I had a fabulous day. It snowed so the audio/visual world was altered neptunian and frosty. In blissful privilege I practiced yoga for four hours with lots of sitting meditation interspersed. Present and sweetly happy it was easier than usual to move my heart and mind from a sticky state of envy I have fallen into lately. I made food, took pictures of the snow, looked at the chart of a baby born 1/26/09 9:57pm EST (Wow!) and had a great conversation with an old friend.
There was a lot of talk on NPR about the stimulus package and whether or not $ to the NEA was wasteful. One person pointed out that if we move away from the trappings of consumer-focused living perhaps we could spend more modestly and actually as a nation enjoy arts and culture. AMEN! I thought about the OX year and how as clumsy as the OX may be perhaps he/she will lead us back to a more hand made life right here on earth.
Its strange usually I’m such a chicken little, focusing on the falling sky the rampant and unjust sufferings of this life. Tuesday was a very different day and hopefully and augury of balance and grounded joy to come.
LOL!!!
have i angered mercury? i can’t seem to log out of this… three tries so far, & it keeps telling me to try again.
🙂
wow — some people definitely had some groovy eclipse days! mine was fairly mellow, but the day before (sunday) i went to a casting call (got the gig, btw). i then took a meandering drive through the middle of nowhere to the place where i attended summer camp to ski in to the camp and sit by the quiet, frozen lake for a little. that evening i attended the last part of a rousing contra dance followed immediately with a salsa lesson in the same location, getting a kick out of the two different groups of people and that fact that i was the only regular crossover. it was a joyful evening to be sure.
eclipse day, since i am currently working through “the artist’s way” by julia cameron, i started my day writing the morning pages and in them noted a dream i had. in waking life i recently received a written warning for habitual tardiness at work; next time results in termination. i have received such notice once or twice before in the last couple years, each time getting my shit together long enough to get back into good graces. the dream i had was about accidentally showing up late for work, and despite the fact that my boss was not there, my therapist’s receptionist was. she apologetically told me i had to be let go. then some older, unknown man named “larry” started telling me about this great job he knew about that i could just slide right into. despite the fact that the job would only be two days a week, leaving me plenty of time to pursure acting, etc. and paid better than the one i’d just lost, the more he described it the more i could see it wasn’t all true. it would actually pay less and be soul-drainingly boring.
i followed up the morning pages with the weekly check-in i’d forgotten to do the night before due to all the dancing, then did some transformational breathwork/meditation, setting as my intention (after much indecisiveness), “the willingness to die, to have the willingness to live.” as a taurus with a lot impacting my natal chart this year, i figure i need all the help i can get in learning to let go & move forward. the choice was partly inspired by listening to the tape of my consultation w/ eric on the drive sunday (the last 20 – 30 minutes are missing… merc rx?).
after the meditation, i did a favor for a friend, then got to work 15 minutes early almost unintentionally, without any sense of panic. did it again today; i’m almost afraid typing it may jinx me. i’m knocking on wood as i type. 🙂
and having just read shanna’s essay from yesterday, i must say that i have reconnected with a couple of people from important phases in my life in the last month. the correspondence with them has had some fascinating insights and mirroring. i love it.
Oops! Got my first blue screen, in over a decade?! Yes, I’m the snow leopard herein the Macintosh rooms on a PC. Blue Screen is PC talk for computer itself hits Cntrl-Alt-Del when you’re not expecting it because well, after all the MSFT research, the color blue was found to be the most SOOTHING.
But, I don’t “believe” in all this Merc Rx crap, though I am learning to bow to my Mars Conjunct Sun, ehem. Always feels like a time to tiddy up and get ready for the unknown coming ’round the corner, Merc Rx!
I spent most of the day listening to a mix of the album I’m working on whose lyrical themes were greatly inspired by the writing I’ve been reading on this site since 1999. It deals with the wound that plagues both men and women that separates us from awareness of the true needs of our bodies and floods our minds with impossible visions used to keep us docile and make a profit. Since I’m male it’s told from that viewpoint, especially having a parent replaced by cable TV at the same time my sexuality was awakening.
Additionally I made the decision to graduate from college this spring and abandon the idea of applying to continue as a grad student. I had been working hard on my application and then on the night of the eclipse decided it just wasn’t worth it. I’ve been an art student since fall of 2002 and while I’ve got a portfolio of work, a website, 2 albums recorded and another 2 gestating my college experience has taught me next to nothing about how to actually make a living. It’s time to leave it behind and move on but…I don’t know what I’m going to do. I haven’t had a job in years and the one I had was a school job. I didn’t have a good work history before that. I’m a water Ox and a Capricorn sun squared a 6th house Aries Chiron- I don’t work well as an employee, but finding the confidence and skills to be my own boss still feel too young to withstand the real world outside school. WTF am I thinking?
Congrats Gardener, congrats!!
I got a job today after 2 years of retirement.
Mystes you are too funny sometimes.
I’ve had a great day! Drove last-night for 10 hours to get here, (home) arriving at 7am. A cold has caught me and I am stuffed up, shards of glass for a throat – but slept at peace in our huge bed till about 1pm. Sun shining still, when I finally awoke. Ate lovely food, marvelled at the ducks and the pheasants who seem to have formed a club at the stream running along the foot of the garden, read series of fascinating posts about ‘what women want’, even made a contribution. Nearly got upset about some plans people are imposing on me in a work project I’m involved in but after ranting about it to myself, decided on a more flexible and reasonable course of action. Have had a lovely bath, plenty of red wine and am now back abed ready for more deep sleep.
Mystes – a wave and a big smile from over the water. xxx
Mars, Mercury? It’s perverse, I know, but people keep smiling at me on the street, in the stores, offices. Strangers, look up and smile, and can’t stop. Just to see if this mirrorzone, I tried responding with a neutral look. No stoppin’ ’em. Everywhere I am seen, there’s a lilt.
But the day’s only half-over, so who knows…
(I figure it’s the Girlwerk coming up in the Swat Valley. The Dames are strapping on their mirror knives, their bone aprons. “Here, Tali-tali-tali… Ban *this*.”)
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Amen and thank God for you and your beautiful mind… : )
—
Speaking of…today Mercury is conjunct Mars, which is an image of passion, anger, creativity, and a fast mind. I have this aspect in my natal chart. Let me tell you about it, in one manifestation: Pisces styled. If you wonder how I can write several horoscopes a week, several essays in this space, the Planet Waves lead article every Friday, write almost every night in my online personal diary Book of Blue, run a little marketing department and take photos, I’ll tell you: I have Mercury conjunct Mars.
If you wonder why I get impatient with people who don’t think fast…on their feet and in color, Mercury conjunct Mars. My conjunction is in Pisces; intuitive and imaginative, spiritual and lusty: and I do mean viscerally naughty in a sensory, linguistic and visual way; and I do mean it’s all for the Goddess (much of which is the gift of Pisces). Meanwhile as one who must coexist with writing and editing colleagues, I have to watch a tendency to get frustrated with how long (to me) it seems to take for other people to come up with words and ideas.
oh boy, california is handing out ious to state employees and tax payers. Oh boy, where is mr flat tax forbes these days. time for the trickle up to pay their share and trickle in?
They might not need to earn 1000 times more than their employees, but I guess they want to. The Japanese probably learned way back that the profit motive alone is not the way to run a company, but we knew it too about 50 years ago. In the 50’s there were many companies that were very good to their employees, earning them a lot of loyalty. Employees then had security and substantial benefits that would seem shocking to the employees of today. At that time, most people wouldn’t have known how much their company’s CEO made, and I bet it wasn’t even 500 times what they were earning!
That massive conjunction in Aquarius on March 1 (when Mercury meets Mars again) has some additional punch with the north node there too. And with Vesta squaring all that from Taurus sounds like the stock market could see a lot of action. I guess what ever gets (assertively) talked about this week could possibly be acted upon that day? Perhaps then we will see “some signs of progress and leadership and people power.” The stimulus package maybe?
Actually, not bad as in B*A*D 🙂 Whew. Since cute cat has been off with other cohorts, I was able to leave candle burning all night and managed to maintain awareness at edge of awareness for staying focused on meditation during each mini-wake up cycle. Felt nice to sense a sense of continuity and focus, especially since it’s something I have been directly working upon via meditation for moment of death later in life and due to fact of possessing a fast mind (Uranus/Pluto in 3rd in Virgo; Merc, Mars, Sun in 10th and Jupiter in 12th) and trying to, uh, slow it down enough to hear, feel heart harp strings.
But, 76 trombones in the big parade; and, even Kripalu laying off hundreds of workers, not so great, especially since I am looking for work. However, did get to do a “sub” shift for a friend at a group home for adults, new experience, and it reminded me how close we all are, truly, just varying degrees of ability to communicate what bugs or inspires or brings safety to our world [sorry, sex talk in their context is not appropriate].
I told an older sister my astro charts were finally beginning to clear up after 15+ years of solid intensity, but now I see I was WRONG, if I account for all the new objects, etc. But, maybe the ride up to now was the DIAMOX (medicine for altitude sickness) or COCOA LEAF TEA being applied for this era??? Heh.
And, of course, burned some candles, did some cleaning, organizing, beautification projects (I love this stuff, not to mention helpful to know what I have worth selling!) and wrote some prose and poetry, enjoying a little solo touch time. OH, and got to see stars before the snow flurries set in.
All in all, very nice eclipse day – restoration of faith!
Mars and Mercury…fighting with words. My husband and I have been tense and arguing about stupid stuff for no reason too. Even my kids are doing it. God help me if my mother calls, she fights all the time with words so it would be really bad now! If she does call, I am going to just let the message machine take it because if I don’t, we will be arguing till 3 AM. :::::laughing:::::
good morning,
my eclipse day started with a dream about pink murikami type characters dancing all in a line. In the dream this was not suppose to turn me on but it did.
I am dealing with some dead lines so moved along with my day. Smoothly, until it didn’t go smoothly and I ended up in a fight on the phone with my ex. He hung up on me. he hasn’t called back. I listened to Byron Katie on youtube for some insight. (Is it true? Is it absolutely true?) I realized that I had to move on. I have to stop turning around and going back to this person because I’m afraid to move forward. I’ve had this realization before, but yesterday it seemed solid. Solid, like today is the first day of the rest of my life solid.
one thing though…about the fight. I had a fight yesterday, two friends of mine had arguments yesterday and then my upstairs neighbor, last night, had an fight w/ her boyfriend. what gives?