{"id":50671,"date":"2011-12-16T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T05:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=50671"},"modified":"2011-12-16T09:06:37","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T14:06:37","slug":"the-weekend-astrology-restraint-and-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/the-weekend-astrology-restraint-and-release\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekend Astrology: Restraint and Release"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unbelievably intricate stencil graffiti overlooking Casco Bay in Portland, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today is Friday, December 16, 2011<\/a><\/strong>. If you feel yourself alternating between conflicting urges as you head into the weekend, you are in tune with the sky, as the luminaries and two personal planets are making strong aspects. The big event on the horizon is the Sun, nearing its conjunction with the Galactic Center in late Sagittarius on Monday. <\/p>\n

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The Sun’s alignment with the Galactic Center (the core of our galaxy and our spiritual homing signal) offers a sense of contact with something we long for — if we’re open to feeling it. With the Sun making a sextile to Saturn in Libra at the same time, see if you can let this sense of contact and spiritual clarity or spaciousness infuse your relationships. <\/p>\n

This could happen in how you perceive these relationships emotionally, or in how you actually structure them. With a sextile, you can work the flow of energy from either side of that equation to inform and evolve the other. Either way, the idea is to allow contact and a feeling of surrender to genuine loving-kindness. Then by Wednesday, since the solstice can arrive with a sense of release from our feeling of time compression, you may feel like a destination has been reached.<\/p>\n

The Moon is a little easier for most of us to feel and conceptualize than the GC. It entered Virgo last night, and tomorrow it squares the Sun. This is the last quarter (waning) Moon, and it generally feels like an urge to finish up whatever projects you have been working on for the last three weeks, rather than starting new ones. This year we have a New Moon on Christmas Eve. If you celebrate that holiday you may feel an extra sense of pressure to finalize gift-buying and other preparations, with a natural sense of completion when done. Since tomorrow’s quarter Moon is in Virgo, don’t be surprised if you find yourself a bit more particular than usual about how your holiday preparations and projects get done. Try to take \u2018imperfections\u2019 in stride and go with the flow. When the Moon enters Libra on Sunday at 3:06 am EST, you\u2019ll be better able to see the beauty in it all anyway.<\/p>\n

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Also in Virgo (for the long-ish haul) is Mars, the planet of drive, desire and libido. This weekend, it moves closer to a square with Pholus in mid-Sagittarius, which will be exact later in the week. Feel like if you let go of any inhibition, you\u2019ll become the scarlet whore of Babylon? That\u2019s Mars-Pholus talking \u2013 but is there any truth to that feeling? <\/p>\n

Pholus can have the sense of letting the genie out of the bottle, and has the key phrase, ‘small cause, big effect’. But rather than keeping your inhibitions rigid, it\u2019s more useful to keep any self-critical thoughts in check — especially with regard to who and what you desire sexually, how you want the desire of others demonstrated to you, and how you do or do not allow the concept of ‘healthy service’ into your relationships. Mars in Virgo square Pholus in Sagittarius can also come with insights about facilitating your spiritual (possibly ancestral) healing around desire and sexuality — plus the desire to do so.<\/p>\n

You may alternate between feeling constrained and then wanting to bust out over the weekend. The square between Venus in Capricorn and Saturn in Libra also carries some tension. Part of this is a case of mutual reception: these two planets are each occupying a sign that the other rules. This can sometimes feel like a hostage situation, and that term describes many \u2018monogamous\u2019 relationships. As Len noted of this aspect<\/a> yesterday, on the one hand, you may feel an urge toward the material and pragmatic; on the other, there’s the potential to demand reciprocation as the rule rather than allow it as a freely given gift. <\/p>\n

Ask yourself (to paraphrase Len), ‘Do I truly want relationships in which we both receive what is offered graciously? Or do I just want what I want’? See if you can open yourself up to the idea of spaciousness in your relationships to allow genuine, deep contact — as suggested by the Sun conjunct the center of our galaxy. This requires a willingness to let go of many of society’s prevailing dictates about what a ‘real’ or ‘worthy’ relationship looks like, and you may feel unsure or vulnerable as you give it a try. If you need to consider things pragmatically, try answering this: If what you have to gain is alignment with the source of life itself, what exactly are you afraid of losing?<\/p>\n

Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your<\/strong> personal Sun and rising signs? Try out Planet Waves Light<\/strong><\/a>, our streamlined horoscope service. For deeper cultural context and astrological investigation, the premium Planet Waves subscription<\/strong><\/a> includes the same horoscopes, plus extensively-researched articles on Fridays.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Friday, December 16, 2011. If you feel yourself alternating between conflicting urges as you head into the weekend, you are in tune with the sky, as the luminaries and two personal planets are making strong aspects. The big event on the horizon is the Sun, nearing its conjunction with the Galactic Center in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}