Saturn Return Can Bite Me

For the Northern Californians

How to view the eclipse on May 20.

More on the astrology of the eclipse.

"This one will fall (appropriately) at the very start of Gemini. So think new agenda, new chapter, new way of listening and learning and making choices. Gemini is the information/communication sign so the eclipse could offer a big reveal. It won’t be falling close to Venus retrograde but it could still push that karmic relationship agenda ahead. It might trigger the entrance of a past-life lover into your life. Or maybe you’ll discover something about a past relationship.

This eclipse will throw a square to Neptune at 3 degrees Pisces. Truth (Gemini) will be challenged (square) by illusions/ideals/lies (Neptune). What you thought you knew could be blasted to smithereens (eclipses are merciless). Note that this applies to self-deception as well. On the bright side, it could kick off an intensely creative period/project for you. The key will be seeing beyond the veil and deciding what to do with the new information.

Some ways this Solar Eclipse could manifest:

• Discovering old love letters/emails that shatter an illusion (or confirm what you sensed)
• Being presented with a new opportunity that is not what it seems: make sure you read between the lines and scrutinize the fine print before you sign anything
• Having two relationship/financial/creative options and knowing you must select the one that’s real

If I had to sum up this Solar Eclipse in one sentence, it would be “Choosing the Truth”. Forget what you know and look at the facts instead."

This looks like a VERY good idea!

How to Merge the Mystical with the Practical online course. You know what I like about this?

1. Finally, some folks are tackling this question, because I waffle back and forth between the two constantly and I never know what to do about it/how to balance it.
2. They are offering mp3s of the telecalls afterwards if you can't sit through them, which I really appreciate so I can run them back later.
3. VARIABLE COST. If you can't afford $200, or $100, you can pay $20 or apply for a scholarship. They are actually making this class accessible to everyone. I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT. You have no idea how much.

Anyhoo, I signed up with what I can afford. If this interests you, you can too.

Aw SHIT, not a-fucking-gain!

"Mercury stations retrograde on Election Day. Exactly on Election Day. That is to say, right in the midst of everyone voting in the highly anticipated, so close it could be a tie, who the heck are all these weirdos, one and only 2012 presidential election: exactly on that very day, Mercury goes retrograde in Sagittarius. I know — I could not believe it either.

Notably, Mercury has only ever stationed one other time on a presidential Election Day — in 2000, when we had Bush v. Gore and the loser won.

Now, for the second time in American history, Mercury is stationing exactly during an election. What is this about? In this segment, I cover the basic possibilities: it looks like some kind of scam, such as an overt case of election fraud. There is lying and denial; and since it’s in Sagittarius the courts may be involved. Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius, square Neptune, has a bit of the religious huckster or confidence man to it. In that way that astrology can be bizarrely literal, this chart is the perfect image of the political landscape — and it is volatile."

Powerful eclipse writing

"A solar eclipse in Sagittarius, then—and especially one conjunct the Moon's North Node, as this one is—is a cosmic shove ahead, whether or not we feel we've adequately readied a detailed timeline or sorted out our emotions in advance of stretching toward this next frontier. You can never really be prepared for something you've never done before… which is sort of the whole point of galloping out to those further reaches, isn't it? We get outside our familiar environs (literally or in a certain sense) in order to spur this exploratory way of looking at the world, unspoilt by expectation or habit. This eclipse's trine to Uranus in Aries supportively feeds this 'try something new' quality, inspiring us to risk comfort in favor of experiential discovery."

 

Oh, this is hilarious

This week's Michael Lutin:

SCORPIO AND SCORPIO RISING

Talk about being locked in, strung out, and holed up in solitude!
Who can blame you, though?
With the Sun in your first house
and the ruler of your third in he twelfth,
who better to talk to
then yourself,
especially when you've made sure you ar all alone and nobody else is around to hear?
This is you.
You periodically need to pull the covers up around your head
to lick your wounds and figure out the next step.
While you are not at all ready to completely reenter the human world,
you do have to celebrate with people once in a while.

Hah, I am literally being locked in this week, avoiding other humans whenever possible. Too bad that's not totally doable. I'd love to find my own private island to finish out the month.

Grr.

I really hate that this big effing deal eclipse--which as I've already mentioned, is gonna be a biggie for me-- is right on/around Thanksgiving. Which means I can't do anything magical for it because of my fam-damn-ily being around. And they are not cool with such things.

GRRRRR. Basically I'm just ranting because I was hoping I wouldn't have to go there until the 24th (the relatives live about an hour and a half away), but nooooo, we simply must meet up Wednesday night. I will probably have to leave immediately after work too. No time for me there, nuh-uh.

Ugh. It kind of feels like a jinx already given the Family Time aspect of this.

Saturn in Libra: the sound of silence

So according to the Internets, the aforementioned John Mayer had surgery on his throat yesterday. Because I wondered about the whole transit thing, I looked up the chart transits. Yesterday, transiting Saturn was conjunct his natal Mercury at 20 degrees Libra, with the sun coming up right after that. Transiting Mercury is also exactly conjunct his natal Uranus in Scorpio at 10 degrees. Since Mercury rules speech and Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, I get the sense that it's a double whopping silencing there with all of that. And sure enough, the dude has to stay silent for a least a month or more. The lesson continues. 

You'd think that with Taurus ruling the throat and whatnot, that might be more prominent in the chart, but Jupiter in Taurus isn't really setting anything major off here, so...I guess not. I'm not an expert in medical astrology, though this link points out that Libra might have throat issues as well.  I dunno, I feel like Mercury is the significant point here anyway.

On a related note (I think I was thinking of this link last time and then was too lazy to dig it up), this post kind of reminds me of this situation. I think I have to agree with this post that it's hell to be a modern-day Libra. Maybe we need to start a "Save the Libras!" movement or something, hah.

Thinking of the Libras folks in my life right now, my double Libra friend with a birthday the day after his is traveling the world right now, so Saturn's hitting her sun in the first house. I wonder how she's doing. Another friend seems to have done a disappearing act, but since she's pretty intermittent on contact, I guess that's not surprising. And my Libra rising friend is about to have Saturn hitting her ascendant...and she seems to have an impending marital showdown likely to go on this weekend for her Libra kid's birthday. HOO BOY. Looking at her chart, she's also got Pluto conjunct her natal Jupiter/Venus conjunction, transiting Neptune and Chiron conjunct her natal Chiron, and transiting moon and Mars approaching her natal Uranus. I'm going to be rooting for some transformational (if painful) moment that frees her from the situation to happen. Soon. Please.

While I'm at it, here's a few links on Saturn transits for those of you with these issues going on right now:

• Bob Marks
• Cafe Astrology

A really good karmic astrology reading

I never paid attention to this case, but this is an interesting nodal discussion of Amanda Knox.

Saturn in Libra: the rest is silence

(I'm going to get in trouble eventually for posting this one, but what the hell.)

If you want to look at the effects of Saturn in Libra, you should perhaps check out the chart of someone with a lot of it. For example, John Mayer, a dude known for his mouth in uh...more ways than one. He basically pissed off the entire Internet in various ways through 2009-10-ish or so. And then... well, I give the dude a lot of credit for (a) realizing he made an ass of himself, (b) apologizing, a lot, and then (c) shutting his stupid mouth--so to speak. Dude has pretty much disappeared for the most part since his last concert tour ended, quitting Twitter, rarely blogging on his actual writing blog, deleting posts after he makes them--though in the age of Tumblr reblogging, I kind of don't see the point of that bit when it lives on anyway. At any rate, he isn't giving anyone any fuel to put on the fire these days. He's been just quietly working on an album, and adding on to Tony Bennett's. To which I say, good for him. Lord knows I miss his online snark (frankly, he and YourAuntDiane are the only Twitter accounts I ever found consistently funny, and that's speaking as a Twitter-hater), but I think given the massive shitstorm that went on, he needed to go into seclusion to get people to calm the hell down. Probably a good idea to go sort out his shit, too.

Do you guys realize how rare it is for someone to make a major fuckup and then do their best to correct their behavior? Look at Chris Brown, for example, who really isn't doing that at all. Speaking of, I have been reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies today. Yes, that sounds like it's wandering off topic, but it reminded me of a thought I've always had about P&P (-Z): the reason that chicks are sooooooo obsessed with Mr. Darcy is that he's a guy who comes off as an ass, then APOLOGIZES for it, then makes amends.* For all of those girls who like the Reformed Rakes, or Bad Guys Gone Good For The Love Of A Girl, Mr. Darcy is the Regency version of that. And as all ladies will learn outside of books, finding a dude who will apologize and improve is really rare. Well, there you go: here's one in real life.

What does this have to do with astrology? Well, the dude has a lot of planets in Libra from about 15 degrees (Pluto/NN, Sun, Mercury) on, and if Saturn is going along conjunct all of those in turn, giving them all a kick... well, let's just say that astrologically in general, Libras are not having a fun time right now. My Libra rising friends are all having relationship drama in one way or another and that's fun times. It's probably better to be single right now than be dealing with someone else's lack of maturity.

Saturn transiting through anywhere where you're emphasized is a big kick in the pants to grow up, and I think John is doing that. Saturn transits may make you more noticed or make you want to hide, so he's gone from one extreme to the other. Ironically (and well, the reason why I'm posting this) is that he posted online today that he's got a granuloma and thus has to not do any singing engagements and postpone the album production. So at this point the silence is being chosen for him... and checking the astrology, that's just as Saturn is hitting the Pluto/NN conjunction. Hmmmm, might be a while before the album is finished there. Saturn goes out of Libra in late October 2012**,  so maybe late summer/fall then? I will hope for sooner, but given where Mercury is, it might take awhile.

I don't know what his birth time is, but this makes me wonder if Libra is his third house or something. Would make sense at this point, wouldn't it?

* SPOILER: In P&P&Z, he actually uh... permanently paralyzes Wickham in a massive beating. Okay, so that's not the usual type of amends....

** Then Saturn starts kicking my ascendant... and this should start right after I plan on moving. Fun times, y'all.

Mother's Day

Did it suck for you?

It didn't for me, go figure. My mom held on to her sanity very nicely and didn't get mad at me all day. I had one bad moment of not being servient enough, but she didn't go berserk about it. It was a relief.