Saturn Return Can Bite Me

More eclipse linkage

Realized that the one on Sunday is opposite my moon. That's, um...significant, right?

• Susan Miller on eclipses.
• Molly's Astrology on what to do around eclipses.

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."

More on the Uranus eclipse

Continued from here.

My second day of driving was...also disaster-prone. I had scheduled a doctor's appointment in Sacramento in an area I vaguely thought I could find, PLUS I had Mapquest instructions there (note: but not back!) printed out, PLUS I have GPS on my phone. I can make this, right?

Nope. My GPS stopped working pretty much from the second I turned it on, forcing me to depend on the Mapquest instructions. Which...yeah, didn't help when it came to my final turnoff off the freeway. Because exit 9 existed, but not the 9A I was expecting to come off after that...and it never showed up. I missed the appointment (and I canceled it altogether because clearly I am not up to rescheduling), cried in the car, and had to call my friend for directions home. And THEN the GPS worked.

I am not normally an OMG MERCURY RETROGRADE person because it usually doesn't affect me, but...

Though really, a friend of mine turns out to have had the worst eclipse day of all: on the day of, her husband picked a verbal fight with some frat boy types, and the frat boys literally picked the husband and my friend up and threw them around. Cops and ambulances had to be called, bruises and stitches in the head happened. Good LORD.

More Michael Lutin this week

Can't you just feel the love?
NOT!
HOLD YOUR BREATH!
Time has stopped.
Uranus is about to go direct.
Don't try to predict. Could be an explosion. Could be a dud.
The war is definitely starting, however.
Breakups are likely.
Eclipses mean something is over.
SO over.
Especially if you live on the US west coast
as you will see in coming months.
Wherever you are, you have to let go of some illusion about yourself
that is no longer serving you.
It's hard, too,
mainly because you still need your dreams, hopes and wishes,
the ones you think will bring you
a happiness you think you desrve.
Only thing is,
except for the thing you're scared of being cheated out of,
you are already happy.

How to cope with your current crazy

Medusa has some interesting tips.

"* Look to the house with Taurus on the Cusp and note how you HAVE done pretty damn well there. Congratulate yourself and know that area of life is going to get even better by May 2012.

* Check the bit of your chart with late Libra, where Saturn lurks and do something rigid, linear and planned there.  Instant angst relief.

* Where you have early Aries, cut yourself a LOT of slack. Don’t try to be ‘straight’ in this regard. Individuate. Grok that the irritation/slo-mo sensation now is actually your helpful omen as to where/how you want to be. It speeds up real soon."

The Sagittarius lunar eclipse and how it literally went for me.

On Thanksgiving night, my laptop was having issues. It's been doing this weird thing where the power would go off if I touched the right side of my laptop, even briefly or accidentally. I had brought it to my aunt's house and was trying to use it on the couch...so it was blowing out a lot. And finally it just refused to turn on any more.

Naturally, I freaked out. The laptop is 3 years old (as of guess when, Thanksgiving) and while it could be in the range of early death, it really shouldn't be yet. But I've had a screen blow out before and I know that's not fixable. It's not like I was likely to find someone to diagnose it over the weekend...should we be trying to immediately do a Black Friday sale to get a new laptop...oh shit! I was thinking that was the second house eclipse issue right there: sudden financial hosing.

But I got lucky. The laptop turned on the next day, and I figured out that it was plugging my ancient mouse into the laptop that was blowing out the power. Without that mouse, it's doing just fine.

As for the actual day, I bizarrely managed to avoid spending money at craft fairs all day long. I bought my mom a ring for Christmas at her request and that was it. Alas, the restraint didn't last at the NEXT DAY's craft fair, mind you, but it was kind of amazing that I didn't really fall "in love" with anything, or buy more alpaca roving the way I did there every year.

More eclipse writing

Eclipses on the ascendant: Oh, I remember the year this happened to me...my dad went into the hospital until he died a couple of months after that. Fun times.

"The Ascendant and Descendant are, of course, important relationship points in the chart. When an eclipse falls close to one of these angles, it’s common to find yourself getting into or out of an important relationship. This was certainly true for me when I was younger. An eclipse close to my Ascendant in 1984 brought a bad relationship to a critical point so that it could finally end. In 1993, an eclipse opposed my Ascendant nine days before a good relationship reached a critical point, and I got married.

The common denominator if these eclipse/Ascendant events is that relationships changed. And yes, the astrology of eclipses is about change – but change can be joyful and welcome as well as tragic and miserable. And not all eclipses in aspect to the Ascendant bring such dramatic changes. You have to have a dramatic ascendant to begin with (mine kind of is, squared by Uranus, Pluto, and the Lunar Nodes). And honestly, you have to be at a developmental stage in your life when dramatic events are more likely. One’s twenties and thirties are pretty much a long-running soap opera."

Dancing With Change:

"Seeds planted and intentions set will develop over the next six months and even the next 19 years."

Actually, looking back at this one...I don't remember what happened in the 90's so much, but in 2003, I did get broken up with within 3 months. 

Well, at least nobody's dying or dating me, so I can skip those fun times! I assume my eclipse-ing will be revolving around spending too much money on getting a car...ugh, but there you go.

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."

 

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.

Eclipse fears

The next eclipse is on my moon...and oh god:

"Eclipses closely conjoining, opposing, or squaring your most stressed natal planet or aspect can coincide with dramatic external events — the death of someone close to you, an illness, a job change or relocation, a great romance, a divorce; like depression. In any event these times or simply profound internal events,are often marked by events so dramatic they seem to take place in a dream state of suspended animation; when we regain consciousness the entire landscape of our lives have changed.

Look to “personal” planets, particularly the Sun and Moon, in difficult aspect to the outer planets (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) to find your most sensitive planetary combination. My Moon/Pluto square, for instance, is extremely sensitive to eclipse aspects, inevitably heralding profound events which force me to confront my fear of loss. On the other hand, eclipses aspecting my fairly happy natal Venus (trine Neptune, sextile Pluto) usually presage fairly pleasant transitions.

Unless an eclipse triggers a “high tension” planet or aspect in your natal chart, or one of the angles, you are likely to experience it as a subtle or psychological influence. About every nine and a half years the pivotal planet will receive a solar or lunar eclipse conjunction or opposition, and each time you navigate this pivotal eclipse “season” you have another opportunity to face your fear — perhaps a fear of anonymity (the Sun), of disconnection (the Moon), of authoring your own life (Saturn), of sudden change (Uranus).

Not all eclipses are associated with what we think of as unhappy events. Many coincide with events which are joyous — a marriage, say, or the birth of a child. These eclipse events are in some ways more traumatic than tragic ones, because we don’t expect to be frightened or disoriented by them, and receive little support from others for our feelings (“For heaven’s sake, can’t you even enjoy it when something good happens to you?”). But the energy of eclipses is crisis, a crossroads, a turning point. Choosing something good for your life — a partner, a child, a high powered career — necessarily means closing the door on something else (life as a single person, total freedom, relative lack of responsibility). It’s normal to mourn loss, even loss that’s necessary to clear your path to joy."

Since mine is in the second house...you know, I know my money is going to go away if I am planning on getting a car and moving without a job. So I am planning on doing it to myself, really, eclipse or no eclipse.

Mine is equally stressed (in a T-square) and unstressed (two trines), so...yeah, it'll probably be bad. Giving up on having the amount of money I have been comfortable living on in order to move. Ugh. Not something I want to think about in the Season of Spending.