Saturn Return Can Bite Me

One more roundup of today's eclipse posts

• Planet Waves, part one: "In other words, this aspect pattern is about willful progressive decision-making, with the freedom to let go of what does not work (represented by the lunar South Node, the locus of Thursday’s eclipse) and integrate what does work (Chiron). Nobody has any excuse to claim being stuck at this point — the power of decision is right in your hands. You can think consciously and choose progress, which is the message of this aspect pattern.....The moment for planning your steps will come; but first, get your vision and your values in line, and get busy making choices. You know what is no longer serving you. You won’t disintegrate if you let it go; you’ll just be getting into the swing of things and opening up the space to choose again."
• Planet Waves, part two: "Eclipses are portals, and exploration during this one can help clear the deck on plenty of outdated ideas around what has worth in our lives."
• Libra Seeking Balance: "I doubt if there is a better time to start working on a long term project demanding endless patience than this New Moon Solar Eclipse at 19° 54′ Taurus on 9 May 2013 05:29 PM PDT."
• Silverwheel Astrology: "If you’ve had your head and heart in gear at all over the past weeks during pondering and decision-making time, a way forward will have been slowly getting your attention, a path emerging that stands you toward a specific direction, and this eclipse is the marker point if you like, of realising that this path has worth and value precisely because YOU want to follow it."
• Lara Owen: "Eclipses come in familes: this eclipse is part of Saros Series 138 South 15. Berbadette Brady in her book “The Eagle and the Lark” says that this eclipse series “is about release of tension. A situation which has been lingering will suddenly clear. In the clearing of the problem there is also a sense of grief or loss, which is not so much personal but belonging to the collective”.
• Aquarius Papers: "This New Moon in Taurus is stabilizing, mobilizing, opening new discoveries and views and pointing the way to radical shifts in resources, relationships, sense of purpose, and understanding our individuality. This will solidify what we began in April while taking away all those things and people that no longer are a part of our value structure. We are rapidly entering the end game of letting go of ghosts of the past that’s been going on for almost two years, and so as we are “gaining through loss,” trust the God within you and still your mind so you can receive impressions from higher planes."
• satori on ElsaElsa:  "Unlike your average New Moon, a Solar Eclipse typically involves an ending, revealing what we have to let go of, what needs to die, to clear space for a new start. Because this Eclipse is conjunct the South Node – old patterns that hold us back and block our evolution – there’s an especially strong focus on releasing the past, and in Taurus, we’re looking at issues around self-worth, self-love, over-attachment to material security and the status quo, and resistance to change (the famous Taurus stubbornness)."
• Virgo Magic: "The last new moon eclipse on the south node took place in May of 1994. At that time, the only planets in Taurus were the Sun and Moon. Thursday we have a stellium of personal planets. These are extremes of similarity and disparity. Expect that a similar issue to the one at the time will arise now, but expect that it will have a distinctly different twist. It wouldn’t hurt to look back at how you handled whatever crossroads you encountered back in the day. Whatever you learned then has a great likelihood of being knowledge you’ll build on now."
• Ruby Slipper: "There’s still going to be a new chapter. It’s unavoidable; eclipses set the agenda, like it or not. But the SN energy suggests you’ll be revisiting a past habit (Taurus) or scenario. This could mean unfinished business (and a chance to do it right, this time). What’s unfinished may or may not be obvious; depends if you’re tuned into the transiting South Node. But remember this: the area of your chart where the transiting SN is only represents the apparent issue that you need to release. The actual issue is represented by the location of your natal Venus (not transiting Venus)."
• Moonkissd: "If new moons herald endings and new beginnings, solar eclipses are super new moon doorways, heralding far bigger endings and beginnings. As we revisit what’s keeping us from tapping those peaceful, easy feelings of pleasure, the abundance and self-worthiness we most want in an area of life, we can flip the switch, seize the opportunity to advance 10 steps forward in that same area.  Since the days following a new moon are potent for intentions, make the commitment to value and increase your personal worth over the next few days. If you’re on the ledge of truly valuing your self – of taking a leap on your gifts, taking that risk, making that decision that will pay dividends in self-worth – as the old saying goes, “It’s time to put your money where your mouth is.”

I can't stop talking about eclipses

• Planet Waves: "Have you noticed some beliefs or feelings in that realm beginning to loosen up over the past week? Are you feeling yourself at a tipping point? Can you sense that momentum toward something new could really build if you say ‘yes’ to whatever previously seemed out of the question, but is beginning to feel strangely right?"
• Ruby Slipper: "Venus in Gemini suggests you may have room for more than one option. But make sure you choose wisely; Taurus is a Fixed sign, which means longevity. What you start will stick, so make sure you really want it. If you’re having trouble choosing, pick the option that is most closely aligned with your personal values. Make sure you can live with what you’re initiating. "
• How eclipses affect us: "I have found consistently over time that where the eclipses fall in a client’s chart correlates strongly with the areas of life that are most urgent for them. Eclipse pairs in the first and seventh houses and the fourth and tenth houses tend to bring the most change. These are the ones that often are accompanied by traumatic breakups in relationships, life-changing injuries, career breakthroughs, family issues, and other challenges that can completely upend our lives. Eclipses in the others houses tend to be less dramatic, or at least, they aren’t as broad in scope."

Michael Lutin on the eclipse cycle

TO ALL PEOPLE ON THE PLANET WEEK OF 29 APRIL AND BEYOND ECLIPSE PATTERN 2013 UH- OH THERE’S GOTTA BE MORE THAN THIS

Money and sex sex and money money and sex sex and money

There’s got to be more than that even if the eclipses are taking place in Taurus and Scorpio. Everybody gets the joke no matter what sign you were born under.
Money and Sex?—that’s too crass, too low consciousness, too crude, too vulgar.

What about the higher vibration, like creativity and manifestation and rebirth and transformation and all that good stuff people who wear Birkenstocks talk about?

Actually, it is all those things, all to be found in the same package at the moment, so we have to understand that until we have all experienced a common worldwide apotheosis and simultaneously become gods and goddesses, we are all evolving at different rates.

Some of us are already eating organic vegetables and seeking transcendental Tantric unions. Others, believe it or not, are still robbing the poor and exploiting the weak. And, get this! Some still talk about eating other human beings.

Sounds icky, but the Taurus Scorpio axis operates on many levels at once.

Rarely does all of humanity embrace the higher vibrations at the same moment. There are still greedy rascals out there and seductive skunks still skulking about. It’‘s hard sometimes to know whom to trust, since EVERYTHING seems to be a transaction lately.

With Saturn and the North Node of the Moon vying for supremacy, is sex always behind the sale of EVERYTHING?

Is human desire and appetite the driving force of our plane of existence?

Of course you don’t have to act out your baser desires, but magnetic attraction is at the heart of every connection between two consenting adults. At least right now.

We are currently experiencing each of us in our own way a personal kidnapping. We are being wrenched from a place we have found comfortable, but one that is no longer useful or satisfactory.

Think about that.

A force is moving us away from what we know as familiar toward the unfamiliar.

We are but prey in the paws of the predatory Inevitability of Change.

We EITHER EMBRACE IT OR ARE DRAGGED AWAY BY IT.

To embrace the unknown is to overcome the terror of death of course, but also of looking into our own unconscious drives and wishes.
It is the only way to release the fire of creativity that smolders within us all.

Creative inspiration is born in passion and curiosity, both of which can be liberated only when we respect without judgment or fear the deep needs and wishes and attractions and repulsions we often secretly harbor.

These are primitive, instinctual, ravenous hungers emerging from our most primal and anti-social selves.

To live in a civilized society we are asked to control some of our impulses and restrain ourselves from seeking mindless satisfaction to our hungers and thirsts.

This cu rrent eclipse pattern of 2013 demands that we release our hold on the more mundane aspects of our security, detach from the known in the search for a more meaningful and sincere form of happiness and fulfillment.

Way more to come.

Saturn's opposition to Taurus

"Saturn’s transit of Scorpio will focus Taurus’ attention on any or all of the following issues:

• Holding on versus letting go
• Surviving versus thriving
• Playing it safe versus diving in

Saturn’s opposition works by presenting a set of limits. The limits force you to adjust your focus, or get real about what you’re doing. Anyone with planets in Taurus should look at the house opposite those planets, and ask themselves the following questions:

• how are the current (or approaching ) limits going to help me take the energy of my Taurus planet(s) to a deeper level?
• what am I afraid of losing?

Saturn oppositions can feel harsh at first, especially if you keep banging your head against the wall with a routine that doesn’t work. You will have to adjust your trajectory, or re-dedicate yourself to something you’ve let slide. Whatever it is will take you a bit deeper (Scorpio) than you’re used to. The good news? You’re ready for it (Saturn says so). Keep this in mind: Taurus is the sign of survival, Scorpio the sign of death, but they hold the potential for birth (Taurus) and re-birth (Scorpio). 

Those with planets between 0-9 degrees Taurus will feel the Saturn opposition this year. In 2013, those with planets between 4-20 degrees Taurus will experience the opposition."

That is how today has been going...I consciously wanted to spend a lot of time outside today while the weather was still nice and the sun was still out and warm about it, but now that I'm home, I've been winterizing the bed and moving all of the nice summer clothes into the other closet and going through my yarn stash for a "fiber rehoming" event tomorrow. I am still keeping a lot of the one-ball-of-leftover-yarn stuff because I have a project idea that can use those as stripes, but I think I"ll get rid of the various boring cream yarns someone else gave me, and the thread/lace yarns I never use because they are so tiny, and the free itchy yarn, stuff like that. It's a backpack and bag full of that already...and hah, I'll probably bring home the equivalent of that from other people's stashes.

I keep looking around the junk pit that is my place--I have piles of projects everywhere, not to mention clothes that won't fit into a drawer or closet or I just go through that stash so much there's no point in putting it away and out of sight-- and thinking that I need to start doing some purging. Or at least start doing that on a day where I'm rained indoors and don't want to be out doing other things. I have so much to have to deal with, one way or another. I feel like I need a day off just to tackle that shit on a day when I won't have anything more awesome to do--except well, I usually have something more awesome to do. Like oh, buy stuff for another project.

Full moon in Taurus links

• "If Taurus could be distilled and bottled, the manufacturers of Xanax would soon be out of business. Before you get the wrong idea — because Taurus is forever being compared to things like rocks, and they don’t always take it as a compliment — I mean this as a tribute to the Bull’s calm and steadying influence. When Taurus walks in to a room, the level of melodrama plummets. Situations that previously seemed impossible to resolve suddenly seem completely under control. Taurus brings with it a degree of confidence and practicality that simplifies what’s overwhelming and demystifies all that is vaguely terrifying. Taurus would have laughed about the trail of maple syrup, settled the visiting friend with a cup of tea and a friendly cat, and calmly diagnosed the website problem. There would have been no flapping of arms, no dramatic cries of victimization. Things would simply have gotten done, with no fuss."
• "Anytime you get a Full Moon in earthy Taurus, there’s potential for solid manifestation. But it will be based on what you’ve experienced in the areas of your chart with Taurus/Scorpio. Despite Mercury’s pie in the sky square to Neptune, this will not be the Moon where your dreams come true. Especially not with transiting Saturn (realities) in Taurus’ opposite sign. Here’s how it will work. Take the exciting opportunities from October 28th (Mars opposite Jupiter and Venus in Libra) and apply them in a real life context. Full Moons always represent a build up of energy; they are based on what has already happened.  So there’s some wiggle room for new potential, but it will work in the context of your existing structure (Saturn). It’s still positive, but it’s grounded (Taurus)."

 

You know, Jupiter in Taurus wasn't THAT big of a giant bonanza for me.

I got a few stray hundred bucks here and there (thanks unions and tax refund), I went on some cool trips and did some shopping, but other than the stray hundred bucks, it wasn't like, Miracle Year the way that the astrologers in general go on about the whopping bonanza that is Jupiter in your sun sign.

(And yeah, COULDA USED SOMETHING TO GO WITH THE SEVENTH HOUSE, JUST SAYING)

And now it's time to get our asses kicked by Saturn in Scorpio in a few months too. Whoopetydoo!

Jupiter’s transit of Taurus formed an opposition to Scorpio and squared Leo/Aquarius. So between June 2011 and today, all of you with planets or angles in these signs were hit with an increase of opportunities, perspective, possibilities or chutzpah. And it was a big increase…impossible to miss. Check out the area(s) of your chart occupied by those signs; growth occurred, guaranteed.

I hope you guys enjoyed it and made use of it. Seriously. Because as of October 5th, Saturn’s transit of Scorpio will be cracking the whip over all your heads. Saturn will oppose Taurus and square Leo/Aquarius. Your gains will be trimmed, tidied and strengthened as Saturn moves over the same degrees that Jupiter did. This does not mean that everything you gained will be taken away. It does mean that your growth will be tested.

New job courtesy of Jupiter? Saturn will make you work to prove your mettle. Pay increase? Figure out ways to trim your budget; Saturn will throw some serious expenses your way. New relationship? Saturn’s transit could introduce your first major challenge as a couple. All this is just a way to ensure that what you’ve got is worth hanging on to.

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."

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

Jupiter in Taurus poll

Any changes going on in your life? Bulls chime in.

As for me:

(a) decided to move in a year, even if I have no clue how

(b) spent way too much money buying craft supplies on vacation

(c) made a lot of bling with said craft supplies.

Taurus: the immovable object.

I have issues with this like you wouldn't believe.

I have decided to give myself one year to move away from where I live now. Oh dear god. I don't even know.