Planetary cycles

Planetary news this week: The creative power of Mind with Mercury

Astrological update for the week of March 27 – April 3, 2023

artist unknown?

The importance of Mind in our lives. What we think of as “mind” – the purview of Mercury, is not the same as the brain. The brain is the physical organ which facilitates the workings of the mental functions, but the mind is driven by consciousness. How we perceive about the world and filter our experiences is driven by the mind, and can be explained astrologically by Mercury placements in the natal chart.

The power of the mind to create and imagine is well understood, but the mind (Mercury) often becomes tangled with emotions (Moon), self-indulgence (Venus), unmet needs (Mars), secret yearnings (Jupiter), and self-doubt (Saturn). When the mind is clear of distractions and these tangles which inhibit the activation of our thoughts are quiet, magic can happen.

This week there are no major planetary interactions to dominate the airwaves, and the planetary activity is focused mainly on the mental realm. How easily can we focus our thoughts and strategize our way to a goal? What distractions keep us from the experiences we crave? These are topics which might come up this week under this emphasis of Mercury alignments.

Here’s what else you need to know this week (Dates and times are for the Eastern time zone, here is a time zone converter to adjust for your locality.)

Monday March 27. As if to emphasize the point, we begin the week with the Moon in Mercury-ruled Gemini, and a strong Mercury/Jupiter aspect building throughout Monday to peak just after midnight. The focus right now is on communication, language, learning, and understanding. There is an opportunity to learn from our experiences as every aspect of our […]

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By |2023-03-27T07:51:25-04:00March 27th, 2023|Planetary news this week|0 Comments
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Pluto in Aquarius: 2023-2043

art by me and Midjourney with help from ChatGPT

The meaning of Pluto.

The planet Pluto is associated with death, destruction, and regeneration. In psychological astrology he represents the Underworld of the psyche – the secrets that we hide from others and from ourselves, the dim recesses of the mind where our darkest emotions are tucked away.  In the transformational astrology that I practice, Pluto shows up as what I call the “Will of the Higher Self” – the part of us that encourages us to transform our secret darkness into an awakened Self through wisdom and understanding.

We often think of Pluto as being a ruthless Lord of Death and destruction, but this early association of Pluto/Hades with protecting the dead reveals a secret to the Pluto archetype that we don’t often consider – Pluto’s real role is to facilitate our personal evolution if we allow it to.  Under Pluto’s influence we find ourselves facing life in a far more intense way than might be comfortable, but it’s all for the sake of deepening our awareness and facilitating our awakening.

The discovery of Pluto in the 1930s coincided with the scientific breakthroughs required to release the atomic bomb which symbolizes Pluto’s destructive force which sometimes requires complete annihilation followed by a necessary rebuilding phase.  But it also coincided with the groundbreaking work of Freud and especially Carl Jung into the workings of the human psyche and the idea that if humans were able to better understand themselves, they could change the world around them and ultimately, their destiny.

Pluto enters Aquarius this week, really just dipping its toe at the zero degree point before retrograding back into Capricorn. This is just a taste of what is to come, but it does feel as […]

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By |2023-03-20T10:42:58-04:00March 19th, 2023|Featured posts, Future Shock, Planetary cycles|9 Comments
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Planetary news this week: Transformation continues and then a new beginning

Astrological update for the week of March 13-20, 2023

artist unknown?

The Jupiter/Chiron conjunction. The transformational alignment between Jupiter and Chiron which I wrote about last week has just culminated, but the effect will linger throughout the remainder of the month. quoting from last week’s post: The alignment of Jupiter’s optimism and expansive qualities with Chiron’s inspiration to heal and explore the body’s awareness is a powerful crucible for physical, emotional and mental healing. The type of healing which Chiron presides over is not the fairy godmother type of healing in which a magic wand produces an immediate result. Chiron urges us to release the toxic energy of old wounded feelings and resentments so that we can be freed and this toxicity can be replaced with a higher form of body mind spirit wisdom.

The combination of these two planets for accelerating healing and personal transformation occurs in the sign of Aries, sign of self-initiation and activation. This will become more important later in the week as we approach the Aries New Moon, since there is likely to be a sudden realization of our own needs and drives that may be somewhat surprising because of the Neptunian fog. The sign of Aries is itself the beginning of manifestation in the world – the point of initiation and assertive dynamic experiences that push us into the world itself.  Any New Moon marks a new beginning – the beginning of a new lunar cycle that wipes the slate clean and provides an opportunity to create something new in our lives.  Any Aries New Moon adds another layer of excitement and Marsy energy to stoke the fires and energize that creation.

Neptunian fog. This occurs at a very Neptunian time (astrologese for periods of […]

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By |2023-03-13T07:48:20-04:00March 13th, 2023|Planetary news this week|4 Comments
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The meaning of Saturn in Pisces, 2023-2025

art by Leah Whitehorse and AI

Saturn is the planet of form and structure – as an astrological guide it teaches us to be disciplined and to understand the value of hard work in mastering the material world. As the outermost planet in the solar system, Saturn marked the outermost boundary of the personal realm, and is surrounded by rings of containment.  These physical attributes reflect the astrological depiction of Saturn as governing limitations, physical boundaries such as gateposts and doorways, and the limitations we place on ourselves through self-doubt and fears.

As a planet primarily concerned with solid earthly matters such as success and achievement, Saturn tends to lose some of its effectiveness in the watery realm of Pisces. Saturn is connected with Kronos, the Greek god of time, and the idea that our lives have definite endings. Awareness of our own mortality puts pressure on humans to accomplish something worthwhile before time runs out, and this requires focus and strategy that can be lacking when Saturn is in Pisces.

For the past five years or so Saturn has traveled through both of the signs which it rules: Capricorn and Aquarius. Pluto (destruction and regeneration) has been in Capricorn (success and societal structures) throughout this whole time, resulting in some of the fear, oppression and compression that we’ve experienced over the past few years since Saturn and Pluto collided in January 2020. With Saturn moving into Pisces on March 7th, followed by Pluto moving into Aquarius at the end of March, we will begin to see major shifts in the restructuring of global society.

Pisces is the most watery of all water signs, dissolving the boundaries that Saturn establishes along with the sense of […]

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By |2023-03-05T17:24:25-05:00March 5th, 2023|Planetary cycles|0 Comments
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The big shift begins: Seven planets change signs in March

art by Yuumei

You may already know that over the next few years all three outer planets will have changed signs, leading to a major shift in human consciousness. In March, we kick off this big transition with a total of seven planets changing signs. It’s not unusual for the Sun, or Mercury, Venus or even Mars to change signs and we often have two to four sign changes in an average month. But seven planets changing signs is quite significant, especially because six out of the seven personal planets will change signs this month. The personal planets (in this case Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn) tend to affect us more deeply on a personal level so this could signify a significant change in our attitudes and values.

And then there’s Pluto which will move into Aquarius later this month after 15 years in Capricorn. Watch these pages for my article coming soon about what this could mean for the human experience, but Pluto ingresses into a new sign often heralds a completely new experience for humanity, along with a new generation.

If you read my weekly forecast (and if you don’t, you really should! sign up below), you’ll be getting a weekly forecast with the details of these changes. We can look forward to a great deal of mutability including a triple conjunction in dreamy Pisces in mid-March that faces off against Mars (still in Gemini until the 25th after seven months!). Saturn, planet of structure and responsibility, in mystical Pisces which is none of those things, will bring two years and a few months of dissolving the foundations on which we build our lives and rebuilding them into […]

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