Category: Star Guidance

news on the current astrology

Posted on

January Horoscope 2014

 

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

I think it’s a bold statement to start the New Year with not just one, but two new moons. The first one on January 1 is conjunct Pluto! It just says bold, authoritative and fresh. Following on the heels of a very messy end of year, all I can say is Open Government! I know it’s much more interesting to read a horoscope about love, relationships or what luck Jupiter is going to bring you in 2014, but government is what is in the stars; at least at the beginning of the month! Pluto the planet of power, transformation, death and renewal is in Capricorn calling for change not just in government, but also business and financial structures.  Any misuse of power is now being called into question and the result… social change! Which come on… can be interesting, right?

Here is my conspiracy theory on the whole thing.  I worked for government for years, at all levels and in various positions, from Meter Maid to Consultant. In my role as Consultant, I noticed that it wasn’t me, but KPMG, Deloitte and other consulting agencies that were hired to study everything from employee engagement to customer service, while I was numbed in the job of shuffling paper. They got all of the interesting stuff that I had all kinds of great ideas on, but they figured someone outside of themselves had a better answer to. This was so much the case that I finally left and became a consultant myself! These consulting firms figured out the problem, they outlined their recommendations and then the powers that be in government did… dun dun dun… nothing! Instead they treated the report like it WAS the solution. Governments are notorious for doing white papers, studying the problems and then doing nothing. I don’t think consultant firms have any problem taking the money, doing the studies and giving themselves some work, but after a while you start to scratch your head and then you realize that, as my father used to say “crazy is doing things the same old way and expecting different results.” So they offered up a solution in a book called The Solution Revolution, which among others things, calls the government on their BS. Not only that, it challenges us to look beyond traditional financial bottom line to something they call impact currency. Now you might reading this and say “Pie in the sky!” Nothing will change.  That would be true if it were some unknown, like the guy who wrote about Sacred Ecomonics (which is absolutely brilliant), but it wasn’t! It was a top consulting firm and Harvard! All I can say is…. All you social entrepreneurs out there, this new moon is for you. Time for real solutions! Time for change! The new moon, Mercury and Pluto will form a trine to Pallas in Virgo, helping you to see the big transformational picture in all the fine minute detail. Set an intention, being as detailed as you can as this is the year for following through with actual solutions! This is the case not just for government solutions, but also business and financial solutions!

Mercury and the Sun will oppose Jupiter in the first couple of days of the year making us confident, optimistic and apt to push limits. The Sun is also squaring Mars, so we can have that extra push needed towards our goals. All of this can also make us overly optimistic and conflict oriented, so we’ll need to manage our new enthusiasm and projects so that they don’t nosedive or alternatively, piss people off.

And now on to relationships! What would life be without relationships?

Neptune, the spiritual planet, and Juno, the marriage/relationship asteroid will conjunct on the 8th and both will be trine the North Node, helping us to connect with our soul mate or soul group. The energy will be in play all the way up to the 13th. Mars is also square Jupiter on the 8th, so you may be connecting with those who share a passionate cause. Venus and Sun are conjunct on the 11th, supporting the meet-up of a love connection, but Venus is retrograde (it went retrograde on December 21), so this person may be a past love. The Sun and Venus are also sextile to Saturn, so it could also be a business relationship that shows up. Don’t make any firm commitments while Venus is retrograde. Even though I think this has the potential to be long lasting, there is some stuff to work out, which you will see later in the month. At the moment, the difficulty will be in integrating materialist goals with spiritual goals as the Sun will square Vesta, having an either/or feeling to it.  Also, the full moon on the 15th is square to Ceres, bringing up some intensity around either separation or feelings of being smothered. This relationship could be a good thing, but as they say, good things take time.

The chance to work it out will come at the second new moon on January 30, which will be highly focused on relationships. The relationships I am talking about here could be personal, work, business or they can be to the collective. Pallas and Jupiter moving into a configuration called a Yod with the new moon. Another Yod will involve Uranus, the new moon and Pallas. Also, Jupiter will be opposing Pluto exactly! In addition, there is also a mystic rectangle with Jupiter, Chiron, Pallas and Pluto. Finally, the ongoing T-square with Uranus, Pluto and Jupiter will be present. Oh, one last thing… Venus will be right beside Pluto on the last day of its retrograde. What does this all mean? Well, sometimes the universe just throws all of the blocks out there and like a two-year old, we have to take those blocks and figure out how they fit.

The energy of the two Yods are like trying to push that rectangle into a square. To make it work we first we need to make some adjustments.  Jupiter and Pallas are working together to come up with big ideas and grandiose schemes. They are thinking outside of the box. Actually, they may think there is no box… But these ideas are out of step with the airy, somewhat detached, and surprisingly inflexible revolutionary new moon. The new moon in the air is being fueling by the fire of Uranus in Aries, both of which are out of step with the big picture that Pallas is presenting. We have all the blocks; we just don’t know how to make them fit. Everything seems possible and impossible at the same time! There is however, a solution or better said, an opportunity! It’s found in Chiron and Juno, which are conjunct and whom together speak about a healing in our deepest relationships! And since they are both in Pisces, this could also be healing of the collective, the world and mankind. To describe this kind of collective relationship, Jesus called the church his “bride”. But here is the problem with the relationship; Jupiter in home loving and nurturing Cancer is opposite Pluto who is hanging out with Venus in Capricorn. This is a bit of a Mommy Porn combination. If you’re feeling super uncomfortable that I have just used Jesus and mommy porn in the same paragraph, you are likely connecting with the energy of this combination. Its Christian Grey’s controlled, severe, power and corporate success filled sexuality versus the tortured-by-her-subconscious-mind Anastasia and her desire for love nurturance and something quite normal and homey. Forget that 50 shades of Grey is a poorly written book, we all have a secret fantasy that we can change another to suit our needs. With Jupiter opposite Pluto/Venus we may have an overwhelming desire to make this happen and will attempt to do it. However, how we go about it will be all that matters. We can use and abuse the power of Pluto and Venus which tends towards jealousy, and control. We can go over the top with expansive Jupiter in the mix. Juno and Chiron are also opposed by Pallas, so it might be easy to nitpick, focus on the hurt or all those ways it won’t work. There are a whole host of ways this can go wrong.

But… there is a way through this!

The mystic rectangle presents us with the opportunities for optimism, faith, healing understanding, by taking the opportunities presented to us and diving into it together and in creative ways. Big fat hint… Trying to figure it out on your own won’t work. Going deep and into the scary or taboo subjects through shared experiences will.  Here is something else that may help. Start every conversation with “yes, and…” rather than “yes, but…” and you’ll be on the right track.

The month will end on January 31 with Venus going direct. With all of the relationship work you’ve done you should now be clear – or at least well on your way to being clear – on where you want them to go and with Venus direct, you have the green light to move forward.

READ WHAT’S GOING ON FOR EACH SIGN…..

ARIES

 You can rise to power or have a very public fall at the beginning of the month. Set intentions for using your power wisely. Later in the month, the focus shifts to humanitarian causes. You just need to figure out how to merge your desire for status with a need to selflessly serve. There might be some karma to work out here.

TAURUS

 Pope Francis was named man of the year by People magazine. The reason? He has mastered being conventional and unorthodox at the same time and this is your challenge this month. You can have the institutional structure and have true spirit within.  Transforming your belief system or awakening your Kundalini can throw some of your relationships off later in the month. Your ability to hold the complexity of yours and others’ perspectives will help.

GEMINI

 It may seem like your insides are turning out. This month you are phoenix rising.  A healing is also happening in your career. Towards the end of the month you start to redefine your relationship to your career and ways of making money. What are those people who make millions, loose it all, and then make it all back again made of? Have the rules of the game changed? These are the questions you will answer as you clarify this relationship.

CANCER

 How’s your love life? You can make a new beginning this month. Communication is key, but loosen your need to feel superior and be strict. Using optimism, deep faith and your uncanny ability to be perceptive, this month will help find and communicate common ground. Relationships formed with others from diverse backgrounds can help to expand yourself and broaden your perspectives in positive ways.

LEO

 Games, power trips and subversive tactics used to work in the workplace, but you will be finding out this month that this is no longer the case. Which end of this dynamic are you on? If you’re the instigator, these moves will backfire. If you are the victim, how can you have the courage to speak up? Everyone knows what really happens to a whistleblower, right? But maybe the rules are changing. Issues of trust power and the real meaning of the agile leader comes up for you this month.

VIRGO

 This month you’re like the suffering and tortured artist, the strict and patriarchal father, the love-sick and tormented lover. You may be shadow-boxing as you spar with what you think you own and what is not in your control. You want to be still-life, but life is calling for abstract expressionist.  What shows up on the outside is often just an expression of the inside. Examining the patterns that lie within will help.

LIBRA

 Your relationship with your parents (even if they are no longer around) is going through a renovation.  You are challenged this month to allow rather than force. Not only will pushing have you looking like a spoiled brat, the finished product might look god-awful. Later in the month, let your creativity guide you as you tap into the collective unconscious. Doing so will help you heal the relationship you have with the way you serve others. Maybe you know that you’re supposed to be charitable, but deep down you know you’re really not. Examine where that comes from, without judgement.

SCORPIO

 You’re known for your scorpion sting and this month you can be extremely powerful with your words. Conflict with your thoughts and words can manifest as a sore stomach or jangly-accident-prone energy. Keep calm and carry on.  You might want to try something like a Vipassana retreat, where you can collectively gather with others who are collectively silent and collectively meditate together. You’ll be surprised at how much it heals your mojo.

SAGITTARIUS

 Use the energy this month wisely and you could be very lucky. Let’s say you launch a crowd-sourcing campaign, what gets people on board is what you’re currently valuing and how you intend to use the power of money. You may even have a situation where people are surprisingly overly confident in you and your cause and now you’ve got to step up your game to measure up. Ever notice how important the First Lady is to the President’s success? Healing and valuing your family relationships later in the month will help in how you are being perceived.

CAPRICORN

 Everything is right in the world. You’re asserting yourself, being recognized, reaching a place of status. This is exactly as it should be in the Capricorn life.  You will come across with public approval if you project yourself respectfully, but there is a tendency to ego trip now, which will engender backlash. If your ego is in the way, expect situations to arise which will send you into self-examination. Also the jig is up with the old style of political posturing or networking. At the end of the month you can really come to understand the new rules if you approach your relationships with mutuality and authenticity.

AQUARIUS

 It’s like you are all snuggled in a cocoon and things are happening, but you’re not sure what is happening. You’re all cramped up inside there, not even realizing that you are growing wings. You are still unaware of just how beautiful and free you will feel once this process is over.  This month, you will be challenged to do the work and not push your growing thoughts and ideas on others just yet. You’re at the conscious. competent stage of learning and may feel the need to “teach what you need to learn to others.” Learn it first!  Self-esteem rises when you heal your sense of worth through play. Even though you’re in that cocoon you’ll need to find a way to play with others, not by yourself. There are ways. Think of a baby in a womb, who plays by kicking.

PISCES

 There might be a bit of a blow-up in your financial situation. Both your personal cash flow and your shared resources might be seriously comprised or conversely, has increased in a way that has left you very uncomfortable. This situation is helping you to discover who your real friends are?  Also, you’re making adjustments to your hopes and dreams. Does what you think matters, really matter, anymore?  At the end of the month, there is an opportunity to see relationship patterns clearly and to heal your relationship with yourself, which invariably changes, your relationship to others.

 

Posted on

Venus Rx; Re-evaluating the Currency of Love

Venus goes Retrograde from Dec 21, 2013 until Jan 30, 2014.

10941404_sHave you ever been stopped at a light or in a parking spot and all of a sudden you notice the cars beside you moving; but then you look up and realize, it’s not them who is moving, you have forgotten to put your foot on the brake and actually it’s you that is moving? Okay, maybe you need to be a manual transmission driver to have this experience, but basically this is what is happening with Venus Retrograde, which starts today. Venus looks like it is moving backwards, but in fact, it is the movement of the Earth and the distance of Venus that gives it the optical illusion like it is going backwards. Nonetheless, the experience still has an impact on our consciousness much like what happens when your car is rolling. We get a little disoriented and need to take some time to evaluate what is happening. Venus is about love and money, so Venus retrogrades will have us doing a reassessment on these topics.

Venus is doing its thing in Capricorn.  With Venus in Capricorn, love is about money and status. We may fear rejection and for that reason we may try to control, project a good image or try to prove how worthy we are of love by accomplishing. On the financial front, Venus in Capricorn can be good for business, but again fears can send us into materialism and status seeking. With the retrograde, all of these issues will come up within our relationships for re-evaluation.

A couple of days ago, I was shopping and the salesman, sizing me up, realized that I was likely single, asked me if he could ask me a question about single women. “Sure,” I said. He asked why women these days only want men who have money. These days? Was this not an age-old problem?  Somehow the two are always intimately intertwined and this is why I believe Venus represents both love and money. In the days of old, the man earned the money, the woman stayed home and without access to the financial power of earning her own money, of course she made sure her Love also had a well-lined pocket.  But since the World Wars, which let’s face it, is really quite recent, women’s role in the workplace has completely and totally changed, so has her economic power and her dependence on men. Love is being redefined, but nobody seems to realize it. Men are confused about what women want and so are women!

My parents had an old eight-track tape player in the car when I was a kid, and my mother used to kill a Dennis Brown tape  “money in my pocket, but I just can’t get no love”.  I think this retrograde period will have us really assessing what we are building our love and commitment on.  Women are singing about being independent women and men are singing about loving the independent woman. But if the currency of love is no longer tied to money, what is it tied to? Does love have a new motivator? This is the question for Venus Rx in Capricorn. The question the sales guy asked had clear cut reasons in the past.  The fact that a woman wanted a man in the past for financial security was something that made him feel needed, secure and counted on. Now it just seems to make him feel used. The financial reasons for love have changed; but have we psychologically caught up? And has our relationship dynamics caught up? Why do men still feel women want them for money? And do women want their cake and eat it too?

Even the concept of economics seems to be changing. Business is not just about how much money you’ve made, but also how much impact you’ve had on the environment and on social good. In other words, how much love does your business seem to have? Is your business just about money and the bottom line? Venus Rx in Capricorn will also have us reassess our ideas of financial and economic currency. It will be particularly transformative for both love and money because as Venus started its shadow into the retrograde close to Pluto (the planet of transformation) in Capricorn and at the end of the retrograde cycle it will be right beside Pluto again before it moves forward.  Also, Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, which has been linked to karmic situations, so we may find that we are working though some karma or what feels like it during this period.

Posted on

Do past lives exist? And so what if they did?

14983899_sI have to tell you, I am sort of the reluctant astrologer.  And even the first time I went to a psychic, I rush home with all of the ‘facts’ and created an excel spreadsheet, classifying everything said and creating a column for a check mark for the moment the prediction came true.  The idea of past lives is one that not only causes me to question my own religious up bringing, but also is something that in my mind defies proof.  So do past lives exist?

In astrology we often hear the word Karma. The north and south nodes are where you are going and where you have been respectively. Certain connections with planets and the nodes may indicate past life karma to be worked out. Saturn works in much the same way. A Saturn placement and connection with a planet can indicate karma to be worked out in this life… So is there a last life? A past life?  With this question burning within me, I got the fire in my belly to find out. When I saw that there was going to be a workshop at a psychic fair on past lives, I dragged my friend to go check it out. The workshop was scheduled to start at 3pm. We sat in the audience chatting and waiting.  3:10 came, then 3:15… No past life speaker. Finally at 3:20 a gentleman got up and said that they could not find the speaker, but that he was her husband and he would talk about the topic, which he was also knowledgeable on.  He went around the audience.  “hello please” (he was French Canadian) “you” , he pointed to a man “you love boat”, No I don’t like boats the man replied, “don’t worry, you did in your past life” he dismissed and moved on “you, he pointed to my friend sitting beside me, but he had nothing, so he moved on to me. “Hello Please” he said, shifting his gaze to me “you were a doctor in France”. Okay?! I thought…. He continued like this for a while with various members of the audience. After a while my friend and I rolled out of the workshop laughing our asses off “Apparently you had no past life” I said to her…” Doctor help me” she said to me! Our conclusion… What a crock of sh@t!

I decided to give it another try.  Brian Weiss was going to be speaking at a conference AND he was a medical doctor! This somehow gave a level of credibility to his words.  I got there and it was a popular talk filling up a theatre auditorium. He talked for a bit and then said he would do a group regression. He warned that it might be experienced like a dream, but just to relax into it and see what came up. Out went the lights… It was pitch black and I relaxed back into my seat and listened to his voice. Honestly, I felt as though I were making up a dream in my mind. Fantasizing. I imagined that I was in a field. It seemed like England or Scotland or something like that. I was lying on the ground with a fatal wound in my leg. Suddenly I felt a pain.. A real pain in my leg. I still felt like I was making up this dream. I lie in the field knowing that there were men around me dead or dying and though my wound if attended to could save my life, I knew that would not happen. I was calm and philosophical as I lie dying. The session ended and I was still not convinced that I had experienced a past life, but one thing I can tell you, I continued to have that pain in my leg all day.

Months later I decided to go to Nepal on a trek. Past lives in Nepal are just accepted as fact, both culturally and religiously.  We were meant to meet a Rinopche, but he had died just weeks before we arrived and instead we met his father who was reincarnated as his son. What???? I was told that there was a process of determining if one was actually a reincarnated Rinopche. At three years old they are brought before their old belongings along with some fakes and the one who is the Rinpoche is able to identify their belongings correctly. The process that is documented in a movie called the Unmistaken Child. Fascinated by this I brought it up to my leader on the trek. By coincidence, she told me she was trained in doing past life regressions. As I walked along I told her of my experience within Brian Weiss’s workshop. She starts to ask me questions to go further into it (She was not hypnotizing me, just questioning me on my experience). I told her I felt like I made it up, but I continued to describe what I felt about the whole incident.  “I’ve just been wounded” I say, “and I am going to die because I am bleeding and all of my men are dead around me. These are the moments before death and I am thinking first that I have let my men down and then that I am pissed that I’m going to die and I won’t be able, or have a chance to retaliate and win back. Then I start to feel ‘what is this all for’ and there is immense sadness at who I am leaving behind and how they will feel and all in the name of what seems to be some kind of materialism and greed. I am of course a man in this and I feel like I have done this in many many lifetimes” I told her that If I did have past lives,  I think in many of them I have been a man and have led battle and wars. And I told her that I certainly feel that my purpose in this life is to bring balance between masculine and feminine elements of society in a world where we have gone to far into the masculine.

As I described all of this to her, I still felt like I drummed up the whole story on the spot, but she was convinced It was a real past life.

What was even more interesting was that during that trip in Nepal  I met two men and I learned after this experience and conversation with my group leader that both served in the military, one the British Army and the other in the US army, both in very high level positions. I felt instant connection with both. One a little more than the other. It’s that feeling you get when you’ve only just met but you feel as though you’ve known them forever. Both men had come to a place in their lives within which they themselves had become philosophical about war. Both of these men were Virgo’s,  a sign often associated with service, including armed service (and is also, by the way, associated with medical service). AND My South Node, the point in my chart that points to the past and past life, is in Virgo. Could this all be true? A Virgo south node would suggest that I may have been a doctor or even Military leader. Not surprisingly the men I met both had important planets connected to my south node which in astrology suggests that they WERE important people in my past lives.

I still do not know if there are actual past lives. I am too much of a proof person (which is probably proof in itself that this is real… that is the nature of a Virgo south node!) . But I do think that the coincidence of the story lines up with the path outlined in my astrology. And in that alone I can find meaning. Maybe the better question is what am I here for? I definitely feel a purpose beyond myself. And that is exactly what my North Node in Pisces life purpose all about.

Well Bob Marley would say ‘if you don’t know your past you don’t know your future”…. The north/South node are axis points in your chart. If the north node is at one point, then the south node is at the exact opposite side.

If you want to know what your future direction should be, here is a quick and dirty:

Aries North Node/Libra South Node: Moving away from living your life for others and trying to keep the balance and moving towards defining yourself. You may attract undependable or self absorbed types and they help you to define yourself.

Taurus North Node/Scorpio South Node: Moving away from loss or intense experiences and being attracted to the drama, and moving towards material gain, security and dependence on yourself materially. You are moving towards figuring out what is yours and what is mine.

Gemini North Node/Sagittarius South Node: Moving away from certainties to possibilities. In the past you may have had strong beliefs and are now moving towards holding complexity, varying ideas and experience.

Cancer North Node/Capricorn South Node: Moving away from being ambitious and status oriented towards the realm of feeling and nurturance. You can be a bit of user and can step on others to get where your going, but it will lead to nowhere as your purpose is to be honest, humble and caring.

Leo North Node/Aquarius South Node: Moving away from the group effort towards leading with your own effort.  Moving away from wanting to be everyone’s friend and for their approval towards taking centre stage and expressing your individuality.

Virgo North Node/Pisces South Node: Moving away from a nebulous spiritual life to one of concrete details and practical duties. You can trust the universe too much maybe saying God will provide and must move towards logic and reason and a life where God will help those who help themselves.

Libra North Node/Aries South Node: Moving away from self absorption and selfishness towards cooperation, tact and diplomacy. You are learning the art of compromise and giving without an agenda. You can become a great mediator or judge.

Scorpio North Node/Taurus South Node: Letting go of stability and opening yourself up to change and the ability to ‘let go’, allow others to support you.  Moving towards letting go of the material and your tightly held values.

Sagittarius North Node/Gemini South Node: Moving away from “sitting on the fence” towards taking decisive stands and committing to your own belief system.  Moving away from talking towards listening and developing your intuition.

Capricorn North Node/Cancer South Node:  Moving away from being afraid of authority and responsibility towards being goal and success oriented.  Staying away from others emotional dramas’ towards refining yourself and becoming a go-getter.

Aquarius North Node/Leo South Node: Moving away from the spotlight towards humanitarian aims. Moving away from being bossy and self important towards doing things for the best interest of all.

Pisces North Node/Virgo South Node: Moving away from being detailed, regimented, critical and a-know-it-all towards being non-judgmental, compassionate, trusting and surrendering to God.

The house placement can add a little more complexity, but you can start with the sign placement.  Some great books on the topic are: Lunar Nodes, Celeste Teal, and Astrology for the Soul, Jan Spiller

You can also try a Regression to Times and Places meditation on CD with Brian Weiss and see what comes up. After doing it, ask yourself “What does your past life meditation tell me about who I was and what I am meant to become”?