Up and at ’em!
A make-it-happen Capricorn Moon drives the start of the work week. It goes void at 10:45PM ET, entering Aquarius, the Networking King/Queen at 7:52AM ET on TUESDAY. An easy alignment between Sun and rebel/geek Uranus, exact on Tuesday, favors innovation, tech-savviness and — hey — astrology. An easy alignment between Venus and Pluto, exact on Wednesday facilitates emotional depth — for better or for worse — and transformed perspectives in relationships, with a likely emphasis on the empowerment of the feminine.
Emotions are on the rise, as the Moon waxes to its exact fullness on THURSDAY at 5:26AM ET. This Full Moon is also an eclipse. Lunar eclipses suggest opportunities to release what no longer serves. If you are unable to release it consciously, forces beyond your control may take it away. Wherever 25 degrees of Leo/Aquarius fall in your horoscope suggest areas in your life where you may be invited to clean house. If a planet or angle is connected to those degrees, issues related to that planet or angle are likely to be involved. When might you expect such a release? That’s an excellent question which I would be delighted to answer and discuss in a personal consultation. Here’s the 411!
Famous people whose horoscopes are personally affected by this eclipse include Donald Trump (Mars and Ascendant at 26 and 29 Leo); Jimmy Carter (Mars at 25 Aquarius; Venus at 23 Leo); Bill Clinton (Sun at 26 Leo); Michael Bloomberg (Sun at 25 Aquarius); Terry Gilliam (24 Leo Moon); Neel Kashkari (26 Leo Moon); Roman Polanski (Sun 24 Leo); George H.W. Bush (26 Leo Ascendant conjunct Nodal Axis; Mars at 25 Aquarius).
Those are the major planetary patterns happening in this last week with the Sun in fiery Leo. Your Moon voids — natural chill periods when we are encouraged to focus on routine concerns and go with the flow of twists and flakes — are as follows: Thursday 5:26AM ET – 12:34PM ET; Saturn 8:21AM ET – 3:18PM ET. Keep on truckin’!
And now, the news.
Heavy heavy heavy everywhere in matters of women, money, authority, structure and aesthetics, with shades of soulful suffering, charity, forgiveness, redemption, high art and deception. As in practically every single headline I’ve seen on multiple news platforms. Each reflecting the bewildering gravitas of Saturn in Sagittarius turning direct on Saturday, squared by Venus and opposed by Neptune.
Exhibit A: “How One Family is Sending 13 Kids to College, Living Debt-Free and Still Plans to Retire Early” Yes, they are thrifty and disciplined (Saturn) with cash and values (Venus), but read between the lines and you’ll notice that much of their success depends on gifts of time and resources from their supportive community (Neptune). It takes a village, as they say. Exhibit B: “An Incurable Disease Covered Her Face in Tumors. She Had to Learn to Like Herself.” is a story of one woman’s healing and empowerment under harsh circumstances. Exhibit C: “Was Alec Baldwin the Victim of a Paint and Switch?” recounts a potential case of fraud in the world of Really Expensive Art. Exhibit D: a somber reminder that the 250 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted over a year ago have not been rescued: “Boko Haram Video Appears to Show Bodies of Kidnapped Girls.”
General note. Whereas Venus-Uranus transits usually reflect headlines involving tolerance of social expression and gender benders, Venus-Saturn transits reflect intolerance. Too many stories to list here — just look at the headlines.
Saturn refers to aging. I seriously thought there had to be a typo in this horrible story about a newborn baby who was killed by her six-year-old brother when the two were left alone for 30 minutes by their 62-year-old mother. Not a typo. 62 years old. Harsh. Bewildering. Happened in Florida. Why is it so often Florida?
Saturn refers to authority. The first installment of a six-part NYT series on President Obama’s legacy was published on Saturday. The headline: “Once Skeptical of Executive Power, Obama Has Come to Embrace It.”
Neptune refers to intangible art forms such as film and music. What a perfect weekend it was to release Florence Foster Jenkins, in which Meryl Streep portrays a Woman of a Certain Age (Saturn) whose dream (Neptune) of singing at Carnegie Hall became a reality, despite her being utterly without singing talent. Also in sync with planetary patterns: Equity, “a hotly toxic tale of women on Wall Street that is a greedy treat.”
This story surfaced last year under a magically thinking Neptune transit; I’m delighted to see it return with Neptune activated again: “Treasure Hunters Resume Search for Alleged Nazi Gold Train.”
The grand finale — and a future Pulitzer Prize — goes to the New York Times Sunday Magazine. Called “Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Fell Apart” it’s a Saturn (reality check) in Sagittarius (foreign lands) square Neptune in Pisces (suffering, dissolution, refugees) for the ages. It gives decades of historical background to the conflicts in the Middle East and then tells the story of events from 1972 to the present, as seen through the eyes of six whose lives have been torn apart. They are from Libya, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. The NYT devoted all but two of the magazine’s sixty pages to this story. I read it cover to cover last night and went to bed counting my blessings. I encourage you to read it, too. I take issue only with these two sentences, which appear on page 12:
History never flows in a predictable way. It is always a result of seemingly random currents and incidents, the significance of which can be determined — or more often, disputed — only in hindsight.
History has been flowing in an eminently predictable way, ever since I became aware of planetary cycles. What do you think?
And what the heck is going on in your horoscope?