As you know from Saturday’s forecast, Moon is void of course in perfectionist Virgo as I type this on Sunday evening…not to enter Libra until 6:38PM ET. What does that suggest? If you can take the day off, more power to you. If you can take the week off, even better. Mercury is retrograde (REtreat, RElax, REorganize) and there are so many long voids all week long (read the list in Saturday’s forecast). You could do worse than to chill and brainstorm.

If you don’t have the luxury of getting out of Dodge, here are some strategies for the week. First, don’t believe everything you hear, lest you get all excited about something that turns out to be much ado about nothing. This is especially true of what you may read or hear about in the news. Double check everything that crosses your desk, especially if it involves communication and transportation. Second, make PATIENCE and FOCUS your two middle names. You will need them to cope with unexpected twists in all efforts to move forward in a straight line. If you can go with the flow, you may find a silver lining in tech snafus, detours and delays. Hang out with some of the old friends you haven’t seen in ages — I know you’ve been hearing from them. REview a few old projects — perhaps you will be inspired to breathe new life into them.

Shall I tell you about the Sabian Symbol for the New Moon last Thursday that I just could not process when I was writing the forecast on Wednesday? Here it is — for 27 Cancer: “a violent storm in a canyon filled with expensive homes,” suggesting (writes Dane Rudhyar, another Sabian Symbol superstar), “a confrontation with a social upheaval demanding the reconsideration of static values”.  All the money in the world that is spent to preserve homeland security may simply not be enough to withstand forces of natures, such as a violent storm. And the thing about a force of nature is that is so….random. Bottom line: this Sabian Symbol, coupled with the fierce volatility of last week’s exact Mars-Pluto-Uranus T-Square, strongly suggested “a crisis situation produced by uncontrollable karmic forces that could lead to a successful CATHARSIS”. And I confess I resisted writing those words, fearing I might give concrete form to thoughts of gloom and doom. Ha! (“Man plans; God laughs” — Yiddish proverb).

What silver lining could possibly come of Friday’s headline-dominating shooting in a Colorado movie theater, an event reflecting an extreme potential suggested by planetary patterns? In my dreams, everyone on the planet wakes up tomorrow and collectively decides to melt down all weapons of destruction, turning the recycled metal into a giant amusement park. Or solar panels. Or electric cars. In my dreams.

Meanwhile, as police and reporters search for answers on what could have triggered the “suspect” to perpetrate such violence, a sixty-second glance at the available birth data paints a compelling picture. In the horoscope of James E. Holmes (December 13, 1987 — time unknown), strong signatures jump out. First, we see a high-flying, fiery, opinionated Sun in Sagittarius together with reserved, disciplined Saturn and eccentric, rebel Uranus. This measurement suggests a drive to put a new spin on an old form. My first instinct in this sixty-second analysis puts the Moon toward the end of detail-oriented Virgo, challenging the Sun, Saturn & Uranus, reinforcing the potential for erratic ambition stemming from a sense of isolation or lack. An exact square between Venus in late-blooming (i.e., emotionally immature) Capricorn and Jupiter in me-me-me Aries suggests the potential for huge demonstrations of social expression, with ego recognition being the reward sought. Big ideas and idealized statements of opinion are echoed by mental Mercury hooked up with the Sun and trine expansive Jupiter. Instant red flag: militant Mars and “take no prisoners” Pluto are tightly conjoined in equally ruthless Scorpio — this hook-up threatens to run away with the entire personality system. Also running wild is nebulous Neptune, suggesting fantasy, escapism, idealism, illusion, spirit, confusion, delusion and other intangibles taken to the extreme. When details begin to emerge about the early home life, it would not surprise me at all if a significant maternal influence  is mentioned.

The trigger for action, as seen in the chart for 12:30AM ET in Aurora, Colorado shows the Moon and mental Mercury needing dramatic expression in theatrical Leo exactly challenging Holmes’ ruthless Scorpio Mars-Pluto conjunction. Also a trigger: Pluto at 7 Capricorn sitting right on top of Holmes’ potentially fanatical Neptune (also at 7 Capricorn), with aggressive Mars and unpredictable Uranus squaring it. Pluto in contact with Neptune strongly suggests (to quote astrologer Noel Tyl’s keywords) “enormous intensification of sensory activity; possible loss of frame of reality; subterfuge; possible introduction of drugs and alcohol”. And would you believe that at 12:30AM, when Holmes entered the theater in costume (dressed as the Joker with bright orange hair and in full battle armor), the Midheaven (career, public status) was EXACTLY conjunct his Venus, suggesting the potential for “career advancement in the arts”.

Guess who was born on December 17, 1987 — four days after Holmes — in Crescent, OK? He is driven by Moon in Scorpio, which seeks knowledge for the sake of power and control, and needs to be seen a person of depth and substance. Do you think we might see similar themes related to “loss of reality” manifesting in his life right now? And here I would be thinking of Bradley Manning, accused of releasing thousands of US classified and unclassified documents to Wikileaks, who was arrested over two years ago and is still awaiting trial. On Saturday, a military judge apparently ruled that defense lawyers might not use “evidence to contend that there was little “actual harm” from the enormous leak of secret government documents.” Did you know Manning was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize? Me neither — I just found that out in my “Bradley Manning” Google search.

To wrap this long post up, the Colorado shooting isn’t the only “violent storm” raging in the headlines in these volatile planetary times. I’m seeing reports of car crashes with multiple fatalities and violence  — in Bulgaria, Syria and Iraq. In other news, twenty-one people suffered burns at a fire walk organized by motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Caterpillar, a corporation with record profits, is shows no sign of budging from a six-year wage and pension freeze on its workers, who have been on strike for three months.  And in China, a brutal enforcement of its “one child” policy is apparently leading to calls for the law’s repeal. Catharsis, anyone?