Saturn Turned Inward

Saturn is making its slow, deep turn retrograde in Scorpio where it will remain until earlt July. 

This is a perfect time to explore your limitations and fears. Where Saturn is your in chart is where you feel restricted.  A retrograde is already an inward motion - we are to take the energies of that planet and explore and examine their meaning.  With a retrograde in Scorpio - the most intense and inward looking planet - we are getting a double influence of energy demanding that we do some deep exploration.

Where is Saturn in your natal chart? Where is it by progression? Examine those houses and see the issues that you haven't addressed, where are you over-committed, where have you been unable to say "No, I need that time for me."  Basically, where do we feel at loose ends in the areas controlled by these houses?

It is easy to blame problems on retrogrades but when we use the energy and the transformative power of a sign as powerful as Scorpio to find what structures you need to build to make your life run more efficiently.

What Would Lincoln Eat - Abe's Foodie Chart

In anticipation of the publication of my cookbook, "Signs of the Tines: The Ultimate Astrological Cookbook," I have asked the question that I am sure has been bugging Americans for a century or more. "What would Abe Lincoln eat?" Our 16th President was not known as a "foodie." Although he did have a pretty decent appetite for country fare when a youth, as he grew older and a more preoccupied with life he often was seen munching mindlessly on an apple.

With his Capricorn Moon and Saturn on the cusp of his first house coupled with Pisces on the cusp of his 6th or health house, the President had almost a classic signature for a depressive personality. Saturn (which rules Capricorn) is something that always places restrictions, limits growth and can be a bit of a downer when near our personal planets and houses - like the first house and the Moon. Pisces is on the 6th should always send off alarm bells because it can bring the desire to escape due to a feeling overburdened and overwhelmed.

What would I recommend for Mr. Lincoln? My blueberry polenta - made with lots of creamy goodness to remind provide him with a comforting warm feeling and healthy berries and my salmon in parchment, he needed those Omega 3s for depression.

The recipes are - where else - in the book due out in May of 2013!

Feeling Confused? Feeling Intense?

It is no wonder! This is one of the most bizarre charts I have seen in a along time! Right now - we have three major stelliums (or 5 or more planets in one sign) going on. There is the Pisces Stellium I spoke about last week - bringing us Pisces energy for Neptune, Mercury, Chiron, Venus and the Sun. We also have a Gemini Stellium with Ceres, Lillith, Vesta and Jupiter there - that is a lot of "girl energy in the communication sign - Mercury." Finally, we have Pallas, Uranus, Moon and Mars all in Aries. So think of it as three players at the table, chatty, girly Gemini, angry and emotional Aries and dreamy Pisces. It is no wonder no one can get along right now! We have three very distinct and widely varied energies all sort of forming alliances. To add more fun to all of this - we have taciturn and retrograded Saturn, the task master, making aspects to all three!

 

Don't expect much in the way of break-throughs in Washington or elsewhere until these Stelliums start to break. Saturn is telling all of them to stick to their principles...Aries is demanding to have their way - as Aries does. Gemini is just saying - see I have all of the information and Pisces is looking to the sky to escape the whole mess.

 

Hang on - this will start to break up toward the end of the month!

Get Your Ooky Spookey Hats On: A Pisces Stellium

March is Pisces month!!! More than usual, we have a Pisces-Palluza this month. Mercury is part of a Pisces stellium that includes Neptune, Venus, Chiron, the Sun, and Mars! (A stellium is five or more planets in a house or sign or both!) This is a great time to get in touch with your subconscious; to take a ride on the Astral Railroad. This is a great time for healing that taps into the deeper recesses of the mind, to do dream therapy to take that spiritual "risk."  Healing that uses water is also something to consider now - any type of water rejuvenation vibrates well to Pisces. 

Just don't get lost in the escapism that Pisces can bring - the procrastination or the feelings of be put upon and "martyred" by someone or something. 

Use this time for the benefits the Pisces can bring which is an amazing awareness of the spiritual realm that is all around us. 

"Road to Eternity" Courtesy of Arlenew.com

 

Full Moon Tonight

Tonight, February 25th is the so called "Ice Moon," the February full moon. Of course, if you live in the D.C. area  you get no snow or ice or winter...but I digress.

A moon is "full" when it is furthest from the Sun. As you can see in the chart below, the Moon is tucked away in the 12th house and all the way across the chart, the Sun is in the 6th. When the Moon escapes the light of the Sun it can shine most brightly over us.

The Moon is in Virgo in the 12th, the house of secrets. Remember too the we are in a state of retrograded Mercury. So please, please watch for communications missteps, words not said or words expressed in anger instead of peace. This is the time to think twice before criticizing and bringing up old hearts and to really, really think before you speak!

Yes Mercury Is Going Retrograde Tomorrow!

and will stay that way until March 17 - so get ready for the communication problems, the cell phone issues.
Also, this is a time to beware of signing contracts. Be sure to leave extra time to get to work and just slow down. Retrogrades are times to go within and examine issues. Mercury issues are communication, learning and exchanging information. How do we do that? Can it be improved. Make the retrograde work for you!

Do You Feel It? Axial Procession and Aquarius

courtesy of arlenew.com

It is kind of a funny shift - suddenly right wing wedge issues - like gay marriage and immigration are not wedge issues any longer. In 2004, the GOP put gay marriage on ballots to help defeat John Kerry because they knew the outcry against it would be great. Now, the President can openly talk about it and receive popular support. Yes, it is almost a decade later but tolerance among the general population for marijuana legislation, gay marriage and better gun control is rapidly increasing.  Could it be we are actually, finally at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius?

We have heard a lot about the shift - the end of the times - the new way - the Mayan calendar but what really is going on?  Hang on this gets “mathy.”  Each of the twelve signs designated by the ancients to have the archetypal energy that emits from the Zodiac has an age associated with it. This corresponds with Astronomy's axial precession. Due to gravity, there is a continuous change in the orientation of Earth's axis of rotation as it goes around the Sun on the ecliptic so that the equinox times vary slightly each year.  When I mean slightly I mean slightly - this change occurs at a rate of 50.27 seconds of arc a year. Basically the equinoxes shift in time and location on a westward movement until it all comes back to the original spot. It takes a mere 26,000 years for the equinoxes to go back to their original spot. When you divide the 12 Zodiac signs by 26,000 you get astrological ages that last about 2167 years.

Of course, like all linear time it is hard to pinpoint exactly when each one starts and stops. Some people say the Aquarian Age started in the 1800’s and some put it at 2160. I think it is a good bet that it is somewhere in between and we are feeling the effects now. Aquarius is all about acceptance, brotherhood, unity, equality. The shadow is detachment – I love all mankind but don’t ask me to get too touchy-feely with any one in particular. So it is easy to take up causes but I want to sit in front of my computer instead of talking to my family.

Aquarius is quirky, future-oriented, logical, technologically adept and intelligent.  However, ego and a penchant for dogmatism are in that mix as well.   Expect more acceptance of people and their foibles and a feeling of unity and brotherhood– sorry Tea Party – technology that makes us now look like we are  in the ancient Roman days but less one-on-one contact and more loneliness and loners.

It will be a mysterious new world that we are walking into but we should embrace the positive Aquarian energy and join together!