I’ve timed it to release right around the time of the Capricorn Full Moon (call it an induced labour), because I, astrologer that I am, really like the chart for this Full Moon. My li’l baby website might just grow up to be something really special with a chart like this.

Yeah yeah, I know. It’s just a website. But it’s mine, it’s been a long time coming and I’m as pleased as any new mom.

So with all due “Ta-Daah’s” and “Huzzahs”, and without further ado, here it is!

Cheers and blessings to you all, and to me too
Bee

With Mars in Gemini, I require an outlet for that brash, brazen, ballsy voice. Gemini is duality; two public identities. I also hold space for my more deeply considered material, my quietly serious voice, which hasn’t felt quite at home here. When I began this blog it was called ‘Truth is a Crazy Poet,’ and that energy has never shifted. I do like it. It’s part of what I am.

In fact, I love it. Just try to make me stop!

But the truth is, it’s not what I really need to be presenting to folk as a reason to trust me with their hearts, which is what my particular line of work mandates.

I’m not going to hide this part of me away. The blog will still be here at this domain, easily accessible, and my facebook friends will see it. I’ll still post my rants, rah rahs, rhapsodies and riffs along with photographic art.

But! It won’t be the address on my business cards or brochure anymore! That’s a small shift, but it might have big consequences. For starters, it’s a big difference in first impressions, which matter.

Tomorrow is the Full Moon in Capricorn. The Moon will be tightly conjunct Pluto. There will be a massive Grand Cross. Every planet in the zodiac is engaged right now. We’re in the middle of the Cardinal Climax. Our time is up! Choose or lose. What really matters to you?

Tomorrow a window opens. This is my way of jumping through. Big changes can start with small actions that carry great significance. Changing my name was one. Preparing and publishing my new website is another.

Separating my distinct voices into their correct channels feel like the perfect thing to do now.

So, I’m webcited!

More tomorrow. No photos tonight; I’m busy.

What are you doing for the Grand Cross / Full Moon tomorrow?

Down-to-Earth Astrology

The Gulf Oil Volcano packs a heavy emotional wallop for any feeling being; it’s more difficult than ever before to see the bright side and to avoid our fears about the handbasket we seem to be en route to Hell in, dragging whole ecosystems with us.  One way out is through the door we least would choose, painted with letters limned ‘Don’t Go There.’

We all have work to do that we’ve been avoiding; our duty to the planet we are despoiling. Humans have done harm, now humans are called to right it. Yet there seem few practical avenues for outward action. We feel powerless in the face of the global machine.

For now, our real work lies within, to lean our emotional weight to the job of healing the holes in our collective dreamsoul. Not easy, but not un-doable either, if we stay with our bodies and our breath.

Comox Valley June Forecast

We each have a mix of all twelve principles; the Sun sign accounts for a single wedge of the zodiacal pie. All signs are archetypally relevant. For instance, Scorpio’s forecast applies to that within each of us that vibrates to the Scorpio frequency.

Aries: You don’t know where to jump, but you must jump! The fire has ignited, but the fuel burns quickly. You receive no clear guidance, but your gut instinct is accurate. Trust yourself.

Taurus: Your body is the playground for unexpected images and visitations; it’s not comfortable, but neither does it feel wrong. This is a good time to record your thoughts and visions.

Gemini: You are finding the world a more fascinating place than ever, inspired to spin your perceptions into creative expressions. Explore your creative options and surprise yourself.

Cancer: You feel the pain of the planet keenly now, along with grief and nostalgia for a healthier, more caring humankind. Your urgency for change stops you from wallowing in ‘wishing.’

Leo: The power of your muse is potent now, the ideas flow thick and fast, yet the moment of actual inspiration passes without action. Try pounding a pillow; release some energy.

Virgo: You are impacted most deeply by the oil disaster; you’re sure there must be someway you can help. Best thing for you is to sink beneath your thoughts into your memories.

Libra: At last you know how it feels. How astonishing to feel such empathy; your norm is reflective and thoughtful. You’re developing some power of your own, but not ready to unveil it quite.

Scorpio: Scorpio, you are seriously in the zone. Let’s hope your intentions are loving, because you hold power to change the face of humanity right now. You are trusted to choose wisely.

Sagittarius: You feel dazed at the moment, Sagittarius, been looking into too many mirrors. “The light, so bright! The shadow, so bleak!” Everything is exaggerated; trust your friends.

Capricorn: You have a painstaking job right now. You face the adversary and lend your support, seeking solutions with uncanny care, for you see too clearly how very much is at stake now.

Aquarius: You feel reborn, cleansed, excited. Clarity you had forgotten has returned; you’re raring to go. You feel blessed and optimistic, full of visions of real, possible solutions.

Pisces: You are in a ferment! The will to act is powered by revelation while fear cries ‘beware!’ Clear awareness knows balance is needed; stretch greater than you imagine and be.

There are two mutually exclusive, co-existent states of consciousness: Dream and Waking.

Animals are Waking while awake and journey in Dream while asleep. Plants live mostly in Dream; birds, mostly Waking, though both spend periods of time in each state.

In nature, these two realms peacefully co-exist. But with the advent of human consciousness (associated with the sign Aquarius, the Water-Bearer) on Earth, we are creating a new reality here on Earth.

Humans are not like the animals and plants; we have a foot in each world, all the time.

All human art culture is an interweaving of the themes of the Dreaming into Waking reality. The Aquarian archetype suggests that an extra-terrestrial, or galactic consciousness guides humanity, and it would seem that this consciousness has not had the interests of Earth in mind.

So far, the reality we are co-creating has been increasingly Hell-ish, and though we may each find pockets of peace, clarity and abundance of our good (if only at times for some), we cannot truly be a healthy, viable species of life on the planet unless we find a way to co-exist with our fellow creatures in a sustainable way.

We are learning that there are limits to what we may safely do; we are destroying our own habitat along with that of other species.

Now, as Uranus poises on the brink of Aries, we are poised on the brink of consciousness opportunity; literally, enlightenment is at hand. Now it may be time for humanity to individually (and therefore collectively) choose a new way to conceptualize its existence.

The glyph for Aquarius resembles two lightning bolts side by side; Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods to give to humanity, thereby bestowing consciousness on them, is also an Aquarian tale. Astrologically, Aquarius is known as the Awakener. It acts to awaken, heighten and enlighten consciousness in all ways, good and bad (for there are bad, i.e. destructive ways to be conscious).

Currently, the Awakener passes through the final degrees of the 12th principle, Pisces. This is the final resting place of Dream, where everything, including awakening itself is submerged into the dreaming state.

Thursday, Uranus will pass from Pisces into Aries (1st principle), which is the Zero point of the zodiac. It will retrograde back into Pisces and then move forward again, and each transit will bring potential for shocks, but this first one is liable to be critical. It takes place the day of the Full Moon in Sagittarius, indicating that our collective emotional body will be feeling expansive and open to new ideas.

In Aries, everything begins for the first time. Our collective consciousness is poised to receive a lightning strike that may surge the zombies into a mad search for brains.

“Brains!!” we’ll cry, as we suddenly realize that we have been operating on automatic, without using our brains at all. But then, kabam, here we are…

“Igor, the brain please.” The recycled brain settles into its bony bowl, the switch is thrown, and ….

Yes, that is a good image for Uranus into Aries. The mad Dr. Frankenstein, an Aquarian himself, poises to close the circuits that click the brain into the ‘awake’ position.

Pisces is a realm of life-after-death, fantasy and nightmare (and subjectively real for all that), while Aries represents the triumphal victory of individual existance. Life burst forth from the Void, against all odds, yes!

Mars can be likened to the sperm that successfully fertilized the egg, its very existence implies supreme victory over millions of competitors. Mars can only exist if it has already succeeded in existing (if you can wrap yourself around that moebius thought).

Mars is thought to be associated with competitiveness and the need to fight for existence, but it is more accurate to say, Mars shows where we have already successfully competed in the universal sweepstakes derby.

We’re winners; we have to be, or we wouldn’t be here, riding these amazing computerized luxury vehicles (we call them ‘bodies’ rather dismissively), equipped with technology so advanced that our human attempts to duplicate it remain (so far) rather pathetic by comparison.

Think about how the body really works, how complicated it is compared to even the most advanced computer – it is to laugh.

Uranus’ entry into Aries has the potential to awaken us to the fact that we have already won the race. It’s all good from here on in, if we let it be. Maybe we can start to appreciate what we have, starting with our own precious successful bodies.

Maybe we can transform our conception of our existence away from something rare and precious that we must continually struggle and battle enemies in order to keep (which is the perspective of the sperm) into what we really feel in our Aries selves: exuberant delight at having succeeded at existing beyond our wildest imaginings.

Look at us! We are alive!

Aries is the sign of action; it represents the will to exist, and with our existence, to be active. Mars is energy, purpose, momentum, urgency and drive. When we transform our awareness of that part of ourselves that is represented by the Aries vibration, including Mars and the Ascendant, we can act in the direction of our urgency, instead of acting counter to our own interests, ie, doing battle with ourselves.

Saturn opposing Uranus in peace, justice and harmony-loving Libra will help; Mars, ruler of Aries, passing over Saturn and opposing Uranus in its sign, will help by making sure that something happens; Jupiter, moving in opposition to Saturn, and conjuncting Uranus, will help to balance and expand.

Most of all, we can’t forget the astrological elephant in the room, Pluto in Capricorn t-squaring the whole bunch.

This is nothing short of potential divine intervention, if we allow ourselves individually (and therefore collectively) to be reached by the divine intervenors, if we allow ourselves to be touched, rocked, awakened.

Some of us won’t have a choice. Some will dig in resisting; it’s our habit after all. But it doesn’t take a majority to start a revolution, anymore than it takes a majority of sick people to start an epidemic. The tipping point is sooner than you think. Watch for radical new inventions that change our social structure.

This transition has sent me into an ivory tower of smoke and mirrors, where I feverishly prepare my own consciousness for the strike of the lightning.

What do I need to do?

Breathe.

What else do I need to do?

Breathe.

Anything else? There must be something!

Oh, right. Breathe. Breathe.

Breathing.

Trust matters when Mercury is retrograde. This is a time we have to have faith in each others’ good intentions, because it is so very easy to misconstrue. When Mercury is retrograde, our mental functioning effectively turns inside out, so that the words we say and hear actually travel along different pathways in their swift journey toward our grasp than they normally do. Meanings can be missed that way.

A good way to learn to adapt to Mercury retrograde by using this time to be with yourself, take stock, turn your attention inward, where it naturally wants to go now anyway. Re-read old journals, old poetry, remember the ones who have gone before.

Exploring your family’s genealogy is easier than it has ever been, online; websites like ancestry.ca make a fascinating retrograde Mercury pastime.

I found some poems I wrote almost exactly thirteen years ago and I’ll type in here. These poems feel like a very retrograde Mercury discovery for me, as they speak to me exactly what I need to hear now, and also what I am learning from other sources. It’s a nice mental completion, a filling-in-of-the-blanks, or like shining a flashlight on the dark side of a globe to reveal its full round shape.

A Retrograde Mercury period can be a period of profound mental growth, if we are willing to allow that; of course, it is always a choice. We can use the time to endlessly wank on facebook or pick arguments or curse about defective technology or make dire predictions about what’s going to happen. Those are also easy pathways to take during this retrograde period. If that’s what you want.

Me, I’ll go the other way for a change, and see what happens. If the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same things and expect different results, then the definition of sanity is to continue to seek alternative ways to generate the results we want. Mercury is the messenger; it’s also the magician, if we create our reality with our thoughts and expectations (and we do, but perhaps not precisely in the way everybody thinks).

These untitled poems were a part of a daily project I did for a year and a half or so when I channeled a little poem every day. Channeled meaning I listened for the words rather than thinking of them, and they came in a steady stream. Earlier tonight I found a little notebook that started with these:

1.
Singing new and freshly born
weeping from your mother
Swimming from the waters warm
your sisters and your brothers

Let this be the brand-new day
you called for in the night
when lost and lonely was your way,
both past and future bright

A blink ‘tween wakings was the lull,
a break to cleanse your mind
a time to languish, briefly null
and, briefly, deaf and blind

Yourself you are again, as ever,
never more to lie a seed
in soil; wind and weather
have strengthened heart and eye.

2.
Shrieking echoes in the night
sobbing pain and soul’s delight
no difference is there, one from each
Though one would, high on soap-box, preach
its prescription for the world
to always laugh, be never hurled
from center into pain so deep
its only exit is through sleep.

Pain and joy are twinned like brothers
one cannot exist ‘thout other
to accentuate its state
What use ’tis to resist or hate?
There is no fate nor destiny
to overcome your need to wait

3.
This universe unfolds as planned
and none can hurry god or man
Your heart’s a rosebud, tender, growing
never shrinking, never owing
ought to others of its bliss

A heart’s an end, each in its own
self, and owes its duty only
to the children lost and lonely
waiting to be called to light
by heart’s desire shining bright

The unborn seek a home in thee
you can be more much more, you see
Those shining stars, these faerie sprites
shall live in thee, thy heart’s delight

4.
Faith is not forever lasting
sometimes feasting, sometimes fasting
when your smile from heartlight grows
then shall abundance freely flow

Cycles are a part of life, not free
can you be from all strife
until the day of earth ascending
planetary force transcending

But now is when you needs must live
and in this moment shall you give
a meaning to your rocky way
you stumble here and now, today
because you close your eyes and dream
of times not yet, of might-have-been

If y’all like these, I’ll post the rest during this retrograde period.

Cheerio, and happy Mercury juju to you. No photos this time, Mercury prefers words!

Astrology is a circuit diagram of the human brain. No matter what astrological system is used, it can be seen to work; this is why virtually every culture has developed its own symbolic system relating to the movement of the planets relative to the Earth and relevant to humanity. Astrology is a complex and powerful system for understanding the nature of reality.

The different systems of astrology (ie Vedic, Mayan, Chinese astrology and more) use the same basic circuits, but with different software and pathway construction. Those physicists who examine astrology with an open and inquiring mind (articles in astrological journals written by former physicists tell the tale) tend to become astrologers themselves. They must write about their findings in astrological rather than scientific journals because by embracing astrology they discredit themselves and lose the respect of their scientific peers.

It’s a sad and strange schism because astrology is a fascinating study. The system has a depth of complexity that can lead to great discoveries, profound epiphanies as to the nature of this grand creation.

Here’s a Big Thought for you:

The earth invented computers before humans did. Those computers are our brains. All creatures have these complex computer brains, but ours happen to be bestest, fastest.

The question ‘is the planet Earth a living, self-aware, sentient organism’ can have only one answer, and that is ‘of course’. This explains so many mysteries of biology and evolution. The Earth is itself an enormous computer, as much vaster than our individual capacities as the relative physical scales would suggest.

If we are sentient and self-aware, it can only be a combination of massive hubris and puny vision to imagine that this great interconnected linked-up complex whole system would be somehow less intelligent, less sentient, less anything than we.

So, Earth is sentient, let’s accept that. Evolution can therefore be seen to purposeful and guided, though the motivations and consciousness of a planetary intelligence cannot possibly be compared to that of an individual mind. It is far too vast. It’s like trying to compare one of the original Apple computers to the World Wide Web and all of the individual servers and information flow that is included it, always changing and full of apparent chaotic flux yet still moving forward.

So, why astrology? I postulate that Earth (I use ‘she’, but She has no preference) needed a way to communicate to these new artificial intelligences she created from her own substance. She is our Mother in the most literal way. The human species has been intelligently designed by the planet herself, and the planet herself has designed, also intelligently, a way to communicate with us.

Our stories, archetypes, myths, beliefs, reactions, actions, translations, interpretations, thoughts, emotions, are all impulses moving through the circuitry of the greatest computer network of them all. An astrology chart is a map of space from the point of view of the Earth. Our human systems of understanding this map developed as they did because that’s the way they were meant to develop, as intended by the vast intelligence which physically contains us.

Really think about it, and your mind will blow.

Who designed the computer that is Earth? Well, perhaps We did, and by ‘We’ I mean a collective entity which is the sum of all points of view anywhere and anywhen, potential or actual, including planetary intelligence, solar intelligence, galactic, cosmic intelligence. We are Us, the great collective symphony of “I Am.”

Intelligence is a feature of life; all matter is predisposed toward the development of intelligence. It’s so simple.

Everything balances. It’s a giant mystery that works, a dance of intelligence, a grand creative inbreath and outbreath, a donut shaped choreographed unfolding in which the inner becomes the outer, which becomes the inner, over and over again in grand cycles. Live long enough, and you will see it clearly.

Collectively, this We/Us entity must be the greatest self-aware computer ever or even possible (since it comprises the substance of everything.)

It stands to reason that intelligence would seek to know itself, and that it would also seek to reach out to other copies of itself, to exchange information. That’s what computers do, or their users (who are also us); they exchange information.

The system of astrology that I use (and designed, in some part) aspires to obey mathematical laws of symmetry and logic. For example, all equations must balance. Everything in astrology has an equal and an opposite, which represent two sides of one coin.

Everything balances, everything exists in relationship to everything. Different sets of opposites are structured to relate to each other through dynamic and passive linkages called aspects.

Perhaps the most fascinating and useful thing of all about astrology is, it has the scope to provide answers to our personal Great Questions, such as this one:

Who am I?

One answer to that, for myself, is this:

I am a speaker of truth with a job of teaching to do. This is shown by my Gemini Midheaven Mars opposite Saturn in Sagittarius at the nadir. There is a lot more to that particular question, though: the answer is both simple and complex. I can say, I am a daring explorer and pioneer of love (8th house Sun conjunct Venus in Aries), and I can also also say I am profoundly shy and fearful (Virgo rising, 8th house Sun, Scorpio North Node, Moon widely conjunct Pluto and opposed by Chiron).

Understanding the reasons for my internal contradictions and how to accept and resolve them has brought me the comfort of self-love and helped me to release myself from the programming I’ve received from a homogenized society that seeks to reduce everything to a formula, that expects people to be, act and desire pretty much the same things. Well, Uranus moving into Aries next month is going to change that up pretty fast.

The truth is, we are not at all the same; each human is a unique expression of Self, and our primary work is to discover what it is we came here to express and then to begin to express it in our own best way. This alone makes astrology worth learning.

Beyond the personal, though, astrology is equally useful in understanding and predicting the grand unfolding of human history. Any astrologer worth her salt knew exactly when the economy would crash. I called it years ago, but like most astrologers, I live under the radar on the fringes of society. My chosen profession is universally condemned by the established order as a fraudulent means of bilking gullible fools for their cash. I am routinely annoyed by how often intelligent thinkers whose opinions I otherwise respect will casually say things like, “it’s as obviously fake as astrology.”

I’m annoyed because the comments are based in ignorance, and I have Mars in Gemini on the Midheaven, and professional thinkers have no business being so intellectually lazy. Science has spared no venom in painting these giant damning letters over the collective foreheads of astrologers, but when one examines what it is that they are condemning, it is clear that they are speaking about horoscope columns, not actual astrology.

It’s true that I write horoscope columns, and in oracular fashion they are often relevant and meaningful to certain people. I write them because I am asked to, and I have fun writing them, and I do try to be accurate. Still, there are not twelve categories of people, there about six billion, give or take, and each one has a unique circuit diagram.

I advise that you take horoscope columns, including my own, with a sense of lightness and humour; they are meant to entertain, not to guide. Still, the newspaper horoscope is all that most people know about astrology, hence the general scarcity of astrological students and clientele.

It’s a rare astrologer who can earn a living from his work, and those who do are, on the whole, more than a bit hesitant to specify how they make their living at cocktail parties. I don’t hesitate, but I do have that Midheaven Mars; perhaps that’s why I don’t get invited to cocktail parties!

The economic crash was predictable because last year, Pluto moved into Capricorn, and that is one serious reality check, a time when the ground rises up to smack us in the bare feet and the piper demands payback for all the un-reality cheques we wrote during Pluto’s turn through wasteful, expansive Sagittarius just past.

Global warming and the environment moved front and center in the public view at that time as well, all of which is perfectly congruent with the meaning of Pluto (fixed water, the force of deep hidden truth, denied power, where we try to hide how we feel about what we are really doing) in Capricorn (cardinal earth, reality, struggle, no short cuts, hard work and discipline, taking responsibility, doing what is necessary).

The cycles of the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) in combination with the faster moving bodies, when examined in depth, describe in great detail what we are collectively working on, struggling with, learning and benefiting from right now.

Unlike the physical and conceptual sciences, astrology is holistic, which means that in addition to mental concepts (the air element) and practical realities (the earth element), it describes emotions (the water element) and the creative impulse, or spirit (the fire element).

Because of this, the mechanics of astrology cannot simply be mentally studied, they must be experienced to be fully understood and utilized for growth. The best to teach this is in person. I’ve been offering classes in Courtenay since last fall, but generating students has been a hard slog, and currently my classes number zero.

It’s not anybody’s fault, though, not even science’s. Astrology’s lack of acceptance up until now has also been described by the movement of these great forces. Astrology, because it is associated with Uranus/Aquarius/fixed air, belongs in our collective blind spot, the place we can’t seem to notice until it strikes us with lightning out of the blue. Surprise!

This blind spot is described by the force or planet Uranus, which is about to move into the cardinal fire sign Aries. This is the beginning point, the first sign of the zodiac, and this ingress will signify a rebirth of consciousness regarding how astrology is regarded, for such transits tend to speak to great collective trends.

Pluto and Saturn are also involved; the three forces, Uranus, Pluto and Saturn form over the next year or so what is being called by astrologers ‘The Cardinal Climax’, and with the wild card Uranus involved, how it will resolve can’t easily be predicted.

It could range from global disaster to a grand renaissance of the heart; the real key will be how we as individuals respond and communicate with each other during this time.

Understanding and correctly applying Astrology is the key to not only surviving hard times to come but transforming the human paradigm on a mass scale and thereby possibly avoiding the looming global disaster by teaching us all how to ‘just get along already!’

I welcome lucid discussion with astrological haters (members of the science religion). Why fight? Let’s see what the two systems can offer each other. Science has provided me with astonishing astrological insights. Why shouldn’t the reverse be true?

Fire: creativity, inspiration, excitement, energy, motivation, expansion
Earth: usefulness, substance, beauty, organization, containment
Water: flow, changeability, impressionability, mystery, solubility
Air: information, communication, ideation, abstraction, relation

To understand a sign or a planet or a house, look at its elemental rulership or association.

From this we can know that Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, has a fundamentally abstract / mental nature. It isn’t a ‘thing’ in itself; it is the idea of a thing, such as the abstraction of freedom. Aquarius’ nature is expressed in symbols, abstractions, representations. The sudden changes and revolution it famously brings are generated by ideals and ideas of a new and better way. There is always a new and better way.

Aquarius is the fixed phase of the air element:
Fixed: stable, unchanging, pure, timeless

Therefore, the ideals represented by Aquarius are the ones we would recognize as timeless, universal ‘truths held to be self-evident’. Ideals like ‘freedom and justice for all’ are Aquarian. Love is an Aquarian ideal. The great love stories, grand epics, archetypal symbolism, the old tales oft repeated all are Aquarian.

Violence and war (in the name of belief) is an unfortunate and too common side effect of Aquarian revolutionary idealism.

Aries is the cardinal phase of the fire element:

Cardinal: beginning, birth, emergence, initiation

Aries is the sign of self; that which is born into awareness, that we think of as ‘me’.  Anything that bears the Aries signature shoves its way into reality in a heedless rush. Its imperative is to exist, no matter what, and it will brook no opposition.

Yet it’s truly innocent in the manner of all brand new things; from its point of view it is simply bursting forth into life from what it perceives to be a void. From nothing emerges something, but the reality into which it emerges is crowded with pre-existing life.

Competition and struggle is the Aries way because there are about a billion things trying to come into existence in any given moment. Life is profligate. Competition doesn’t have to mean war or battle, though; it is most simply the drive to happen, to surpass one’s limitations, to succeed in existing and creating a space for this new self.

Uranus’ ingress into Aries in late May is going to bring about some very unexpected (and quite likely frightening to many) and radical changes; Uranus will be squaring Pluto over the next couple of years, and it’s in a brand new cycle. Great changes are afoot.

We each are the possessor of a unique, great big smart brain full of ideas. We have the power and the choice to choose which ideas we apply the power of our desire (Aries) to. What do we want to believe in? The inevitability of war and conflict, or the power of love to transform the universe?

Fact: the last ingress of Uranus into Aries was at the beginning of the Great Depression.
Fact: Uranus and Pluto were in square to each other then, too

There is a battle underway, all right. It’s happening primarily in our collective heads; there are no possible winners, and the losers are everybody as long as we keep up the fight. The only possible path through this crisis that doesn’t involve more of the same old boring bloodshed is this: that we each, and all, drop our arms and surrender our defenses, make a choice to open our hearts to the grand ideal of Love and learn to listen to the planet. She’s talking to us now.

Real astrology is another matter. But horoscopes are to astrology what the alphabet is to the English language. Fun to play with.

Down-to-Earth Astrology

by Phoenix Wolf-Ray

Times are tensing up now, folks. The Saturn-Pluto square has released its grip slightly, but the Saturn-Uranus opposition is tightening up, leading up to the big t-square (already in effect but not as strong as it will become). These are perilous times, even more so than usual, and all our cherished (and oppressive) structures are liable to be shockingly disturbed in unexpected ways. And Uranus hasn’t entered Aries yet—that will happen in May. Interesting times indeed!

The passing of the inadequate (if better than nothing) US Health Care Bill is an example of a shocking (yes, it IS a f*&$#g big deal thank you, Joe Biden) change in the structures we take for granted, as is the rabid reaction of the wing-nuttery. Locally, we find ourselves straddling the fine tense line between breezy optimism and hidden terror, and we focus on good works to help alleviate it. What else can we do?

Comox Valley April Forecast

Earth’s sign (always opposite the Sun’s sign) is given in parentheses. Read both, as well as the forecast for your Rising sign, for the full picture:

Aries (Libra): Your energy and drive is rising with the sap, but those you are reaching to for support are resisting. What’s up with them? You don’t want to fight; you just want to DO it!

Taurus (Scorpio): You take things very seriously, strive for balance and fairness, moving at your own pace. When pressured, you resist, but not to be contrary. It has to feel right.

Gemini (Sagittarius): There’s a party in your head! So exciting & confusing, things happening behind the curtain, you need a mirror to see it all. That’s what relationships are for. Trust.

Cancer (Capricorn): A new wave of energy enlivens your space, but it’s not helping you feel better. You wish to be up for new things, but you feel old and tired, even if you’re young.

Leo (Aquarius): You feel good about spring, but wish things would move just a little faster. Your keyword is desire; do let it move you forward but be aware that your baggage is heavy.

Virgo (Pisces): So close, so far away is the theme. Flashes of vision show what’s possible, but the real world isn’t ready for so much love. You feel alone and wishing to serve.

Libra (Aries): Yes, it’s a trick question. Every ‘yes’ has a shadow of ‘no’, you are split and undecided. Your heart is whole, but the jury is out and it’s hard to muster the motivation.

Scorpio (Taurus): Exquisite agony is pleasure, and you are a connoisseur. Such times may be hard for others, but you are at home in these deeps. You know that what’s coming is good.

Sagittarius (Gemini): On the surface, you’re a happy camper; the keyword is ‘distraction’. Nothing bothers you. This might be a worry, except, oh… look at the shiny thing!

Capricorn (Cancer): Your sense of destiny is especially strong now. You see the whole picture and you hold the keys, but—hey! Somebody stole them! Now you have to start all over.

Aquarius (Leo): Tense expectation increases; you can see release coming and it will be SO GOOD! Take care that your love is inclusive (and not exclusionary), or it could be SO BAD.

Pisces (Virgo): Murky times; your dreams have darkened but still contain the seed potential of hope. Your work seems unimportant, but it is crucial: dream a way through this mess.

Phoenix Wolf-Ray is an astrologer, singer-songwriter and metaphysician; she is available for private astrology readings by appointment, and for card readings at Winds of Change every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 12 and 5 pm. Email phoenix.wolfray@gmail.com to ask about astrology classes every second Monday at 7pm.

Time to start new things, discard old ones. For every new thing, an old thing has to go away to make room for it. No, that’s not an argument for mandatory retirement, or for older folk to ‘know their place’ (quite the contrary). We’re all the gods of our own creations, and we’re not here to make way for others, but to maximize the potential of our own selves. There is room for everybody, even if we have to make room for ourselves by inventing new spaces into which to unfold.

That’s what I’m working on. Creating a niche for myself, and I gotta tell you, it isn’t easy. I’m a work in progress, and when I figure it out, I’ll let you know.

One thing I’m letting go of is my astrology class, at least in its current form. Yes, sad to say the air has been slowly bleeding out of that particular balloon, and after several weeks in a row of non-attendance and non-response, I am taking the hint. It doesn’t mean I’m letting go of teaching astrology, but I am going to shift focus for a while. Roll with the changes.

As an Aries Sun person, I have a birthday coming up in the next few weeks, so this is my rebirthing time, and traditionally I have started new things on or around my birthday, so I have a grace period to work out what it’s going to be. The theme of the new year.

The Solar Return chart for my birthday is exciting, though. Sun in the tenth house of career (at the same time as my Progressed Sun is transiting over the midheaven into the tenth house), Moon in Aquarius, fiery Leo Rising with Mars on the Ascendant. So, it (yawn) should be my year this year.

Yup. So why my lack of enthusiasm? I can’t lie, I’m in the doldrums, Aries sun or no. Getting out of bed is a chore lately. As once-exciting but no-longer-new things seem to be fizzling, and new things aren’t quite igniting yet, I’m having a hard time connecting to my motivation. Oh yeah. Life. Ho hum, says the tired old thing in my brain.

Still, there’s always energy for something new, once I get a bead on what it’s going to be. I’ll just have to keep on keeping on until then.

In the meantime, here are the lyrics to the song I wrote about Aries (you can find the song itself in the player in the sidebar as soon as I upload it):

The Aries Song

Aries woman, Aries man, warrior-born, you are a firebrand.
You ask no quarter, nor give it, your goal in life is to live it.
The only battle worth winning is escape from conditioning -
to free your shining star.

Okayyy…. I’ll be back to it real soon. Real soon, now. The Sun’s in Aries, after all. And I’m due for a rebirth on the 9th of April.

This could be the beginning of something utterly unprecedented in my own life and in human history. Then again, it might be more of the same old, same old stuff on a greater scale. It’s entirely up to me and up to us on a macro / world / political level.

There is something coming up this year that astrologers have been calling the ‘Cardinal Climax’ and I’ve been talking about it to my astrology students for a few months now. It’s an opportunity for a profound new awakening, or perhaps disaster of epic proportions. Yikes!

The Cardinal Climax is a long-term cycle that began with Pluto’s entry into the cardinal earth sign Capricorn, back in 2008, and that signaled a global economic crisis and a collective wake-up around the planetary ecological / climate crisis. Capricorn represents the reality check, the place where the ground meets the falling object, the real bottom line. We’ve been struggling with that one for a while.

Most recently, Saturn (which, with an approximate 30-year cycle, moves much more quickly than creepy-crawly Pluto’s 240 years around the sun) moved into cardinal air Libra this autumn, squaring Pluto. Truth, justice, balance, retribution, struggle, and death and endings are the theme of the day. We are collectively immersed in this particular transit right now, and it’s a harsh one.

But the real kicker waits for late spring when Uranus (with an 80 year cycle) moves into cardinal fire, Aries. Aries is the first sign of the cycle and represents new beginnings, birth, and explosive emergence of life from the void. Uranus has been dissolved in the final stages of Pisces for a while now, and as it is the Awakener, the principle of sudden, shocking, unexpected change, its transit into Aries is bound to rock and roll us all.

The ruler of Aquarius, Uranus holds the potential for a rebirth of true loving global Heart, a new consciousness of connectedness and kinship among all life forms. It also holds the potential for global conflict of unprecedented proportions—a revolution that explodes in violence, an uprising against oppression and global tyranny.

We each have personal responsibility, which (hey, I’m an Aries ya know) means me. That’s right; I’m the one who can change the world. And so are you. We are each and all the one and only being responsible for our personal reality. Even if we feel powerless and victimized by all the Big Deals going on behind the scenes, somewhere in the back rooms of our own heads, our own personal sordid compromises and deals with the devil are our own place to start.

Until we clean up our own basements and back rooms and call on our own corporate leaders to clean up their acts (you know, stuff like health and finances and dietary / exercise change, walking our talk, being in integrity with ourselves, crying our tears and feeling our fears, facing our demons and recognizing their faces in our own mirrors, all that boring yet critically important crap), we don’t have a single leg to stand on when it comes to finger pointing ‘out there’.

We’re all living in a glass house this year, and it’s time to pull back the pointing finger and breathe our own breath, keep our own feet on the ground and stand up for what we personally require, giving what we are personally empowered to give, and see what changes from there.

We might be very, very surprised. Strike that: we are guaranteed a surprise, with Uranus’ movement into Aries, but the more personal responsibility we take for our own situations, the more we’re going to like the surprises we receive. The world is becoming ever more fractally complex, new and exciting, and who knows what waits down this shining highway?

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling positively upbeat about this coming climax. Oh yeah. It all starts with this breath, inhale, exhale, this body, muscles shifting and moving, this skin, sensing, touching, this heart, beating.

Nice. Happy New Year, new decade, new life to us all. And bright, grateful blessings to the year we have just been through. What a ride it was, with the full range of joy and trauma, as Saturn’s square to Pluto manifested in the death of our dear TemPeSt Gale. My photos in this article are from that terrible time, showing just how far behind I’ve gotten in blogging. That will change, or so I intend.

TemPeSt was killed on the day the Saturn-Pluto square was exact, providing Hornby Island (and possibly the world, for who knows what she could have become had she been allowed to blossom unplucked?) with a crisis of 9/11 proportions.

In fact, the last contact between Saturn and Pluto was back in 2001 when the opposition between Saturn in Gemini (the planet of buildings and financial authority in the sign of the twins) and Pluto in Sagittarius (the planet of deep, compressed emotions such as rage and terror in the sign of religious fanaticism and dogma) blew a hole in the world as we knew it.

It was a dark and terrible time, as the photos above illustrate, but as dark times do, it passed. The memories remain along with all the footage of her music and poetry, performance and vitality. In a sense, TemPeSt lives on in more than mere memory, for the internet and the technology of audio and video recordings keeps her alive and in our eyes and ears, as well as the she that will always live in our hearts.

2009 was a beautiful and potently positive year for me personally, aside from that hole blown in it in November. So many of my dreams and desires have come true, so many openings are flowering, I am deeply grateful for my life now.

Blessings to you all in this new year, new decade, new life. Blessed be to us all.