By Amanda Painter

We’re building toward a Full Moon this Sunday, with the Moon in Virgo single-handedly opposing a whole school of fishy planets in Pisces (and that’s not all). If you feel like you’re trying to swim upstream; or like you’re caught in a whirlpool; or maybe like every time you turn around, some seemingly solid part of the world has melted and warped like a Salvador Dali painting, you’re not alone.

Photo by Amanda Painter

For example, just this week I’ve read about an uptick in Canadian citizens being turned away at the U.S. border — including one woman born in Canada to Indian parents, with no flags on her file, turned away while trying to visit a Vermont day spa with two white friends.

She’d had no previous difficulty visiting the U.S. Living as I do in a state sharing a significant border with Canada, and which depends heavily on tourism (especially Canadian tourism), I’m hearing a lot of people express concern about what this might mean for the local economy. I know a few frustrated Canadians scrapping their travel plans to the U.S.

Or I could point to an important article making the rounds about the truly horrific, racist cartoons and ads Theodor Geisel — the beloved Dr. Seuss — once drew. As in, he drew African-Americans like monkeys (or as being for sale), and depicted all Japanese-Americans as just waiting for their moment to attack the U.S. from within during WW II. I had an extensive, thoughtful and thought-provoking conversation on Facebook about what this means for us now in terms of how we regard Seuss’ later work.

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By Amanda Painter

People define ‘freedom’ many different ways: as adult independence; as the liberty granted by a democracy; as a lack of responsibilities and obligations; as sexual openness; as having a choice, and so on. Yet none of those definitions means much if you are not free within your own mind — to think, feel, decide, fantasize, question, grow and love in the ways that are most true for you.

New growth on a Balsam fir; photo by Amanda Painter.

This week, the astrology points us toward a question of freedom; yet it does so with a clear emphasis on how free you feel within your own self.

Today, retrograde Jupiter opposes Uranus (and Eris) in Aries (exact at 8:15 pm EST / 1:15 UTC Friday). Generally speaking, Jupiter-Uranus oppositions are about independence, determination and a desire to release oneself from obligations or restrictions. The signs Aries and Libra emphasize the theme of ‘an individual in a relationship’.

One basic interpretation would be to notice where in your relationships you’re chafing to break away. Or, in projected form, to notice if any of your partners (romantic, business or other) seem to be pushing away or looking for a soft way out of some part of your agreement. Dragging your heels on making a decision could be a clue that you’re having trouble being forthright with yourself about the extra wiggle room you truly want or need.

Yet it’s worth noting that Jupiter is retrograde. This is one of the factors that underscores the idea of “freedom within your own self.” Retrograde planets often signal a phase of review or looking inward. How freely do you acknowledge to yourself your own urges to break away? How often and how strongly does guilt, or a fear of letting others down, overshadow your need to renegotiate duties to liberate some of your time or creative energy?

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By Amanda Painter

This week’s big astrological news is that we’re approaching the second in this season’s pair of eclipses. On Sunday, Feb. 26, the Pisces New Moon (exact at 9:58 am EST / 14:58 UTC) will also be a partial solar eclipse.

Heathrow Airport in 2012; photo by Amanda Painter.

Eclipses often bring surprises. They’re also great events to use as leverage if you need to shift patterns of behavior, move into a new phase of growth or reorient your intended trajectory.

Often one eclipse in the pair seems to be more about embarking on or embracing new territory, while the other resonates more with the idea of releasing what is not working or is no longer needed.

Astrologically speaking, Sunday’s eclipse looks more like the second type. Yet depending on what you’ve set in motion or where you are in the process, it could be that you’re more focused on your new intentions — and what needs to fall away will do so of its own accord. Or you might find yourself being more intentional about choosing to leave something behind.

Interestingly, the Sun and Moon will form their New Moon conjunction while still fairly early in Pisces. This puts them exactly between the centaur planet Nessus and the planet Neptune.

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By Amanda Painter

We’re in an interesting transitional phase, astrologically speaking. You might be feeling it as edginess, or as potential, or as a fear of change, or as an eagerness to move into some new direction in your life. It’s possible you’re witnessing the cultural and political transitions around you and are desperately wondering how your otherwise simple, everyday existence fits into that.

Evidence of the Valentine’s Day Bandit flies atop the Portland Observatory, Portland, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Only you can truly answer that question for yourself, but there are a few interconnected astrological factors right now that could help you get pointed in the right direction. The first is that the Sun is in the final degrees of Aquarius; it will enter Pisces on Saturday at 6:31 am EST (11:31 UTC).

Before that happens, however, the Aquarius Sun makes an interesting, possibly subtle and potentially useful aspect (a sextile) to a rather notorious centaur planet: Pholus in Sagittarius. Pholus is the one associated with runaway chain reactions. Normally that is something to be avoided; however, there are times when it can be very helpful for a seemingly small cause to have a big effect.

Now, for example, might be one of those times.

I say that because we’re right about at the midpoint between eclipses. Saturday afternoon, about six hours after the Sun enters Pisces, the Moon will enter Sagittarius. Roughly 45 minutes later, it will square the Pisces Sun for the lunar last quarter. The last quarter happens halfway between a Full Moon and the next New Moon. In this case, last week’s Full Moon was also a penumbral lunar eclipse; and the Feb. 26 New Moon will be a partial solar eclipse.

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By Amanda Painter

This Friday at 7:33 pm EST (00:33 UTC Saturday) we have a Full Moon in Leo (with the Sun in Aquarius). But this is not just any Full Moon; it is also a penumbral lunar eclipse. And it’s an eclipse whose chart is beautifully illustrating our collective moment.

Detail from a Chenrezig Sand Mandala at the UK House of Commons, during the visit of the Dalai Lama on May 21, 2008. Photo by Colonel Warden/Wikimedia Commons under CC license.

I say this because this opposition of the Sun and Moon is making almost a mandala of aspects. When I printed out the chart and circled the major points in aspect to the Sun and Moon, the impression I got was one of balanced factors all converging on a center point.

Of course, that center point is you. And while some of the aspects to the Full Moon indicate harmony and flow, others suggest a kind of uncomfortable process of continual adjustment. When you put those two types of energy together it can equal some actual progress and movement.

Yet those energies need to be actualized somehow. In other words, the key is for you to be aware enough to engage actively with the representative situations in your life — both personal and collective. Having the Moon near its own North Node (a hypothetical point related to its orbit) tells us that this idea of intentional engagement is a hallmark of this eclipse: North Node eclipses relate to dharma, or to moving forward along your soul’s path of development.

In other words, it’s time to step up.

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By Amanda Painter

With the Sun reaching the midpoint of Aquarius, a ‘fixed’ sign, we reach the middle of this season — ‘fixing’ into place. You might say we’re also watching the new presidential administration taking steps to similarly fix itself into the political and social landscape. Yet our astrology is still leaning more heavily on the mutable signs (which are adaptable) and the cardinal signs (which are about initiative), and socially we seem to be reflecting this energy.

Photo by Amanda Painter, Jan. 21, 2017.

For example, there’s still significant, long-term activity in Pisces and Sagittarius. Yet what seems to be really ringing the bells as we head into the weekend are the planets currently in — or newly entering — the cardinal signs.

This is stoking the imperatives to act and to express ourselves.

All the while, that Aquarius Sun represents (at its best) our consciousness of the need for collective, humanitarian awareness and forward-thinking ideas.

One standout feature of the astrology today into tomorrow is a grand cross in the cardinal signs. This is made up of Eris in Aries (with the Aries Moon, briefly), Vesta in Cancer, Jupiter in Libra and Mercury in Capricorn — all in the 22-24 degree range of their signs.

Grand crosses are considered to be stable patterns, in terms of their energy. Yes, there may be some pressure and confrontation, and this pattern can represent obstacles that need to be overcome. But in cardinal signs, the outlet for that energy and tension is action — and our current cultural situation is nothing if not an open invitation to act, with the Sun serving as a reminder to balance action with responsibility.

It might help to take Mercury, Vesta, Jupiter and Eris as a collection of questions to consider:

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By Amanda Painter

Tomorrow is the Aquarius New Moon: when the Sun and Moon form a conjunction to begin a new lunar cycle. Curiously, the Sun and Moon themselves are not making any major aspects to any major planets; the action seems to be happening elsewhere in the chart, which is an interesting kind of commentary in and of itself.

Jan. 21, 2017, Portland, Maine; photo by Amanda Painter.

For one thing, it’s rather fitting that the sign associated with groups (which is a collective of individuals) is hosting a New Moon whose chart emphasizes events other than the New Moon itself.

I read it as a metaphor for the importance of community awareness even at one’s most introspective moments. For example, events of the past week could be prompting you to do some deep questioning; it’s possible you’ve been drawn into old patterns of fear and anger; maybe you wonder about your effectiveness as one individual in the face of a political machine that is massively larger than you are.

It would be very easy to give up and retreat into the confines of your own mind. Except for one thing: there is just so much energized social and political activism happening right now.

Looking within will give you one view; looking around you will give you another view — one that’s possibly very motivating in its opportunities to get involved. The two forms of awareness have to work together.

So while the New Moon Friday night at 7:07 pm EST (00:07 UTC Saturday) is a natural time to quiet yourself and look inward, it would make a lot of sense if that introspection also points you back outward — to your local community, to the national stage, to global issues — and informs you somehow about how you, as a unique individual, can contribute to the work being done to benefit the common good.

Remember, Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington and its many sister marches was only the beginning. It was a rallying cry; and now the real work must begin. Some of that will be individual work; some of it will be collective. All of it is necessary.

As for the other astrological things happening in the Aquarius New Moon chart, one is that Mercury finally leaves its post-retrograde echo (or shadow) phase several hours before the New Moon. This means that Mercury (in mid-Capricorn) is finally traveling over some new zodiacal territory. If you’ve been dealing with reverberations from its retrograde for the last two-and-a-half weeks or so, you should be able to tie up any loose ends you’re still wrangling. It’s also a symbol of a refreshed mental space, which feels long overdue.

Just twenty minutes after Mercury slides free, Venus in Pisces makes a square to Saturn in Sagittarius. At first glance, this aspect reminds me of something an old friend is fond of saying: “You only truly have what you give!” Whether you’re talking about love, money, compassion or something else, it’s a pretty sound way to approach life. Generosity tends to open the way for receptivity. But stinginess closes you off to receiving just as much as it closes you off to giving — because it’s an energetic cycle.

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Yet, taking a closer look at the signs Venus and Saturn are in, another layer of meaning comes through.

Taking into consideration the social and political context I was just discussing, let me ask you this: are certain friends and loved ones not living up to your moral, political or ideological standards of “love and compassion for all”?

Saturn in Sagittarius can indicate a rigid and self-righteous belief system. Venus in Pisces can be seen as love and compassion for all, all the time. In a square aspect, we get an image of tension looking for a path of integration.

So, where are you at with those concepts? Is your own capacity to love and empathize feeling a little constricted in our hyperpolarized political climate, especially in the Aquarius-ruled environment of digital media? Do you feel like you could use a reminder of what compassion for those who piss you off and push your buttons feels like?

I’m not suggesting that you offer yourself up to bullies and abusers, by any means. Healthy boundaries are important; Saturn can help with that, as can the Aquarius New Moon itself (traditionally ruled, as it is, by Saturn — with modern ruler Uranus sparking progressive ideas). But if you’ve noticed any rigidity in your assessments of people you’re close to, or if your current zealotry on some issues is feeling a little myopic, it’s okay to take a step back and self-assess.

What are your deepest relational ethics, and are you working in alignment with them? Is there any sense of lack within yourself that’s influencing your interactions with loved ones — and if so, can you ease up on that and find where you can allow more generosity? Apropos of the New Moon, a little solo time could give you the space you need to recalibrate.

A brief metaphysical pause from the fray could be just the ticket to feeling ready to re-engage with your community, whatever that looks like for you.