Dear Friend and Reader:

This week’s big astro-news is the total eclipse of the Moon in Libra, which is exact Saturday at 8:06 am EDT (12:06 UTC). This is the complement to the total solar eclipse we experienced on the equinox; pairs of eclipses act like bookends to discrete phases of time with unusual potential, especially if you stay tuned in to how your inner and outer experiences are aligning.

Bethune, the watchdog of Ile du Guesclin, Brittany, France. Photo by Danielle Voirin, who’s contributing a photo a day on the main website.

We’ll be getting your Moonshine horoscopes, written for this eclipse by Len Wallick, to you a little later. Watch for that mailing.

If you have not already listened to last week’s Planet Waves FM, it’s a short, clear introduction to this Libra lunar eclipse, and Eric recommends checking it out. In today’s edition he will continue his discussion of the Moon, but first he’ll expand his investigation of Mercury conjunct Chiron in the chart for the Germanwings crash one week ago.

He noted this morning in an email that, “In many ways, Mercury conjunct Chiron tells the story of our times. Our minds are pushed to the limit, and we have unreasonable expectations placed on us. At the same time, most people feel they have few open avenues for really taking care of ourselves, especially on the level of mental health. They just struggle in desperation.”

Eric will also look at the Libra aspect of the eclipse, including its influence on relationships and what is underneath the concept of a relationship — something more primal, more difficult to understand and closer to the core of what a person is.

We began the week with a grand fire trine, still in effect today, which Eric covered in the Monday Astrology Diary. He writes, “If you want to handle this particular aspect pattern in a constructive way, slow down and pay attention.”

Elsewhere on the Planet Waves website, Cynthia Neil ponders in her Cosmophilia article what she considers to be the most powerful and under-appreciated gift of being human: our power to choose. She writes: “Try to visualize the many possibilities, from a peach to a manatee to a banana slug, that could have been your life, and here you are a conscious human choice-maker.”

Composite image of the solstice lunar eclipse on Dec. 21, 2010, at moonset. Photo taken from Tenerife, Canary Islands, by Itahisa N. González (Grupo de Observadores Astronómicos de Tenerife) / APOD

Part of choosing is being ‘conscious’, yet as Amanda Moreno notes, it can be tricky to bring consciousness to our lives. Astrology is helpful, yet it can also amplify experiences and reactions for good or bad. Things can get complicated; “It’s okay not to ‘know’ everything,” she acknowledges in her latest column.

Judith Gayle also homes in on the idea of consciousness in her latest musings on current events, writing, “Beginning with the witness of our own little slice of consciousness, then, we can begin to free ourselves from pattern, and hold a similar vision of freedom for our brothers and sisters,” adding that when things are confused and confusing, stepping into a larger perspective is key.

In this week’s tarot reading, Sarah Taylor explores what happens when three Eights come together — two from the Minor Arcana, one from the Major Arcana. With them emerges a journey that has been some time in the making, leading you from confusion to clarity and a sense of purpose.

Clarity and consciousness even appears in this week’s sex-and-relationships guest-post, which comes (pun intended) from sex therapist Gia Ravazzotti. With Venus in Taurus, the sky is emphasizing sensual pleasures, and if you have a willing playmate her guide for giving and receiving mindful oral sex is worth a look. (No playmate within reach? Consider the article a jumping-off point for some solo fantasizing.)

Len Wallick’s column will be appearing on the Planet Waves website sometime after noon EDT today, and I’ll have my weekly column to you, with another take on the weekend’s astrology, just after midnight EDT Thursday.

Catch you a little later with Moonshine!

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

P.S. There is still time for you to purchase the Aries birthday reading at the pre-order price of $24.95. It makes a thoughtful, inspiring and truly useful gift for anyone with an Aries Sun, Moon or rising sign.

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $97/year. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Brendan Merritt, Amy Elliott, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno, Casey Smith, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick, Lizanne Webb and Chad Woodward.

Dear Friend and Reader:

We’re fully in the zone between eclipses, and the astrology is giving you a beautiful prompting to open up some space within you for this leg of the journey: Mercury conjunct Chiron, which is exact today in Pisces. It’s entirely possible this aspect is putting you in touch with some old injuries from childhood — messages that you could not do what you most loved to do, for example, or regrets over missed opportunities. Reminders of this material are coming through for a reason.

Let the old stories wash away. Bathers brave cold, clear La Mina Falls in El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico. Photo by Amanda Painter.

In your awareness of these triggers lies the potential to see just how much you’ve actually done, and the potential for some deep healing. I covered Mercury-Chiron in Monday’s Astrology Diary, and the comments section is filling rapidly with anecdotes of shared experience — both the struggles and the triumphs.

Eric’s not sure at this point whether he’ll be able to expand on the astrology later today with a Planet Waves FM broadcast, but if he does, we’ll mail an announcement. If not, we’ll highlight one of his programs that’s perfect for a replay.

In the meantime, if you’re still recovering from Monday or simply could use a cheerleader today, Britta Dubbels divulges her secret to personal happiness and radical self-love in her article from Cosmophilia. She notes that her open inner state did not ‘just happen’: “I’ve worked my butt off for my happiness.”

Sarah Taylor has delayed her tarot reading until today due to teaching some workshops this weekend, so check the main website later this afternoon for that. Amanda Moreno’s latest column considers the need for beliefs and archetypes to evolve. She writes, “As we shift into what Eric has called the ‘post’ 2012 era, I’m grateful for a spiritual framework and language such as astrology that helps us to know the faces of the gods, and relate to them through individual experience.”

In this week’s sex-and-relationships guest-post, writer and photographer David Steinberg recounts the sexual creativity (and eventual reform) engendered by the restrictiveness of his early 1960s college. He concludes that, “The Goddess most assuredly works in strange ways, not the least important of which may be teaching us how to use the difficulty of restrictive circumstances as a means of furthering our personal growth and development.”

Judith Gayle writes this week of the “celestial fireworks” that are punctuating a cultural sea change, as they manifested in a number of disquieting political developments both near and far. In the end, though — befitting the weeks between eclipses — she notes that, “To leave behind what is old, we must allow it expression, to be recognized and discarded.” Amen to that.

As always, visit the Planet Waves website around noon EDT today for Len Wallick’s column. I’ll be back early on Thursday (followed by Len) with the weekend’s astrological highlights, and Eric will have your extended monthly horoscopes for April in the Thursday night issue.

Whether you’re blazing ahead through this inter-eclipse zone or just trying to get your bearings, the cosmos is offering signposts. We’ll do our best to translate them.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

P.S. Speaking of blazing ahead: do you have an Aries Sun, Moon or rising sign? Know and love someone who does? The Aries birthday reading is available for pre-order now, and it makes a great gift.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Whew — you’ve made it through the last of the exact contacts of the Uranus-Pluto square. I say that in all seriousness; the simultaneous creative and destructive energies of these last few years have been a real struggle for many people. As if to underscore the significance of the threshold we’re passing through, this week wraps up with an eclipse.

Moon traverses Sun in a digital composite image of a 2006 total solar eclipse over Turkey. Photo by Stephan Seip/APOD.

Friday’s event will be a total solar eclipse and New Moon in the very last degree of Pisces. This is where the zodiac gathers itself and then prepares to begin anew with the first degree of Aries — the storied, powerful Aries Point. That might sound intimidating, but in truth you’re entering a very fertile space energetically.

Eric will address in Planet Waves FM this week what it means for you to experience both of these significant events — the last Uranus-Pluto square and the Pisces New Moon eclipse — so close together. That program usually posts by about 5 pm EDT Tuesdays.

He opened up the territory in this week’s Monday Diary, where he called this “another of the most astrologically interesting weeks in recent memory,” one that ripples out into the near-distant future. In general terms, Eric suggests you treat this time with respect, and keep looking at both the astrology and the accompanying events for additional information. Tune into Planet Waves FM for more details.

That Friday’s eclipse is happening in Pisces is just one of the many reasons why anyone with a strong Pisces signature in their natal chart (Pisces Sun, Moon or rising sign, or other significant Pisces planets) would do well to listen to the new Pisces birthday reading. It’s getting rave reviews; in fact, a reader named Stacy Katz wrote in recently to let us know she’s so immersed in it, she has already listened to it seven or eight times.

Sarah Taylor’s tarot reading for this week indicates the heat is rising, as she explores the presence of the next two Court Cards in a process that had its genesis in last week’s reading. There are shifts and emergences afoot at the level of how you are expressing yourself as an individual with an emphasis on thought, intellect, beliefs and fire.

In this week’s sex-and-relationships guest-post, New York Times writer Mark Jaffe describes how, when his wife was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, their sex life reversed polarities in the extreme thanks to one of her medications. Along the way to encountering unique insights, they eventually manage to find some equilibrium — and an unexpected shared purpose. In terms of clearing the ground and building anew, this is a perfect story for the last Uranus-Pluto square.

Amanda Moreno writes this week of standing at the precipice of the final Uranus-Pluto square as she receives hints of many things — from possible avoidance of her deeper purpose to being given an opportunity to revisit and say farewell to paradigms she thought she’d left behind already.

In her latest column, Judith Gayle contemplates what a surprising week we just lived through, as it continued to underline the differences between our sociopolitical polarities “in bold cartoon-like strokes.” Considering our understanding that this last wave of the 2012 energies needed to solidify itself in some final paroxysm in preparation for a new set of astrological variables, you probably were not surprised.

Len Wallick looks ahead to Friday’s eclipse in his column for today (which publishes around noon EDT), urging you to let your awareness and, in fact, your physical body record the astrological threshold we’re now standing in.

We’re all on this wild ride together — thankfully.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter