There is, we are often told, an appropriate time and place for everything. The problem with that aphorism is that you cannot always control or choose the right time or the proper place. The result is usually one sort of discomfort or another.

When events precipitate unexpectedly or more rapidly than anticipated, even the best laid plans can leave you unprepared. Then you are confronted by the uneasy feeling of being rushed, or even swept away.

In other cases, you are faced with having done all you can while still feeling compelled to wait. That’s usually when you need to hold the tension rather than force matters from discomfort into distress.

Going into and through this weekend, it may not always be comfortable, but it will be possible to make adjustments and exercise astute judgements to put yourself in the best time and place — for both yourself and everybody with whom you are involved. At least that’s the indication of astrology as we enter the final leg of our current lunation (the period of time from one New Moon until the next), with the last quarter phase of the Moon just before 10:28 pm EST Sunday (03:27:46 UTC Monday).

Since the subject is the Moon, the first order of business is to be aware of your feelings. Check in with yourself regularly. If you have the sensation of being on pins and needles, anticipate and plan for the earliest time and best place to constructively release any tension that has been pent up inside for a week or more. If, on the other hand, you are running, dancing or paddling as fast as you can just to keep up, remember to keep your head up. Look actively for every chance to rest and collect your thoughts.

The written readings for all 12 signs of Vision Quest are available for instant access, and Eric is working on the audio astrology and rune readings! Order all 12 signs here, or select individual signs here.

Remember also to consider the feelings of others. We are all human. We all live under the same Moon. Yet, not everybody is feeling the last furlong of our current lunar cycle the same way you are.

Some are exhausted. Others have been reined in and are champing at the bit. The one thing we all are likely to have in common over the next several days, however, is some degree of an emotional time.

Hence, endeavor to put yourself in the appropriate time and place with regards to others as well. Among other things, that would mean not forcing issues any more than absolutely necessary.

Rather, offer options as a roundabout way of also providing vital information. When you see anybody hanging their head, think about offering some encouragement. The results could repay your considerate gestures beyond calculation.

Even though one person’s stress is another person’s stimulus, it is possible to be together in the right time and place for everybody in your circle of life now. To make that happen is not likely to be any easier than bringing the optimum situations about for yourself. Nonetheless, the surest way assure your comfort and reduce your stress going into a new week and month will be to attend to that of others, so that we can all round the bend and finish the last stretch of this eventful lunation together.

Leave the rat race to the rats. It’s the human race that really counts.

Offered In Service

If you point at a wall made of bricks and mortar and randomly ask people what type wall it is, most will call it a brick wall. Rarely will anybody mention what holds the bricks together. In perceptual practice, the mortar is often taken for granted and hence is functionally invisible.

So it is for many people in the world, and also for some notable objects in astrology. Among the people most commonly taken for granted and rendered all but invisible, the largest group is women.

The last century or two has seen some progress in many places as regards to women’s most basic rights. Even so, the default cultural position worldwide overwhelmingly marginalizes the female half of the human race — despite the fact that it is women who have nearly always served as the mortar holding things together.

Whether at the tribal level or in more advanced industrial nations, economic, political or military power is (through physical advantage or institutionalized discrimination) conferred mostly to men. However, no army, no political system and no economy could possibly come together (or endure) without the role women play in continuing and cohering the human race. Every soldier has a mother, and often a sister or a wife as well. The same holds true for every tycoon, president and potentate.  

Unsurprisingly, the first four objects discovered in the main belt of (mostly) asteroids between Mars and Jupiter are named after mythical female deities who functioned to hold things together in the ancient Greek and Roman cultural traditions. Meaningfully discovered on the very first day of the 19th Century, there was Ceres — to this day meaningfully designated by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) number one. After that (in rapid order) came Pallas (MPC #2), Juno (#3), and Vesta (#4).

Time and again, the ancient myths (still serving as a significant part of western civilization’s heritage) demonstrated how those goddesses were disregarded or degraded at the peril of the good-old-boy system, which emulated the cultures creating those stories. Jupiter’s sense of entitlement was met in kind by Juno.
Mars consistently got his backside kicked by Pallas Athena. Ceres literally held dominion over life on Earth, and Vesta conferred the moral legitimacy of home and hearth to what would otherwise be exercises of raw and irredeemable power.

The written readings for all 12 signs of Vision Quest are available for instant access, and Eric is working on the audio astrology and rune readings! Order all 12 signs here, or select individual signs here.

With the ingress of Ceres into Pisces on Thursday at about 1:40 pm EST (18:39:51 UTC) comes as good a time as any to renew your appreciation of the goddess energies of the sky, and of the women of Earth who carry on courageously to keep the sky from crashing down on us all.

It will be worthy to note how Pallas recently entered Aquarius as if to take the baton from Ceres in the sign of the collective. It would be appropriate to observe Vesta moving through Aries towards Uranus, as if to mediate and bridge the gradually widening Uranus-Pluto square. You would also very probably find reason to give thanks for how Juno’s Scorpio conjunction with Mars this last weekend might well have correlated with things holding together (against all odds) for you.

Indeed, if there is anything to astrology, right about now would be a good time to be grateful for those who give birth, so as to keep mortal humans in touch with humanity’s capacity to imagine (and take inspiration from) the immortal. If you have a sister, there is no time better than the present to appreciate the parallel universe she represents. Most of all, these days — when the foremost (and nominally female) members of the layer of mortar between Mars and Jupiter seem to be taking a crucial symbolic hand in things — would be an excellent opportunity to actually see both the divine and mortal woman in yourself, all around you, and in the Earth itself.

For without both the tangible and symbolic representations of the feminine in this world, we would only have a useless pile of bricks. The time has come to no longer take that fact for granted.

Offered In Service 

For those who play poker, a “full house” is a hand of high value. It combines three of a kind with a pair, and wins against anything but four of a kind or a straight flush. For the day or two immediately preceding and following the Leo Full Moon this weekend, the sky is offering something of a full house of its own.

When the Aquarius Sun opposes the Full Leo Moon just before 8:46 pm EST Saturday (01:45:42 UTC Sunday), there will be two other aspects — both exact to the degree, and both involving key points in the lunar orbit.

Together those aspects plausibly constitute three of a kind because all three have the Moon in common. One of those aspects will be retrograde Jupiter precisely conjunct the ascending lunar node (one of two points where the Moon’s orbit intersects with the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun). The other will find Uranus just as precisely opposed to the lunar apogee: otherwise known as Black Moon Lilith (BML), the point where the Moon’s orbit is furthest from Earth. 

Shortly before this weekend’s Full Moon there will also be a major planet ingress: Venus enters Capricorn on Saturday at 20:31:27 UTC. Then, on the heels of the Leo Full Moon, Mercury will station direct at 5:50 pm EST (21:49:36 UTC) Monday. You could definitely call that a pair of astrologically significant events. Hence, if you allow 48 hours or so to be a short enough time to constitute a single celestial ‘hand’, the next several days could be of high value for you. But first, you need to play your cards right.

You might want to consider the Leo Full Moon one card that is ‘showing’ face up on the table. As with all Full Moons it will reflect the Sun’s light from the entire side facing Earth, and rises when the Sun is setting to remain in the sky all night long. Unlike a Full Moon in any other sign, it is taking place in the one sign (Leo) that is considered the Sun’s exclusive domicile.

As such, we might consider this particular Full Moon to be more the Sun’s proxy than any other. The best way to play that metaphorical card is, if possible, to focus on being consciously aware. Any potentially high value this weekend holds for you will thus depend on your keeping inattention at bay.

You might consider Jupiter conjunct the lunar north node in Virgo to be a card you can elect to show (because Jupiter is also bright in the sky during most of the night right now), or conceal (because the lunar nodes are two hypothetical points, and thus invisible except on a zodiac chart). Either way, the common Virgo background prioritizes knowing what you are dong before you bet on what sort of outcome you are trying to create. In other words, be flexible and willing to adapt to how your hand develops, but when in doubt go for the sure thing rather than wager recklessly.

Uranus in Aries opposed to BML in Libra, on the other hand, could well be your ace in the hole. Rarely, if ever, is Uranus spotted by an unaided eye. Likewise (in a manner similar to the lunar nodes) BML is a calculated point viewed only as a symbol and never as an object. The combination suggests you could hit the jackpot if you can figure out what action would constitute doing both the right thing and what nobody expects of you. If you go into next week with friends saying you surprised them pleasantly, you will know you played that card well.

The written readings for all 12 signs of Vision Quest are available for instant access, and Eric is working on the audio astrology and rune readings! Order all 12 signs here, or select individual signs here.

Venus entering Capricorn just before the Leo Full Moon and Mercury resuming direct motion in Capricorn not long after constitute the pair that will probably prove to make your astrological full house a big winner. Both together and separately, Mercury and Venus will represent encouraging developments you might parallel in your life.

Look to turn with, rather than against, your best mind. Also appreciate how both your material resources and intangible advantages might well stabilize (or even increase in value) as things go along.

All told, the astrology this weekend indicates that there will be some big winners. You could enhance the odds of being among them if, first and foremost, you endeavor to remain alert.

So keep your game a sober one as much as your social obligations will allow. After that, manage your risk with a level head. Bet most heavily on the outcome of showing good character and making responsible choices. Finally, work to improve the value of your already high-valued hand by playing what is dealt to you to the best of your ability, rather than discarding (or blaming) any of the cards that come your way.

Offered In Service

One of playwright Neil Simon’s most popular works has been The Odd Couple. First it was a hit play on Broadway, then it was a successful motion picture. Later it was a long-running television series. There was clearly something about how fastidious Felix and disorderly Oscar shared living space that provoked both laughs and a sympathetic response from many.

Astrology has its own long-running version of The Odd Couple in Saturn and Uranus. Tomorrow, when the Sun enters Aquarius just after 10:27 am EST (15:27:02 UTC), that relationship will be spotlighted once again.

That’s because both the actual Sun in the sky and the symbolic Sun of astrology bring light, facilitating conscious awareness wherever they go. In Aquarius, the Sun will once again illuminate a long-running controversy regarding that sign’s mismatched roommates.

Up until 1781, Saturn was the undisputed ruler of both Capricorn and Aquarius. Then, Uranus was discovered. What followed was a long, odd, unruly, yet also astute process that ultimately resulted in a widely shared perception of Uranus and Saturn as co-rulers of Aquarius. Not everybody was (or is) happy with that somewhat arbitrary pairing, however. The controversy continues up to this day, with some highly respected astrologers (such as the unimpeachable Robert Hand) casting a decidedly jaundiced eye at any suggestion that Uranus should shack up with Saturn in Aquarius. Even so, the idea still flourishes, and by its paradoxical persistence resonates with Aquarius’ oxymoron of a fixed air sign.

Perhaps there is something of the same appeal of Uranus and Saturn sharing the rule of Aquarius that made Felix and Oscar sharing an apartment such an enduring tale. After all, it was a story that climaxed in a heated conflict, which served as the cauldron in which the two of them realized the mutual benefits they conferred to each other. Emblematically, such a realization appears about to take place for Saturn and Uranus (possibly showing up in your own life, or even in the world as a whole), because of how those two planets are relating to each other on the zodiac right now.

Interestingly, Saturn and Uranus are even now moving into a a fire trine, which seems to have gone under the radar for a lot of astrologers. In other words, Saturn in the fire sign Sagittarius is slowly but surely sneaking up on 120 degrees of separation from Uranus, which is in the fire sign Aries. While the aspect will not be exact until the end of this year, on the night before Christmas, it’s within orb (close enough to be considered functional) now.

Based on how long since a fire trine from Saturn to Uranus last happened, it’s a big deal. Nearly 60 years have passed since Uranus was in Leo while Saturn was on a previous tour of Sagittarius; that’s when the Aquarian odd couple were last in a fire trine aspect with each other.

The written readings for all 12 signs of Vision Quest are available for instant access, and Eric is working on the audio astrology and rune readings! Order all 12 signs here, or select individual signs here.

One thing we know about trines is that the shared elemental component of the signs involved (in this case, fire) serves to mitigate the wide degree of separation on the zodiac, like how a conducting combination of cables and wires mitigates the distance between where electricity is generated and your home. In other words, trines function to connect almost like a conjunction (when two planets share the same sign).

You might say it’s the next best thing to being there. And if the Sun brings light, fire must certainly bring a little heat.

On top of it all, the Sun is entering Aquarius, where it will transit the mid-point in the Saturn-Uranus trine in addition to illuminating their unlikely loft. For that reason, you may want to watch carefully the days between Feb. 3 (when the Aquarius Sun sextiles Saturn in Sagittarius) and Feb. 6 (when the Aquarius Sun sextiles Uranus in Aries).

Look especially for any conflict between yourself and somebody with whom you may have a strange yet potentially beautiful relationship. It’s very possible that some conscious awareness brought to such a conflict could result in the same touching resolution that brought Felix and Oscar to appreciate each other as sympathetic human beings in spite of their differences.

Just as Felix and Oscar were thrown together to share an apartment, you have come by some situational means to share space and time in this world. If not in your actual living space, then in some other arrangement you have to find ways to get along.

Whether it be for a few minutes on a crowded public transit vehicle or hours in the workplace, or for years (even up to a lifetime) in a committed relationship or community, odd couplings are unavoidable — and potentially precious beyond price. For that reason, while the Sun is in Aquarius (until Feb. 19), it just might return more than your effort to shine a little light of your own, so that we all might better appreciate what we can do for each other if we can only get along.

Offered In Service

A little bit of action goes a long way. The nature of life and living changes when you act to meet circumstances and make something of them. Just as one example, there is a big difference between observing that we are “all one” and acting to prove you are “one with.”

Proving yourself to be one with creation and equal to circumstance seems to show up in the astrology for this weekend. While it’s a proverbial team effort of celestial objects, there are some key players likely to manifest.

The Sun and Moon are nearly always where you want to look first. The Sun is predominant in so many ways. It’s the brightest object in the sky, the center of the solar system and a consistent point of reference.

The Moon, in turn, provides both a complement and counterpoint for the Sun. In combination, the Sun and Moon (often distinguished by astrologers as “the luminaries”) provide the template through which planetary aspects are most properly interpreted.

One of the more misunderstood aspects is a separation of 90 degrees on the zodiac (and in the sky, from Earthly perspective), called a “square.” Somewhere along the line, squares got an undeserved reputation as something to dread. Few things could be further from the truth (although it must be noted that some of those campaigning for President of the United States have ventured further from the truth than Pluto does from the Sun).

First off, squares (just like all astrological aspects) are simply stages in a cycle, a part of a continuous whole. That’s especially evident with squares from the Sun to the Moon. This weekend features one of those luminary squares commonly known as the first quarter Moon.

Above all, the lunar first quarter is both easy to see (weather permitting) and a lovely sight. When the Sun sets in the West, the first quarter Moon is already at its highest point in the sky, as one would expect from 90 degrees of separation. Hence, you don’t have to stay up late to see it. Additionally, because of its spatial orientation relative to the Sun and Earth, the lunar first quarter displays an appealing tableau that is half lit and half dark. How, one might logically wonder, can anybody make something negative out of that?

Perhaps the negative reputation for square aspects originates with what the lunar first quarter symbolizes at its most basic: a critical point in growth. It is the halfway point between an unseen New Moon and a fully grown Full Moon. Growth itself can indeed be stressful, hence the term “growing pains”. Yet without the phenomenon of growth, where would any of us be? Since it cannot be avoided as a stage in the cycle of life, why not meet and make something of it?

As if to emphasize the advantage in taking a little action (and its potential to go a long way), the lunar first quarter just after 6:26 pm EST (23:26:18 UTC) tomorrow takes place between the Sun in cardinal Capricorn and the Moon in cardinal Aries. Since solar ingress into any one of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn) corresponds to a new season, it would make even more sense to interpret tomorrow’s luminary square as a promising preliminary rather than as a menacing end.

Along with tomorrow’s first quarter Moon, we get at least one planetary aspect that seems to reinforce its life-affirming message: a trine (separation of 120 degrees) from Mars in fecund Scorpio to Neptune at home in its Pisces depths. Both planets are in signs that they rule, and therefore are powerfully expressed.

In addition, the trine aspect itself is rather powerful, connecting two planetary energies in conductive flow through signs that share a common symbolic element. In this case, the element in common between Scorpio and Pisces is water (Cancer is the third water sign). Your own experience tells you that nothing flows quite like water.

As a result, the growth motif of tomorrow’s lunar first quarter is emblematically enhanced by an aspect that represents all that makes life and growth possible in the first place. You have life-giving water connecting Mars (which, among other things, manifests in your life as desire) and Neptune (which, at its best, emerges in your life as sheer creativity). You don’t have to be Fellini to figure out that desire meeting creativity through a flow and exchange of fluid corresponds to sex — without which none of us would be here.

In sum, a plausible portrayal of the astrology this weekend represents not only life itself, but how it is most fundamentally met, made and continued in your practical everyday experience. To see something negative in that would be nothing less than condemning yourself, along with all that you love. To actively meet and make something of what your life presents this weekend would, on the other hand, affirm all that you are and all the world could be at its best. The choice is obvious, yet you still must act to make it true.

Offered In Service       

Simple solutions are appealing. Unfortunately, they are frequently wrong. Similarly, the allure of stability somehow retains credibility in a world where the only constant is change. Thus, the deceitful are exalted and the pernicious prosper precisely because they offer simple answers that promise to preserve equilibrium.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Astrologers especially should know better. The sky is constantly in motion. Neither can any single sign, planet or aspect can be considered out of holistic context.

As it is above, so it usually is below. That’s a good thing. It’s good that the world is complex and nuanced, because that is the only sort of world where new possibilities can continue to emerge.

Hence, an alternative (but intrinsically realistic) way to make sense of the earth trine from the Capricorn Sun to retrograde Jupiter in Virgo, which is exact just before 5:49 pm EST (22:48:51 UTC) tomorrow. Better not to call the 120 degree separation from the Sun to Jupiter an ‘easy’, ‘stable’ or even ‘flowing’ aspect. Such a cookbook interpretation would only leave a lot of disappointed people regretting any money spent on lottery tickets, and further astrology’s undeserved reputation as deceitful and pernicious hocus-pocus.

Better instead to see the big picture. More useful to discern how this particular trine from the Sun to Jupiter is different from other occurrences of that aspect, than to offer a sound bite about what it ‘means’.

Mercury, for example, is about to pass between Earth and the Sun. That passage makes Mercury appear to be going backwards (retrograde) through Capricorn on its way to conjoin with the Sun, even as it is also unseen in the solar glare up in the sky. In short, there is implicitly more going on than meets the eye, whether in regards to the tangible Sun in the sky or its emblem of consciousness on the zodiac, which is moving to trine Jupiter at this time.

By the same token, any interpretation of Jupiter for the time being must necessarily dispense with its usual beneficent character as represented by many astrologers. First off, Earth is passing between the Sun and Jupiter right now. That passage results in Jupiter rising a bit later every night, and accounts for its own current retrograde motion back through Virgo. As result, the usual idea of Jupiter as a bringer of good things should currently be shaded to imply something more along the lines of a promise of good things.

Going a bit deeper, Jupiter in mutable Virgo is part of a larger picture. That picture includes Neptune (with its strong correspondence to inscrutability) and Chiron (which correlates to complexity and nuance, among other things) on the other side of the zodiac — roughly 180 degrees away in Pisces.

Since Pisces is ruled by both Jupiter and Neptune, their current opposition (however approximate) must be seen as a sort of contest right now. It is a lot like the political contests currently going on in the U.S., with most of the candidates competing to offer the simplest and most comforting promises of good things regardless of how impractical to implement their proposals would be. That’s how any interpretation of the trine aspect Jupiter will be taking from the Sun tomorrow must necessarily include a broader perspective, and would need to include some skepticism.

All this is not to say you should approach the middle of this week without optimism. Nearly anything is better than falling into the confining space of being cynical. While there remains some possibility that the meek might inherit the Earth, it is almost certain that the bitter and jaded will never fare as well. Which is where you come in.

Astrology does not happen to you. Yes, your inaction can allow things to happen — especially things brought on by actions of the deceitful and pernicious, but you can’t blame astrology for that. What you can do is embrace the astrology and work with it. With tomorrow’s trine from the Sun to Jupiter, that would almost certainly not mean that you should stake your material and psychological wellbeing on winning a billion dollars. Nor should you swallow any political promises whole.

Rather, you should be realistic. You should accept that answers to your problems will involve some complexity and require some work on your part. All the better to attain solutions that will actually work for you. You should also anticipate change and prepare for it. All the better to recognize new possibilities and make them your own.

Finally, as a participant in the world with others, your recognition of how the sky will keep moving after tomorrow will make you among the few who are indeed qualified to lead at least some of us forward, rather than hold all of us back.

Offered In Service
 

We are just more than a week into 2016. Already a lot has happened. You might say the world has changed, although that’s debatable. A lot of what characterized 2015 has simply reiterated or updated. One constant is that you are still here and capable of making at least some choices.

It’s easy to think that what you do or don’t do doesn’t matter. It does not make you a bad person to feel as though you are without power to make a difference. But you can elect to give feeling and thinking differently a try.

In the flurry of personal and political events, it’s difficult to see beyond what effects you. Even so, just because you have your hands full to the point of overwhelm and exhaustion does not mean you should add to your burdens by getting down on yourself.

Instead, you can look beyond your personal concerns for perspective that, fortunately, is available at this place and time. There are individuals setting an example by doing something to act in accord with their conscience rather than simply acting on their personal interests. Perhaps you are already one of them. If not, don’t give up on yourself. Instead, look for your chance to emerge.

You can also get some perspective from the sky above us — especially as represented in the symbols and abstractions employed by astrologers. Just as in the ‘here below’, a lot has happened ‘up above’ in the last week or so. It would be fair to say the sky has changed a great deal since our new year began.

A significant number of actors (or planets if you will) have essentially changed the character they are portraying by changing signs. Others have changed their apparent direction of movement. There is no reason you can’t make a few changes of your own, either in terms of the role you play or in the direction your life is moving. Doing so will at least place you in harmony with the sky, even as you do your best to live through discord on Earth.

Traditionally, a good time to implement change is when the Sun and the Moon come together from our perspective to begin a new cycle of lunar phases with what is called a New Moon. So happens we have a New Moon coming up. The Sun and Moon will come together in the same precise degree of Capricorn at about 8:30 pm EST tomorrow (01:30:29 UTC Sunday).

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Say it to yourself a couple times: “New Moon, New Moon.” Feel the paradox of what we know to be an ancient orb presenting itself as new. It’s enough to make you at least consider the possibility that you, with all of the weight you carry and all of the weariness you feel, can also present yourself as new in some way.

You can surprise your critics by changing some small part of the behavior they take pains to criticize you for. It is in your power to delight your friends by showing them reason to worry less about you. You can choose to comfort those who love you by helping them to remember how they came to feel affection for you in the first place.

You can make a difference if, as the Moon will do next week, you emerge from this place and time to begin yet again with a cycle of growth, phases and change.

It’s all too easy to disappear into the vast field of anonymity, and lose yourself in sports, trumped-up political gibberish or the trivia that now passes as entertainment. In fact, many who do not have your best interests at heart are depending on you to do just that. It’s only a little more difficult, however, to emerge from the background and show the rest of us a reason to follow your example and prove that we are all here in this place and time for a reason.

Offered In Service