You’re just like crosstown traffic, so hard to get through to you.
— Jimi Hendrix

Could be you really are going to run into some actual traffic jams going into next week. Or you may have to deal with gridlock on a metaphorical level. Perhaps there has been a breakdown in communication with a relationship.

More likely, something you did (or did not do) as far back as one year ago is now showing up again, dressed up in tension.

If not one year ago, try nine months, or six, or three months ago. Think of something you might have allowed to drop through the cracks or left to simmer too long on a back burner.

Most of all, whatever it is that could have come back to hold you up, slow you down, frustrate or overwhelm you at this time, don’t get down on yourself. We are all human in times that would try a superhuman.

In all probability you did not take a wrong turn in life. It’s distinctly possible that you did nothing wrong at all. In the longer perspective there is almost certainly a reason for how things have come to this pass, however.

It’s just as possible that there is a way to avoid any worst-case scenarios you might be worried about. It’s simply a matter of realizing you can’t turn back; or that you’ll have to move through something you may have had a part in bringing on.

In addition to not throwing yourself under the bus, try to avoid blaming others as well. Additionally, if others blithely tell you to “get over it,” don’t let that set you off. Road rage is no solution, only an unnecessary complication.

Fortunately, astrology indicates more than the possibility of some sort of heavy crosstown traffic for you; it also indicates context with perspective, and a timeframe. It has to do with a symbolic traffic jam in the first degrees of Libra. Maybe you have already run into its manifestations.

If not, you could very well encounter some sort of slowdown when the Sun enters Libra shortly after 4:20 an EDT (08:20:29 UTC) on Wednesday to initiate a new season. If you do, remember that a slowdown is not a dead-end street. It is something to move through and get behind you.

When the Sun arrives in Libra next week, it will encounter a large number of objects which, taken singly, probably do not show up on the radar of your life.

First off, there will be the dwarf planet 13672 Makemake, which has been hanging out on the cusp of Libra for months upon months now. To paraphrase Eric, Makemake (which orbits the Sun in the Kuiper Belt out past Pluto) has a lot to do with how things got to be the way they are.

In this case, things may have gotten to be the way they are for you as result of something you did (or did not do) when the Sun last entered Libra about a year ago; or when it entered Capricorn (on Dec. 21 of last year); or Aries (on March 20 this year); or Cancer, back on June 21. On or about any one of those dates in the past, the Sun (which represents your consciousness, among other things) was at a challenging angle to Makemake.

Now sharing the first degrees of Libra (and also orbiting the Sun out in the Kuiper Belt) is another slow mover: 58534 Logos. Logos indicates (among other things) that the reason things got to be the way they are can be explained.

Completing the traffic jam at Libra’s on-ramp are four more objects or points. The lunar ascending node, or North Node, points toward the future. The mean lunar apogee, otherwise known as Black Moon Lilith, corresponds to doing the right thing. Asteroid Juno relates to making your needs known. Finally, there’s a center of profound gravity far away from our own galaxy, which astrologer Phil Sedgwick refers to as the Super Galactic Center (SGC).

That’s a lot of stuff that the Sun will soon encounter upon precipitating a new season next week. It may feel like a heavy burden. It’s okay to honor your feelings. The key is not to let the whole season be ruined by a traffic jam at the beginning.

Although the actual Sun itself will not be slowed down, your consciousness (as represented by the Sun) may encounter some crosstown traffic over the next week or so.

Should that be the case for you, leave blame behind. Accept only what responsibility is yours. Do the right thing. Let your own needs be known, and yield to the needs of others as much as you possibly can. You are not alone in whatever crosstown traffic you encounter. Keep moving towards the future. Don’t let a traffic jam be your life. Let it be what it is: something you can get through and see the other side of.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

Most of us know our way around the concept of quantity. You know ‘bigger’ when you see it, ‘smaller’ too. Many (but not all) athletic contests are won by those who move faster and jump higher or farther. Finances are usually a matter of quantity. One of the oldest sales enticements is to offer more in exchange for less.

Quality is another matter. Sometimes quality is actually just quantity in fact (such as 14 karat gold versus 24 karat gold). In other contexts, quality can also be so highly subjective that no two people will agree on what it means.

Yet, you know much of what constitutes a quality of life cannot be measured in dollars, pounds, hours or square feet. Love, for example is without price. The quality of service, to cite another example, is more about intent and spirit than amount.

Another one of the things that eludes quantitative measurement most of the time is astrology. You know a Full Moon when you feel it, even if you cannot put a meter on the experience. Even the Moon changing signs, which will happen when the Moon moves from Cancer to Leo shortly before 10:36 pm EDT tonight (or 02:35:48 UTC tomorrow), is usually something you can sense even if it is not something you cannot objectively assay.

Of all the qualitative experiences astrology has to offer, Mercury retrogrades are probably among the best known. Seeking to understand what goes along with Mercury passing between Earth and the Sun (making Mercury appear to slow down and go into reverse from our perspective) is the gateway to astrology for many.

As it so happens, now is a good time to begin improving the quality of your understanding of both Mercury retrogrades and astrology. No measurements will be required. You won’t have to remember anything farther back than the first month of this year, and your own judgment will be all you need to make what will almost certainly be some useful, albeit subjective observations.

That’s because Mercury has been in its first echo (or ‘shadow’) phase of its third and last retrograde of 2015 since Aug. 28. Mercury echo/shadow is when Mercury enters the degrees where it will be soon be retrograde. This happens again when Mercury goes back over the territory where it was retrograde.

Since you are in a process that has repeated twice before and recently, you have some grounds for qualitative comparison. This is especially true because there is a constant: air.

Mercury’s actual retrograde period will begin on Sept. 17 at 15+ Libra, and end on Oct. 9 in Libra’s first degree. The second shadow phase will then continue until Mercury reaches and passes 15+ Libra again on Oct. 24.

Libra is an air sign. The two previous retrogrades of 2015 also took place entirely in air signs. Counting the echo/shadow phases, Mercury moved back and forth three times between 1+ and 17+ Aquarius from Jan. 5 to March 3. Subsequently, Mercury tacked between 4+ and 13+ Gemini for nearly all of May and June. Indeed, by the time this year is over, Mercury will have spent about half of it in three signs all distinguished by the same element.

This is not to say all three of the Mercury retrogrades this year will be the same. They will not be the same. However, there should be a qualitative through-line you can sense and subjectively discern, which will provide some useful (if un-quantifiable) information.

Of the four elements (fire, earth, air and water) that contribute to distinguishing one sign from another, air might fairly be said to be the most qualitative. After all, the earthen element implies both material as well as metaphorical substance, and material substance can be weighed. Similarly, the watery elements correspond with literal and figurative volume, and literal volumes can be measured. Fire, for its part, is often a matter of time and temperature (or temper, as the case may be).

Air, on the other hand, is as elusive as it is essential. You are continually and necessarily immersed in actual air, which is not the case with the most familiar and tangible forms of earth, water and fire. Additionally, when something is said to have an ‘air’, it’s understood to be a quality, not a quantity.

Hence, this is the year and now is the time to pull together a qualitative sense of what the experience of Mercury retrogrades mean for you. You can start by comparing your two previous periods of reference. January and February would be the first period. May and June would be the second. Look for some qualities in common. Recall experiences rather than acquisitions or losses. Disregard that which can have a price, and emphasize value.

Once you have made some qualitative connections between the two previous Mercury retrogrades of 2015, sniff the air you are moving in now. See if you can find a corresponding scent. Keep in mind that history does not repeat, but history does tend to rhyme. Disregard the differences for the time being. Feel for correlations. Then, experiment based on what you experienced during the two previous Mercury retrogrades this year and what you feel (not what you can prove) now.

No hurry. You have time. Even so, give yourself a start in qualifying the qualitative now. If you can do just that, by this time next month you should have gleaned a quality of information that only the conscious practice of astrology can provide.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

It’s likely your childhood or adolescence included at least one experience of having an adult remark on your growth. It probably happened upon meeting and greeting somebody you had not seen for a while. It was almost certainly gratifying to have somebody notice what you had gained in height or some other indication of development toward maturation.

It’s also probable you don’t get such affirmations as much anymore. The most positive corollary upon maturing into an adult is usually an inquiry as to whether you have been exercising.

It’s just as probable you have learned to do without the validations received in youth. Adults are expected not to need such props. Indeed, as we get older it’s often satisfying enough not be greeted with a barely suppressed gasp.

Even so, your growth continues. Every day you learn something. Each passing week leaves you with a greater storehouse of experience. Successive months are reliably marked by new insights, and as one year follows another, you evolve. You have to. We all have to. The world is too challenging to remain the same and still survive.

It’s important to be conscious of and acknowledge your own evolution. Even if nobody else notices. Especially if others don’t appreciate the awareness and effort with which you have applied yourself to do and be better.

For without giving yourself the gift of acknowledging your transformations, you can lose sight of what you want to be. And if you lose sight of what you want to be, you can lose control of what you become.

It’s not easy to recognize and advocate for what you want to be. It’s a trial to empower your intended becoming. The path of least resistance is to bemoan what you are not, wasting both your time and yourself in the depths of destructive deprecation. Yet, overcoming your tribulations (self-imposed and otherwise) is often simply a matter of taking the time to reflect on and appreciate yourself for your labors, and for how you have indeed grown because (not in spite) of them.

If astrology is any indication, this coming weekend (an extended “Labor Day” holiday weekend in the U.S.) would be a good time for compassionate contemplations of your personal evolution. At least in part, that’s because the Virgo Sun will form what astrologers would call a ‘trine’ aspect with Pluto in Capricorn just after 7:10 pm EDT (23:10:21 UTC) on Saturday. A trine is a separation of 120 degrees.

To see how the Sun’s trine to Pluto can work for you, consider each of the components (Sun, Pluto and the aspect itself) separately.

Perhaps foremost among all its other manifestations, the Sun represents consciousness. Just as the actual Sun brings day and light to the world, being conscious makes you able to see where you are and where you are going in your life. A holiday weekend, in turn, provides the opportunity for you to step back from the proverbial ‘rat race’, and to will yourself into being present and mindful long enough simply to be aware — so long as you have a point of reference.

Thanks to the unique perspectives offered by both astrology and information recently returned from a robotic spacecraft, Pluto is a good point of reference for you now.

Astrology, alone among oracular methods, allows you both to analyze the past and anticipate something of the future so as to evaluate your present. That’s because the objects that constitute the medium of astrology (the Sun, Moon and planets) are always moving — or, at least, apparently so from our perspective here on Earth. More importantly, those movements are orderly and predictable.

Were Pluto’s movements not predictable, it would have been impossible to launch the New Horizons spacecraft from Earth in 2006, and have it travel billions of miles to arrive precisely on schedule this year. On July 14, it revealed Pluto, its binary partner Charon and their moons (Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra) in heretofore unimagined detail.

The collective consciousness of humanity (and to some extent your personal consciousness) has evolved as a result of the New Horizons space mission and your awareness of it. At the very least, nobody can now picture Pluto without a white, heart-shaped configuration on its surface. That awareness has in turn contributed to your evolution. Furthermore, you can look back and correlate with how things have come to be.

When New Horizons was launched in 2006, Pluto was considered a planet. Since then, some astronomers (not astrologers) changed their mind about that. Your being conscious of the resulting discussion and dispute have contributed to the evolution of how you see your own place in the universe.

Tellingly, the controversy also took place as Pluto was changing signs from Sagittarius (where it was in 2006) to Capricorn (where it is today). That change of sign for Pluto has symbolically represented a change in how Pluto is expressed in your life — a change that has manifested (albeit not predictably) in your personal experience and resulting evolution.

More recently, when the Sun (from Taurus) last formed a trine aspect to Pluto in Capricorn earlier this year, on May 6, New Horizons had not yet arrived at Pluto to reveal that white heart (and many other, less subjective details). In parallel, you can no doubt see some corresponding change in your world (and yourself) compared to four short months ago.

Now, as the Sun approaches its second trine aspect to Pluto this year, you might be able to become more present to those changes, and better flow with them. For flow and the ease implied are among the things that go with trine aspects.

So take some time this weekend. Even if for an hour or two, step away from the televised sports, the social occasions, and the hubbub of so-called recreation (which is often not much different from the hubbub of the rat race) and get into a flow with your own self.

Consider and appreciate how you define yourself now as compared to 2006. Reflect on what has been revealed to (and of) your own heart since May 6. Contemplate what you have done with the awareness you have acquired since July 14, and acknowledge yourself for how you have demonstrably and irrefutably grown. Oh my, how you have!

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

If you have the occasion to ask “September already?” try to catch yourself and turn that question around. As would befit the initiative implied by the Moon in Aries today, make a declaration instead. To liberate yourself a bit from slavery to the civil calendar, and get in the flow of the astrology, declare: “All ready, September!”

This will be no month to allow bemusement at the arrival of its first day to dictate the tone for the rest of its days. Instead, endeavor in some way, no matter how small, to go beyond the usual and set the tone of your choice. 

For in the terms of astrology, September 2015 is and will be what one might call the single most unusual month in an unusual year. Hence, this should be a month when you can foment unusual manifestations.

To begin with, consider what happened overnight. As August segued into September, another important (and unusual) aspect transpired besides the Virgo Sun’s opposition to Neptune in Pisces, which Eric has already covered so adroitly to set the tone for Planet Waves this week.

Less than two hours after the Sun opposed Neptune (and while many of you were sleeping), retrograde Venus briefly shared the same degree of Leo with Mars, forming what astrologers call a conjunction aspect. The usual thing is for Venus and Mars to come together once every other year. For example, prior to 2015, Venus and Mars last conjoined once in April of 2013; and before that, once in May of 2011.

This year, however, is unusual. Venus and Mars will merge in the same degree of the same sign three times before 2015 is over. The first such event took place in Aries overnight between Feb. 21 and 22. The next instance will take place in Virgo as Nov. 2 rolls over in its sleep to become Nov. 3. Hence, the timing of the Venus-Mars conjunction at approximately 1:04 am EDT (05:03:47 UTC) this morning sets an astrological tone for the month that is emblematic of what is to follow.

Events later in September will include what you might call the ‘big three’ of astrology: a new season (when the Sun enters a cardinal sign), Mercury beginning its next retrograde, and a pair of eclipses — all in one month, which is not business as usual at all. Normally, the Sun entering cardinal Libra (as it will on Sept. 23) to precipitate an equinox, and autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, is the focus of the entire month. Not this year, however.

This year, the conjunction of the Sun and Moon in Virgo (on Sept. 13 for most of you), will be more than just a New Moon. It will also be a solar eclipse.

Only days after the Solar eclipse (on Sept. 17), Mercury will begin its third and final air-sign retrograde of the year in in the middle of Libra.

Finally, overnight between Sept. 27 and 28, the Full Moon in Aries will complete the trifecta by also being a total lunar eclipse. And those are just the highlights.

In sum, September will be no month to begin with a hapless declaration. Rather, if there were only one time in all of 2015 to declare yourself ready for anything and everything no matter how unusual, it would be now. If you can simply say that and mean it, the rest of September will be yours for the taking so long as you take it one day at a time, just as you did today.

Offered In Service   

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

Sometimes a moment contains more than the present. Rites of passage (like graduations) especially tie up loose ends from the past while also providing a time to at least address the future. It looks as though this upcoming Pisces Full Moon on Saturday, shortly after 2:35 pm EDT (18:35:10 UTC) might be just such a moment for three planets — this year, next month and next year.

First off, this will be the last Full Moon with Saturn in Scorpio for nearly three decades hence. That’s saying something. You can’t be blamed for thinking that Saturn’s Scorpio tenure has been overly long.

In fact, the net amount of time Saturn spends in any one sign is very much the same as any other, about 2 1/2 years. In the case of this particular traversal, however, Saturn’s occupation of Scorpio has not been continuous.

This year so far Saturn has been oscillating in a very narrow corridor of the zodiac. By moving very slowly back and forth over the cusp separating Scorpio and Sagittarius, Saturn has set a trend, largely defining this as a transitional year.

It is thus fitting that Saturn in the penultimate degree of Scorpio, where it has been since July 4, should be very nearly at right angles (90 degrees of separation) with both the Virgo Sun and the Pisces Full Moon in opposition to each other. This configuration is called a T-square because of its shape. The upper part of the “T” is the Sun and Moon in opposite parts of the sky (and opposing on the zodiac circle). The lower part of the “T” is represented by Saturn in between the Sun and Full Moon – both in the sky and on the edge of the zodiac circle.

The angular relationship from Saturn to the Sun and Full Moon will be fitting to a theme of transition because the Sun and Moon will not be alone in their opposition. The Pisces Full Moon will be snuggling up to retrograde Neptune, while taking its opposition from the Sun. The Virgo Sun in turn will still be in a functional (albeit separating) conjunction with Jupiter while both Sun and Jupiter (for all intents and purposes) oppose the Moon and Neptune.

Long after the Sun and Moon move on from their opposition on Saturday, the T-square from Saturn to both Neptune and Jupiter will continue to be operational in a very broad sense for about a year. (Saturn will finally enter Sagittarius for the long run next month.)

Hence, with this Pisces Full Moon, a new trend (which will go a long ways towards defining 2016) will begin just as an old one (defining much of 2015) is nearing its end.

Last, but certainly not least, the Pisces Full Moon this weekend will represent a segue into an astrologically eventful September. Next month we will have the usual (but always momentous) equinox when the Sun enters Libra on Sept. 23. Unlike most Libra equinoxes, however, this one will take place during a Mercury retrograde in Libra, which begins on Sept. 17. There is also the not-so-small matter of eclipses.

A Virgo New Moon and solar eclipse will take place on Sept. 12 (or Sept. 13, depending on your time zone). The following Full Moon in Aries on Sept. 27 (or, for some of you, Sept. 28) will also be a total lunar eclipse. Between them, this upcoming pair of eclipses will serve to as bookends to the change of season the Libra equinox will most fundamentally represent.

It is therefore reasonable to say that the Pisces Full Moon this weekend will represent a rite of passage. It will herald your graduation from a long matriculation represented by Saturn in the final stage of its transition from Scorpio to Sagittarius. Additionally, and at the same time, you will be ushered into an eventful month, and initiated into an astrological pattern that will at least contribute to define (if not dominate) the astrology next year: the T-Square aspect from Saturn in Sagittarius to Jupiter in Virgo and Neptune (opposed by Jupiter) in Pisces.

Like most rites of passage, this one should be celebrated, not feared. That being said, however, the Moon’s proximity to Neptune this weekend would dictate festivities more sober than otherwise. So it is that you should be cautious with the use of alcohol or any other mind-altering substances over the next few days. You have a lot to look forward to, and you will want to get off to a good start.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.