And feed them on your dreams, the one they pick’s the one you’ll know by.
— Graham Nash (from “Teach Your Children”)

Venus and Nessus are a big part of the astrology this weekend, but to see the connection between them (and you) will require you to walk a road less taken. You see, astrology has its well-worn ways.

The Sun and Moon are the foundation, and rightfully so. Classical (visible to the unaided eye) planets are appropriately next in importance.

As for events, New and Full Moons, eclipses, major ingresses (changes of sign) and points where sign-ruling planets apparently change direction are justifiably prioritized. Yet, every once in a while, an astrological event that does not fit into traditional designations of precedence nonetheless appears to distinguish both the whole of the moment and a vast expanse of time.

Nessus, more thoroughly known as the centaur object 7066 Nessus, enters Pisces for the long haul at 4:18 am EST (9:18 UTC) on Saturday. It may well prove to be just such a momentous occasion.

Part of the implicitly monumental nature of Nessus’ impending ingress to Pisces has to do with the subject matter by which Nessus is known among some of the most influential and reputable astrologers of our time.

As Cam Hassard averred in a long-ago Planet Waves article, Nessus is associated with issues of abuse “that may have an extremely long trajectory.” It is therefore no surprise that Melanie Reinhart’s key phrase “the buck stops here” has become the dominant mantra through which Nessus is interpreted.

Even so, as with all centaur objects, Nessus cannot be neatly confined to just one subject and one phrase. Like Chiron, it is nuanced and complex. Pertinent subject matter also has to do with how Nessus came to be classified as a centaur.

Centaurs as a class of object have elongated orbits around the Sun. They are also steeply inclined to the ecliptic plane in which the classical planets circle the Sun.

More importantly, the paths of centaurs cross the orbits of major planets in the outer solar system (beyond the main asteroid belt that separates Mars from Jupiter), effectively lacing familiar astrological themes together into a less often realized whole.

In its own path long path around the Sun, Nessus crosses the orbits of Uranus, Neptune and (arguably) Pluto.

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are three planets nobody knew about before 1781, yet which are now ignored by tropical astrologers only at significant peril of error. In other words, Nessus does not symbolically support outdated paradigms of what the world is or how it works. Nessus is what Mike Huckabee (to cite just one example) cannot bear to acknowledge.

Additionally, there is the simple fact that Nessus moves slowly around the zodiac, taking more than 120 years to circulate through all 12 signs. Hence, its changes of sign are relatively rare. Moments seldom seen are inherently meaningful for astrologers, indicating a new era at hand.

After concluding nearly a decade in Aquarius, Nessus is about to begin more than 18 years traversing Pisces. For many of us, the rest of our lives in this mortal coil will very possibly unwind before Nessus makes its way to Aries. That consideration alone makes Nessus entering Pisces for the long haul an exceptional moment.

Astrology has many ways to interpret the occasional rare ingress, and potentially a new era at its beginning. One way is to consider what significant aspects a familiar classical planet is making at the same moment, especially if the aspects are to objects of the same classification as one making ingress.

In serendipitous splendor equal to its luminosity, Venus (the brightest planet) will fill the bill as a symbolic signifier when Nessus enters Pisces for good this weekend.

Venus is already in Pisces, along with Mars, Neptune and Chiron. What’s more, Venus is exalted (a way of saying “very powerfully expressed”) in Pisces.

Most significantly, however, Venus will inaugurate the long, uninterrupted continuum of Nessus in Pisces by effectively lacing together (through aspect rather than orbital path) two contrasting energies: Chiron and Pluto.

While sharing a lot of similarities in how they orbit the Sun, Chiron and Pluto contrast in how they express for astrologers. Among its many manifestations, Chiron often corresponds with something getting your attention immediately and in no uncertain (if often an inconvenient) way, persisting until its issue is addressed.

Pluto, on the other hand, is often related to what takes a long time to come to your attention, but which more than makes up for lost time with an irresistible sense of gravity once it does.

Soon after reaching a sextile (a separation of 60 degrees on the zodiac and in the sky) with Pluto in Capricorn this weekend, Venus will conjoin (share the same degree of Pisces with) Chiron.

By so moving from an implicit reinforcement with Pluto into a metaphorical merger with Chiron, Venus will implicitly suggest how you may know what a potential new era has in store by how others (especially those with whom you somehow contrast) know you and how you know them.

Indicated then, is a productive way to begin what could be a new era, albeit one which many might overlook. Recommended first is a good look at how you lace up with others through what you both intentionally and unintentionally teach them (and they you) about how the world works.

Following such an inquiry, likewise advisable is to exercise your gift to choose and change what you teach or receive as teaching — or not. If it all sounds a little heavy, let this one question lighten your load just a bit: Would you rather be on a road traveled by those who are on their way to wondering what just happened?

Offered In Service

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

After today’s Leo Full Moon has peaked at 6:09 pm EST / 23:09 UTC, you might want to take (or better yet, make) a turn. It’s better to participate actively than to let things turn as they may. It’s also better to observe and take a hand rather than take a chance by judging or drawing conclusions before the opportunity for your turn presents itself.

Taking turns is almost certainly something you learned at a very young age. Even though it is a learned behavior, it is also a very natural thing to do so long as one masters certain skills.

The most important skill to master when it comes to taking turns is patience. Waiting for your turn, knowing when it is and responding appropriately with good timing is not necessarily natural.

Fortunately for all of us, Mercury’s current apparent motion in Aquarius will help you to know when some major turns are in store. As a bonus, it will also allow you to place those future turns in context with some strikingly similar turns of the recent past.

One major crossroads indicated by currently retrograde Mercury is its second (of three) sextile aspects to Saturn’s first (of two) sojourn’s in Sagittarius. That second sextile from Mercury to Saturn will take place on Thursday at 6:39 am EST (11:39 UTC).

A sextile aspect from one object or point to another represents a separation of 60 degrees on the zodiac circle and in the sky. It always takes place between signs that differ in elemental identity (fire, earth, air or water), yet also between signs with elemental characteristics that support each other.

In the case of Thursday’s sextile from retrograde Mercury (in Aquarius) to still-direct Saturn (in Sagittarius) the elements in support of each other are air (Aquarius) and fire (Sagittarius).

Air and fire support each other in real life. One of the necessities of getting a fire started and keeping it going is sufficient ventilation. Likewise, once going, a fire warms surrounding and circulating air — a tendency that has come in handy for the survival and wellbeing of our kind for thousands of years.

The support air and fire have for each other in real life translates for how astrologers interpret sextile aspects between fire and air signs. Additionally, relatively swift Mercury’s retrograde motion (relative to slow Saturn, that is) translates to how you can make some correlations of your own for Thursday and further down the road, regardless of how much you know about astrology.

First off, realize that between today and Thursday you should go slow and yield the right-of-way as much as possible while still keeping your own wheels on the road in forward gear. That’s the basic strategy going into and out of today’s implicitly powerful Leo Full Moon.

Even now, however, you should begin to look both ahead down the road to Thursday and back in the rear view mirror. Aim that backward glance toward the first of three successive sextiles from Mercury to Saturn (of which Thursday’s will be the second).

The first sextile from Mercury (at that time in direct motion through Aquarius) to Saturn in Sagittarius took place on Jan. 5. While attempting to recall what was going on for you specifically at that time, you should also take into consideration what was going on with the astrology then so as to draw some intuitive parallels — as symbolic air and fire would have you do.

The first sextile from Mercury to Saturn followed (by less than 24 hours) the immediately previous Full Moon in Cancer. As Eric noted yesterday, that Full Moon was an “emotionally dramatic scenario.” Additionally, less than two hours before Mercury’s first of three sextiles to Saturn, Mercury entered its echo (or “shadow”) phase, passing the point where it would eventually resume direct motion again on Feb. 11. That began the “overture” preceding the opera constituting Mercury’s period of apparent retrograde motion back through the first half of Aquarius.

Hence, you have some valuable information from both the astrology leading into Mercury’s first of three sextiles to Saturn, and your experience of it. You can apply that information towards the second such occasion on Thursday. Maybe it will not be as dramatic a scenario, but maybe also you can (with the awareness astrology bestows) make a difference in how this next turn turns out. It’s worth a try.

Looking further ahead, Mercury’s third and final sextile to Saturn will take place at another auspicious time for interactions between the Sun (representing what is ideally a fully conscious awareness) and the Moon (usually corresponding to a more visceral and different form of consciousness).

That’s because Mercury’s third and final sextile to Saturn will take place just over a week after Mercury has resumed direct motion and gotten up speed (resuming to its normal expressions again). It will also be just over 24 hours after the second Aquarius New Moon in a row (on Feb. 18 for most of us).

The second Aquarius New Moon on Feb. 18 will break a pattern in place since October of last year. That pattern consisted of five successive New Moons in the first degree of a successive sign.

The New Moon on Feb. 18 will be in the very last degree of Aquarius, turning the pattern of the previous five months on its head. That second Aquarius New Moon will be followed immediately by the Moon entering Pisces literally seconds later, the Sun entering Pisces literally minutes later, and Mercury’s third and final sextile to Saturn just over a day later.

It all adds up to quite a turn, one way or the other, following Feb. 19. Fortunately, it’s a turn you can plan to participate in now. It all begins by taking a conscious hand on the steering wheel, and making a wise turn (based on your experience following Jan. 5) on Thursday.

All you have to do is what you already know. Get a grip, commit, and follow through with your part in the scheme of things. With the astrology of previous turns available to assist you with awareness, there is no question that you will be up to the task of taking turns yet to come.

Offered In Service

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

Meaning is not in things but in between them.
— Norman O. Brown

Assuming the late Professor Brown was correct, there will be significant meaning for you to find in between now and the Leo Full Moon taking place on Tuesday just before 6:09 pm EST (23:09 UTC). Hence, this advance notice — so that your own capacity to accommodate increased meaning will have time to grow apace with the waxing Moon.

Like all oppositions of the luminaries (Sun and Moon), Tuesday’s Full Moon in Leo will find Earth between Luna and the Sun (in this case, an Aquarius Sun). Also, as with all fully lit Moons, Tuesday will find you, and everybody else at the same time, precisely in between lunar conjunctions with the Sun (also known as New Moons).

Therefore, any meaning to be derived from (or discovered on the way to) Tuesday’s Leo Full Moon will be neither distant nor elusive. It will be directly under your feet and in the moment — of that, you may be assured.

You may also be assured however, that the meaning to be found between now and the Moon’s next maximum illumination will be more manifold than usual.

That’s because the Aquarius Sun opposing Tuesday’s Leo Full Moon will itself be rather precisely (to the degree) between seasons. While the Sun reaches the middle of Aquarius once a year just like clockwork, halfway between the Capricorn solstice and Aries equinox, the luminaries are rarely in opposition on the same day.

Additionally (as explored here earlier this week), at the time of Tuesday’s Leo Full Moon Mercury and Jupiter will both be in between their respective retrograde and direct stations.

Finally, just at the moment of Tuesday’s luminary opposition, the Leo Full Moon will be in between Uranus (in its Aries lair) and the Sagittarius conjunction of asteroid 2 Pallas with the Great Attractor. All together that forms a very tight grand fire trine overflowing as much with mystery as meaning.

At the same time, the Aquarius Sun will find itself at the midpoint of not only a season but also a sublime and nuanced sextile from Chiron (in Pisces) to Pluto (in Capricorn).

Whew! That’s a lot of in-between for one Full Moon, and implicitly a lot of meaning either to be found, confronted with, or caught up in.

So that you will be able to work your way up to accommodating all the meaning Tuesday’s Leo Full Moon might offer (as opposed to being overwhelmed all at once), what now follows are some temporal milestones. In between now and then, they might help you to expand your capacity to reflect the occasion even as the Moon expands in luminosity.

At about 6 pm EST later this evening (Thursday), the Gemini Moon will be in between an opposition to the Sagittarius conjunction of Pallas with the Great Attractor and a sextile to Uranus in Aries. This will be a good time to think about that fire trine the Moon will form when it reaches Leo.

Think about how flow (which trines represent, among other things) can make things easier but also sweep you away, depending on your relationship with it. Think also about how symbolic fire relates to both presence and consumption.

Overnight between today and tomorrow (Friday), the waxing Gemini Moon forms a tense square with Chiron’s position in Pisces. Thus, as Chiron would have you do, give some attention to whatever subject matter comes up with your next sleep (or lack of it).

When the steadily augmenting Moon enters Cancer as Friday segues into Saturday, it will be applying to oppose Pluto in Capricorn while also moving to form a flowing water trine with Chiron. Both of those lunar aspects will become exact early Sunday morning. Use that time to compare how your feelings have evolved from thoughts today.

Finally, when the Moon enters Leo after Monday is well underway (12:41 pm EST), it would be a good time to bring your experiences from the later half of this week forward and (if necessary) pull yourself together.

So, that’s your proposed protocol, in order to be on top of the flow rather than be pulled under with it, and to be looking up rather then cast down. Observing these markers may allow you to be both present and open to accommodate the illuminations of what looks to be a Leo Full Moon implicitly wound up with meaning, even as Tuesday winds down.

Offered In Service

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

Mercury and Jupiter, the only two sign-ruling planets in apparent retrograde motion right now, are lined up with Earth and the Sun. The alignment is getting tighter by the day. It is an arrangement that begs you to defer any need for precision or meaning so as to simply stand in wonder of and appreciation for the sheer majesty of celestial beauty and cosmic timing.

Yet, implicit meaning and functional precision are in much in evidence as the smallest fully-fledged planet (Mercury) and the largest one (Jupiter) move in unlikely synchronicity with Earth.

We might begin deriving interpretation of the Big Line-Up with Jupiter because you can see it with your own eyes. It’s the steady bright light in the East after dark. You can distinguish Jupiter from Sirius (or Canis Major, Orion’s faithful dog), shining fiercely to the South of Jupiter by the fact that stars tend to twinkle and planets don’t.

If you have been watching Jupiter lately, you may also have noticed it’s a little lower in the East for a given time every successive night. That’s what Jupiter retrograde looks like, rising a bit later every evening.

In the middle its Leo retrograde period (which started on Dec. 8 and ends on April 8) Jupiter will oppose the Aquarius Sun on Feb. 6.

What astrologers call an opposition actually means Earth will be moving between Jupiter and the Sun while “lapping” Jupiter’s apparently slower motion from our inside lane. This process creates the illusion of Jupiter in reverse.

Nonetheless, Jupiter’s approach to oppose the Aquarius Sun from Leo functions very much like the template for all oppositions — a Full Moon. First, Jupiter will be rising just as the Sun sets, just like a Full Moon does. Secondly, Jupiter will be at its brightest, also like a Full Moon.

Finally, manifestations of Jupiter in your life (expansion, amplification, optimism and excess) will likely become more exaggerated as Jupiter approaches and reaches opposition to the Sun. You can probably see such expressions developing in and around you already.

Interestingly, and in unlikely synchrony, Mercury is nearing the middle of its Aquarius retrograde period (which started on Jan. 21 and ends Feb. 11) just as Jupiter enters the middle of its Leo retrograde period on the opposite side of the zodiac and the sky. Nevertheless, the process will play out very differently because Mercury has the inside lane on Earth.

Hence, there will never be a Mercury opposition, because Earth will never pass between Mercury and the Sun. Thank goodness for that; no amount of sunscreen or air conditioning would help us if such were to be the case.

Instead of an opposition, Mercury has two types of conjunction with the Sun. The exterior (or ‘superior’) opposition comes when Mercury is in the middle of a period of direct motion, traversing the other side of the Sun, but still occupying the same degree of the same sign with the Sun on the zodiac — which is a conjunction defined. We are not approaching that sort of Mercury conjunction with the Sun now.

Instead, we are now approaching an interior (or ‘inferior’) conjunction of Mercury with the Sun at 8:45 am EST (13:45 UTC) on Friday. That means Mercury will be passing between Earth and the Sun as it laps us, once again creating an illusion of backward motion in the process, but not an illusion you will be able to see.

Mercury at interior conjunction is hidden in solar glare in very much the same way that the template for all conjunctions (a New Moon) is — rising with and traveling across the daytime sky with the Sun.

That’s how Mercury’s conjunction with the Sun on Friday will probably play out much as a New Moon does, except substituting Mercury’s many and varied associations for lunar archetypes.

First, it will be the beginning of a new cycle between the solar representation of consciousness and Mercury’s mentally associated attributes. The new cycle will eventually manifest visibly with Mercury re-appearing in the East before sunrise after the middle of February, following its recent disappearance from the West after sunset.

Additionally, the impending conjunction from the Sun to retrograde Mercury will (once again, like a New Moon) represent a merger of energies. Indeed, you may already be experiencing some difficulty quieting the mind to simply be conscious.

So that’s the Big Line-Up for you. Not something that happens every Mercury retrograde. Not something that comes with every Jupiter retrograde, either.

It’s not perfect or precise, but close enough to connect Leo’s imperative towards extroversion with Aquarius cultivations through a rare cosmic alignment.

It’s a string of pearls (Jupiter, Earth, Mercury and the Sun) of which you are a part. It is beyond meaning, and is perhaps best taken in a state of awe and reverence for how all of us must somehow be similarly aligned with each other and with greater things, both evident and unseen.

Offered In Service

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

For Venus (and how Venus expresses in your life), what remains of the Aquarius road to its Pisces exaltation would best not be called rough. More properly, the path Venus will trace through latter Aquarius before entering Pisces Tuesday, just seconds before 10:00 am EST (15:00 UTC), looks to be passionate and worthy of walking mindfully in good company.

It helps that the Moon entered Pisces earlier today — preparing the ground, so to speak. Indeed, until the Moon moves on to Aries come Saturday morning (something Amanda has already prepared us for in her offering today), the passionate path of Venus will very possibly be previewed by how the lunar lives for you over the next few days.

Venus and the Moon have a lot in common. Both are nearly always silvery to the eye and often steadily bright when the Sun is below the horizon. Additionally, both Venus and the Moon go through phases, from a thin crescent to the fullest face.

Finally, both Venus and the Moon invoke a feminine warrior’s independent strength. That strength proceeds from the Western mythology behind their respective names to include part of how it feels when you simply look at them with your own eyes.

Yet, there are differences between how the Moon and Venus manifest. The Moon tends to correlate with what is so personal and immediate as to be unknowable to any but you and perhaps a select few others.

Venus, on the other hand, usually manifests as what each of us feel deeply in common with others. To cite just one example, the uncanny inseparability of timeless truth and ageless beauty is a Venus experience nearly always shared simultaneously and spontaneously — often reached in response to public performances or exhibitions of art.

When it reaches Pisces next week, Venus will also have attained what is called its exaltation. When a planet is exalted in a sign, it’s different from being in a sign it rules. It is something more, a liberation of sorts — like being temporarily relieved of a burden of responsibility while still in full flower of personal power.

Until then, however, Venus has a passionate path to walk, and you with it. Indeed, given the collective qualities Aquarius represents, it’s a path you will walk with others who share an uncanny inseparability with you.

Hence, you will almost certainly not be walking alone as you trace what promises be a passionate personal path on your way to Tuesday.

You could recognize others on your path by a common light. You may note how they are in phase with you somehow. You might even feel a warrior’s bond and a woman’s care connecting you.

Your commonly experienced passions will in all likelihood include tensions, both private and public. To balance the tensions, passionate support will probably be equally available.

Most of all, each trial will also provide what could be unprecedented proof of both your own validity and that of others. Along the way, what will ideally result for you and your partners in passion is both a mindful and mutual exaltation of your true selves.

To get there, all you have to do is live your life so as to take it over rather than be overtaken. For such is the path of passion.

Offered In Service

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

Mercury’s apparent motion shifts into reverse at 17+ Aquarius tomorrow at 10:54 am EST (15:54 UTC). The combined circumstances of Mercury’s first retrograde station in 2015 appear to invoke an old adage (attributed to Edgar Allan Poe and Benjamin Franklin, among others) to believe nothing you hear and only half that you see — at least for a while.

Part of it has to do with the fact that Mercury’s apparent pivot will take place in precise conjunction (to the degree) with a fast-moving Aquarius Moon.

That’s the same Moon that shared the very first degree of Aquarius with the Sun earlier today. That New Moon conjunction implies a fresh start on more than one level of consciousness.

Fresh starts do the most good when not accompanied by old baggage. Nonetheless, astrology associates the Moon with things like emotional needs, inner child, security and safety issues, at least some of which originated long ago.

Implied then by the Moon’s swift jump from conjoining a solar ingress one day to merging with Mercury’s illusory reversal the next is a lunar continuum connecting both. Also implied is some necessary precaution favoring patient skepticism. That’s especially so when you consider one of Mercury’s less savory sides along with predilections common to Aquarius.

Mercury is versatile. It’s also mercurial. Witness the signs it rules. Gemini and Virgo are both mutable signs. When the Sun traverses a mutable sign for example, a change of season is in store.

Additionally, Mercury’s own many and frequent changes (of direction, sign, and even the horizon where it can be viewed) account for its ancient reputation as a trickster. For example, the actual planet Mercury never reverses its direction in reality. It only appears to do so about three times a year when Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun.

It’s a phenomenon akin to passing a train in your automobile. At first, the train appears to slow down, then it appears to go backwards — even though it does neither in actuality. Nonetheless, it’s a very convincing illusion, and an excellent example of how you should not believe everything you see.

In a different, but functionally similar way, the connection between Aquarius and groups you identify with can serve to mislead if you believe everything you hear. Especially if what you hear originates from within your group (or groups) of choice.

Part of the territory for any group, but especially groups bound by shared identity, is a powerful pressure to conform. It’s one of the ways Saturn still expresses to rule Aquarius even as co-ruler Uranus might make distinguishing yourself part of a given group’s appeal.

Paradoxical? Yes. Yet, exactly what one would expect from a sign distinguished by the oxymoronic combination of fixed quality and archetypal air.

All of which is reason for you to suspend belief as much as possible in favor of patient skepticism for the near future.

After all, nothing is so powerfully persuasive as that of which you are already and firmly convinced. If your pre-existing convictions are being simultaneously reinforced on several levels (represented by the Moon, Mercury and Aquarius), you might very well divest yourself of any capacity to exercise unbiased judgment on your own. That’s a big risk.

Hence, a clearly reinforced message to go with Mercury’s first retrograde station of the year. As arbitrary, hackneyed and unimaginative as it may be, you might want to try going for a while believing nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see.

At the very least, patient skepticism is a smaller risk on the whole because you are buying yourself some time and keeping your options open. It’s also a healthy exercise in restraint while watching as situations develop through this month and into next.

Offered In Service

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