It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come.
— Sam Cooke

Intent is a powerful thing. Mercury enters Capricorn at 10:53 pm EST tonight (3:53 UT tomorrow), symbolically inviting you to prove just how powerful your intent can be. Intent originates with the mind, which (among other things) versatile Mercury represents. Intent is part of the ‘conceive’ that must precede the ‘achieve’.

Mercury will join Pluto and Venus in Capricorn, and will precede the grand entrance of the Sun and Moon on Dec. 21 for the astounding and unlikely simultaneity of a New Moon and solstice — which appears for all the world to be the initiation of a manifestation.

That’s because Capricorn is a cardinal sign (along with Aries, Cancer and Libra). Cardinal signs are where seasons initiate upon ingress of the Sun, setting a template for other ingresses.

Capricorn is also an earth sign (along with Taurus and Virgo), where the nature of things are made tangible. What is made real in Capricorn is also likely to endure because of how Capricorn is ruled by Saturn’s proficiency for leaving form, order and structure in its wake.

When Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, the indications were clear. Implied at the beginning of a decade and a half of Pluto’s tour of Capricorn is that form, order and structures in place for more than two centuries were up for transformation. The only question was what the nature of the transformation would be.

Then, for nearly two seasons from late last year to early this year, Venus spent more time in Capricorn (due to retrograde) than it had for more than two centuries, to implicitly make us receptive to the change that has to come.

Now Venus is back in Capricorn (since Dec. 10) reminding us to be receptive, and Mercury is about to follow. That’s how Mercury entering Capricorn this year is your cue to participate (or not) in answering the question of just what the form, order and structure of an inevitable and lasting change will be.

Your participation begins with setting an intent for what you want the rest of your life to be like. After that, what you want the lives of today’s children to be like. After that, the children and grandchildren of today’s children.

Because Mercury is and will be in swift and direct motion for all the time it will be in Capricorn (it leaves Capricorn Jan. 5 or Jan. 6, depending on your time zone), it is emblematically powerful. Hence your intent is implied to be powerful at this time.

So step up and stand in your power. Set a clear intent for the initiation of a new season in your life, and the life of the world. It will make a difference. Especially when the Sun and Moon conjoin for a New Moon solstice, and do so as the rulers (or co-rulers) of fully half the signs of the zodiac gather in Capricorn. The planets are inviting you to participate in determining the nature of the change that’s gonna come.

Offered In Service

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

On Sunday, at 7:51 am EST (12:51 UT), the Virgo Moon will reach its last quarter phase, with 90 degrees of separation from the Sagittarius Sun — both in the sky and on the zodiac. It’s called a closing square aspect between the luminaries (Sun and Moon), and it approaches at a time when we could all afford to be closer with each other.

There has been so much in public and political exchange to drive us either apart or into seclusion since our current season initiated with the last full week of September. For many, perhaps including you, such a social environment has taken a personal toll.

After all, who would not want to recoil from injustice, atrocity and confounding absurdity? Yet, separation is even worse for the intrinsically social beings we are.

We are living at a crucial moment that will not just decide how this season will conclude and the new season will begin. Also being decided by all and each of us is whether the innate social nature that allowed humanity to survive is compatible with the respect for each and every individual human life that is necessary for society to survive.

While respect for human life begins with you, none of us are going to get through this moment alone successfully. Indeed, growing closer to each other will not be enough. Only by perceiving and cleaving to our individual and collective connection with the Earth and the universe will we be able to resolve our current crises and ascend to another cycle, another season.

As evidence that we are, together and individually, part of and contributing to something greater is how the Earth’s natural environment is now at a comparable moment of crisis correlating with that of our social environment. An even farther reaching connection is being evinced by how a solution is simultaneously being demonstrated on the zodiac and in the sky by the luminaries — the two greater lights.

Astrologers consider the lunar last quarter to be a crucial moment as the Sun and Moon close in on their next New Moon conjunction.

As the template for all closing square aspects, the last quarter Moon poses two questions for you. The answers you arrive at determine how the closing lunar cycle (or lunation) will end, and how the next lunation (initiated at the next New Moon) will begin for you. That’s where astrology can help by bringing thousands of years of observation and correlation to your situation.

Both questions have to do with the intrinsic nature of a square aspect as a moment of tension. The first query is whether the source of apparent pressure will be properly identified. After all, finding anything requires that you first look in the right place. The second uncertainty is how to gain relief from the evident strain on our individual and collective constitutions.

You have to stay up quite late or wake up very early to see the half-lit last quarter Moon. That’s because the Moon is getting closer to the Sun from our perspective, rising at about midnight, reaching its highest point in the sky around dawn.

By implication then, you have to go to some trouble to actually see the source of tension in a closing square. Even then, it’s still possible to be internally divided over its origin.

Fortunately, astrologers have been observing closing squares between the luminaries for a long time. Reliably, the correlated human experience is tension originating on the inside.

Unless one goes to the trouble of putting the illuminating experience of astrology to use, it’s easy to ascribe the perceived pressure so often concurrent with the lunar last quarter to an external origin. Such a misattribution gets you out of sync with the Sun and Moon, severing your contact with the universe, the Earth, and other people.

The Sun and Moon have no such problem — they persist and grow closer after the last quarter. By doing so, the greater lights are demonstrating what your priorities should be even as they offer an example for you to follow. Even more importantly, the luminaries are symbolizing an example for you to set.

While none of us are going to get through this moment alone, each of us must take responsibility for getting the ball rolling. You must first recognize that the Sun and Moon exist inside of you, and express through you, just as surely as they do in he sky. Hence, the extent to which you are at variance with the sky is the extent to which you will be out of whack with yourself, with other people, with the Earth and with the cosmos.

In effect, you are now being called to grow closer with all that is. You are being asked to become a living, breathing luminary for the rest of us to see and move with. You are being required to find and show your greater light so as to contribute to our collective survival.

A week from this coming Sunday, something extraordinary will happen on the zodiac and in the sky. The Sun and Moon will synchronize with each other and the Earth by merging directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn, while simultaneously conjoining in the first degree of the sign Capricorn to begin a new lunation and a new season at the same time. That doesn’t happen very often.

Hence, the Capricorn New Moon and solstice will represent an opportunity to begin anew on two different levels at the same time — emblematic of a giant leap. The sky implicitly will be part of it. The Earth will intrinsically be part of it. Whether we will also be part of it will be a matter of choice — your choice, of whether or not to grow closer and be as one with each and every other.

Offered In Service

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

Venus enters Capricorn at 11:42 am EST (16:42 UT) tomorrow with an implied sense of completion. Not an ending, please understand. As Eric recently pointed out in the context of the Gemini Full Moon, there are no endings in astrology because (with few exceptions) everything on the zodiac just keeps on moving without pause.

Completion in the astrological sense is not about endings. It is about meetings — or perhaps more properly, returns. So, in a very real sense Venus will be returning to Capricorn where it has traversed about once a year since before there were years.

For astrologers, completion can also mean two or more objects, points, or signs with complementary natures interacting so as to move into or away from balance with the the other(s) in some way.

You might call this interactive type of completion a form of continuous cosmic titration. It’s a process that hints at the constantly changing nature of a solution you might apply to a correlating issue in your life. Interestingly, this year’s ingress of Venus to Capricorn works toward finding the nature of a solution on several levels.

On the level of what you can see in the sky with your own eyes, Venus is returning to visibility after a long trip behind the Sun. Of course, whether you can see Venus in the West after sundown at this time depends on your weather, sight lines and latitude.

Before long, however, nearly all of us will be able to witness Venus rising on a new horizon. Which means that you will no longer have to wake up before the birds to witness the brightest planet in all its glory, as was the case earlier this year.

Hence, there is a sense of completion in having Venus appear on a new horizon in the sky. Perhaps you can apply that sense to understand and address any new horizons now appearing in your life. In order to do so, be bright like Venus and gradually rise to whatever occasion presents itself as a result of those new horizons. You might even want to emulate Venus to the point of gradually increasing your visibility after a long period of being less than apparent for whatever reason.

Speaking of new horizons, the spacecraft of the same name is on the last leg of its approach to Pluto (one of Eric’s top five events of 2015 featured in the readings and horoscopes of the upcoming annual edition: “Cosmophilia”), and we will soon get our first good look at astrology’s Little Big Planet. So happens Venus is entering Capricorn to conjoin with Pluto (and square Uranus in Aries) on Dec. 20.

Consider how the Uranus-Pluto square is a continuing story that is (as Eric has said many times) defining our era. Venus completing another cycle with Pluto on the zodiac (just as we are about get a good look at Pluto in space) indicates some possible solutions for how political events are playing out in your personal life.

First, make like the New Horizons spacecraft and go to meet. Especially if you can’t see things clearly, confront the personal problems that come with the political territory of our time by going to meet. 

Go to city council meetings, for example. Or go to meetings of activists in your community, and see what’s happening from up close as complementary points of view meet and moderate each other (or not). Do this to better understand where your own interest fits in with anybody and everybody else. Who knows, your own presence might bring some completion and balance just as Venus will bring the same to Capricorn.

For as Venus enters Capricorn it will ingress a slice of the zodiac ruled by Saturn, where Mars is also exalted. For some time now Mars, first from Capricorn, and now from Aquarius (where Saturn co-rules with Uranus) has been in what astrologers call “mutual reception” with Saturn.

That’s because Saturn is currently in Scorpio, where Mars co-rules with Pluto. As result, much of how astrology has been expressing in your life lately may well have seemed unbalanced, or at least incomplete. That’s how, with Venus entering Capricorn tomorrow, some completion is in order with yet another example you can emulate — with the objective of bringing further balance and completion for your own life.

So, let’s review what you can do to be in stride with Venus from tomorrow until it leaves Capricorn behind to enter Aquarius early next year:

First, look to new horizons, which may already be appearing in your life. Be bright, rise to the occasion, and be visible in a way others will welcome for the illumination you bring.

Next, go to meet. Nearly everything in the sky, on the zodiac, and in the world is moving. To the extent you can, so should you. Move and get a good look at what’s going on from up close and personal. You might be surprised at what you find.

Finally, look for where your own unique nature and qualities will complete what is already there. Not to end, please remember, but to help determine the nature of what have possibly been elusive solutions.

Who knows, by simply showing up for a look, you could ultimately be the final piece in the greater and heretofore unrealized peace we have continuously been trying to find for so long. Don’t think so? How will you know unless you try?

Offered In Service

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

When the Gemini Full Moon opposes the Sagittarius Sun at 7:27 am EST (12:27 UT) Saturday, the Moon will reflect the Sun’s light onto a world out of balance in many ways. Fortunately, the astrology of which the Gemini Full Moon will be just a part will provide you reason to reflect on how balance might be restored.

In the sky, on the zodiac circle, and in the rest of the natural world, equilibrium is in practice a continuum of either real or apparent motion. Most often, the motion is cyclical, like the seasons. Sometimes the motion in question takes the form of waves, which also transmit both energy and information.

Other times, the continuing dynamic of balance entails rising alternating with falling, as in the level of rivers, or tides. One can also observe advances followed by retreats, followed by advances, then retreats again.

Whether it’s round and round, up and down, or back and forth, the natural process of balance is never static. Nevertheless, things can go only so far one way before they must come back the other way. It’s a journey more than a destination. It’s an engine more than a creation. The middle way is never attained finally, but always continuously.

Unfortunately, in human affairs balance is not a given. It must be made to happen. Your checkbook does not balance itself. Neither do the scales of justice. There is no natural process to assure that right will overcome might.

Yet, all sentient beings have some sense of what’s right from their individual perspective. The fact that human beings tend to form communities confers upon you at least some additional sense of what’s right for everybody involved. It is through that very common sense of common decency that the journey towards balance begins in your life, and in the world.

An innate sense of what’s best for everybody involved must in turn be balanced with awareness. That’s where astrology, particularly the astrology of Saturday’s Full Moon, will come in.

As a first principle, astrology provides a detached perspective. It’s a way of getting away from the stresses and stories that make everything so confusing and distorted down here. We can look at what’s going on up there, based on the premise that down there and up here are actually one continuous whole — the system we call solar.

The demonstrable fact that you are an interactive part of the cosmos is the premise upon which Eric and others are even now composing the Planet Waves annual edition for 2015, appropriately titled “Cosmophilia.”

Recognizing the same fact will give you something to add to your innate sense of common decency — the perspective conferred by higher ground.

To attain that perspective, it’s not necessary to get all technical and complicated about the astrology of the Gemini Full Moon. But it would help to isolate two factors: a factor of space, and a factor of time.

The first factor is that of space. The Sun will have a lot of heavy company in its Sagittarius ‘space’ on the zodiac when it opposes the Moon at the moment of maximum fullness. Stepping back from the interesting but potentially distracting detail, visualize an entire football team on one end of a seesaw, and you will get the picture

Whereas in mid-Gemini, where the Full Moon will be, you can practically hear crickets. In other words, the axis connecting the luminary (Sun and Moon) opposition this month is, from a non-technical but still valid perspective, a clear symbol of imbalance.

Indeed, when you compare the number of astrologically significant objects in Sagittarius with the dearth of same in Gemini, and combine that fact with the sense that every Full Moon represents a culmination, it’s a clear signal from the cosmos that things have gone about as far one way as they possibly can, and/or probably should.

Then, there is also a time factor. This weekend’s Full Moon will take place only about a week before Uranus and Pluto reach an exact square aspect (a separation of 90 degrees on the zodiac circle) for the sixth time since June 2012.

For astrologers, when significant events occur within a short space of time, it is just as meaningful as when significant objects crowd into a narrow slice of the zodiac. This is especially true of the temporal concurrence between the Uranus-Pluto square and the Gemini Full Moon.

Repeatedly over the past several years, Eric has referred to the unusually long oscillating continuum of Uranus-Pluto squares as “era-defining.” Hence, any closely concurrent events will implicitly contribute to the definition of the era even now being shaped — which is where you come in.

You factor in because you are indisputably here now, and because you are unavoidably (if not undeniably) part of a greater whole. As part of a greater whole, you are also demonstrably more than just a cog because (unlike the Sun, Moon, Uranus, Pluto or any other constituents of naturally oscillating equilibriums) you can choose.

And because you can choose, you have a power conferred to no planet and none of the stars. You have the power to tip the balance.

You are, by your very being as a human, conferred with the capacity to both recognize an imbalance between might and right, and a responsibility to do something about it, if only by the example your conduct sets.

If there’s anything to astrology, your example will make a difference. If indeed an entire era is even now in the process of taking shape, the difference you make will implicitly last much longer and take up significantly more space than you ever dreamed possible.

Realize the impossible dream begins by consciously using the occasion of this weekend’s Gemini Full Moon. Use it to recognize the imbalance perpetrated by might, and to say (if only to inform your own choices), “that’s far enough.”

Offered In Service

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

At the peak of this week’s various fire trine aspects, fiery Mars will leave Capricorn and enter Aquarius at 6:57 pm EST (23:57 UT) on Thursday, as if to pass you a torch to carry forward. Now the question is what you will choose to do with whatever form of hot responsibility you are about to be handed.

From a holistic perspective, the nature the responsibility being passed on to you while Mars traverses Aquarius will be conferred by awareness.

Given one way Aquarius differs from Capricorn, the awareness being handed to you will not be yours alone to carry. Rather, it will be shared — at least until Mars continues on to Pisces come Jan. 12.

Outwardly, some people might perceive transition of Mars from Capricorn to Aquarius to represent more of the same because staid Saturn rules both signs. Hence the so-called mutual reception between Mars in a Saturn-ruled sign and Saturn in Scorpio (co-ruled by Mars and Pluto) continues until Dec. 23.

Such a perception of continuity has a valid point, and for nearly three weeks we can continue to expect Mars and Saturn to somewhat share, or even occasionally trade, characteristics. Such an exchange is a primary result of what happens when two planets concurrently occupy each other’s dominion.

In spite of Saturn in common, however, Aquarius and Capricorn do not have the same nature. A relative new-comer, unpredictable Uranus, shares ruling duties for Aquarius with pedantic Saturn, forming an odd-couple arrangement that is somehow appropriate given how element and quality mix in their mutual domain.

For while Capricorn sensibly combines a cardinal (initiating) quality with an earthen (fundamental) elemental identity, the constitution of Aquarius is (on the surface, at least) a contradiction in terms.

Because Aquarius follows a cardinal sign (Capricorn) in the sequence of the zodiac, it’s by definition a fixed sign as evinced by the Sun. In other words, by the time the Sun enters Aquarius next year, the season initiated by the Capricorn solstice on Dec. 21 will be unambiguously “fixed” into place and clearly recognizable for what it is.

Forming one of the greater oxymorons presented by astrology, however, Aquarius is also identified by its association with the element of air. Of the four elements (fire, earth, air and water) derived from ancient natural science and applied for use in astrology, air is perhaps the hardest to imagine being fixed into place.

Nonetheless, when you consider that air is also associated with ideas, the superficial contradiction begins to make sense. After all, it is common to refer to the sharing and exchange of ideas as “something in the air.”

So it is then that Aquarius is rightfully associated with otherwise diverse groups of people who identify with each other through shared ideas, common awareness and unifying consciousness. This in contrast with Capricorn representing a hierarchical and/or elitist power structure.

Hence, with the passing of energetic Mars into Aquarius, there is a sense that some expression of established order is divesting itself of having to carry on somehow. The divestment is, in turn, implicitly being offloaded onto you through association with those people with whom you share guiding principles of conduct and contribution.

There is abundant evidence of recent failures by the established order to hold up its end of the social bargain. Hence it is entirely appropriate that people with the common interest in common should take up the Martian torch of energy and desire to get something done (or at least make a start), especially when a new season is about to begin.

But without awareness — your awareness especially — nothing will change.

Unless you elect to be aware, what’s in the air will pass you by. Unless you take responsibility for what you are aware of, your conscience will not rest easy. Unless you act with integrity upon what you are responsible for, you will not be whole.

Fortunately, the impending ingress of Mars into Aquarius means that the responsibility conferred by what comes to you through the air will not be yours alone to bear. That you will be able to do your part in unison with others, accomplishing more than you ever could on your own.

So, sniff the air a bit come Thursday. Follow your nose to where and when you can do your passionate part to step in with others and make up for where the established order has let us all down. In that way, you will be one with many, and with the cosmos as well.

Offered In Service

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

Mercury enters tropical Sagittarius in direct motion at 9:26 pm EST tonight (02:26 UT tomorrow) as a messenger, not as a passenger. Planets move through signs, and in doing so bring their archetypal messages to express through a given sign’s ‘nature’ (or ‘signature’, if you will) as an example of change manifesting in your life.

Perhaps you should take the occasion to at least think about emulating Mercury by your example. After all, you are here, and existence is so much more meaningful with a purpose.

One question rational discourse cannot resolve is whether you came here with a purpose that preceded your existence, or whether purpose is something you bring to being here. Nonetheless, it makes sense to assume nothing you can’t readily prove. Centuries ago a fellow named Rene Descartes covered the first base for you with a premise never disproved: “I think, therefore I am.”

Even so, it’s often the path of least resistance to ride along as a passenger with how others think. It requires conscious effort to get off the bus upon occasion, actually making it your purpose to convey yourself. Mercury’s ingress to Sagittarius tonight is just such an occasion. 

Among versatile Mercury’s many roles in astrology (beyond its mythic image as a messenger) is a representation of how you think. Accordingly, astrology posits that Mercury changing signs indicates some sort of corresponding change of mind is in order.

You don’t need any astrologer to tell you the nature of your thoughts since Mercury re-entered Scorpio (following its last retrograde of 2014) on Nov. 8. However, it would be implicitly helpful if you were to demonstrate a capacity to get off the Scorpio thought-bus and be open to changing how you think with Mercury’s ingress to Sagittarius tonight.

It would also be explicitly helpful if your being open-minded were to serve as an example for others to emulate after Mercury’s implied shift of expression upon entering Sagittarius.

Since most of us cannot assume to read your mind, being an example means being a messenger and expressing yourself as somebody who is open to how others think, somebody who is simply willing to change.

Simply being open to changing your mind may not seem like an exceptional message, but it is. It’s emblematic of what Mercury is doing tonight, and Mercury is profound company to keep.

Indeed (as well as in word), when you consider some of the human company you might be keeping today, a lot of what you see and hear is likely to be from those who have made up their mind.

By simply being open to how others think, you will be the exception among those who have made it their purpose merely to take exception. At the end of the day, it is only by setting such a simple yet profound example that anything or anybody is likely to change.

And change, once started, tends to acquire a momentum as others join in. So, unless you think the world is fine the way it is right now, please consider to what extent you are a passenger in it all. What purpose you might serve by simply moving out of a previous signature and into another, like Mercury the messenger?

Offered In Service

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

Jupiter and Saturn are taking their time, each in their own way. So, it may seem, is humanity taking its time to decide what we will be. It’s a process in which every one of us is involved, like it or not. Each in our own way we are determining more than just our individual fates — we are determining the fate of our kind.

It’s not a simple thing to be living now. Nonetheless, it is a great privilege, and a great responsibility you have accrued simply by being alive.

From the cold streets of Ferguson, Missouri, to hot, parched desert battlefields there is both a great raising and a great lowering going on. For as many as are rising above their fear all over the world, there are also many lowered by fear. The net result is taking its time — but like Jupiter and Saturn, not taking forever.

Closer to the Sun than Jupiter and Saturn are the personal planets — Mercury, Venus and Mars — making their appointed rounds swiftly to mark our years. Farther from the Sun, from Uranus outward, are planets of history, distinguishing centuries and even millennial cycles by their own circulations.

In between are Jupiter and Saturn, the inter-personal planets by which decades are determined and generations are judged.

Right now, Jupiter and Saturn are taking their time coming to some astrologically implicit conclusions, giving each and all of us some extra time in the bargain. And a bargain it is, the nature of which each and all of us will determine in the months to come.

In four short months, Jupiter has traversed more than two-thirds of the way through tropical Leo. In recent weeks, however, Jupiter’s progress has slowed practically to a stop as a prelude to a five-month-long retrograde (beginning on Dec. 8), which will enforce a review of nearly half of Jupiter’s advancement so far.

Saturn, for its part, is about to conclude more than two years of slogging through the waters of Scorpio to refresh its spirit in the fires of Sagittarius on Dec. 23. Nevertheless, it is in Scorpio for nearly seven more weeks, and a retrograde next year will compel Saturn’s return — allowing Scorpio to collect what it is justly owed before Saturn is finally free.

So it is that in the immediate future of the inter-personal planets time will be taken, and given. The question is what you will do with the time being given to you.

Will you apply the awareness astrology offers to raise your own and that of others? Or will you lower yourself to indifference as if that will change anything?

The late, great astrologer Rachelle (“Rockie”) Gardiner often preached that, “patience is the key to heaven.” By that pithy observation she did not invoke a mythic key to pearl-encrusted gates.

Rather, she meant that none of us can make the planets, nor their apparently synchronized earthy cycles move any faster. She implied that each and all of us are best served by taking the time given by the heavens gratefully and using it wisely to access what of heaven Earth does indeed offer.

So how will you take your time during the season to come? That’s your question to answer, along with the rest of us, every one, as the heavens patiently watch.

Offered In Service

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