Among the factors distinguishing the astrology of 2017 is two objects entering the same sign in quick succession. Along with at least one other repeating motif (that of significant events taking place in the penultimate degree of a sign) the theme of a rapidly emulated ingress will be part of the scenario for the total solar eclipse in the 29th degree of Leo on Aug 21.

Less than two hours after the Great American Eclipse, the Moon will move on to Virgo. The Sun will follow into Virgo the next day. To cite just one other amazingly timed example coming up, Saturn will enter Capricorn only about 36 hours before it is joined by the Sun in an extraordinary cardinal point solstice conjunction on Dec 21.

This week, the zodiac equivalent of two or more meaningful ingresses in a row will be initiated by Mars. On Thursday, Mars leaves Cancer behind to enter Leo. On Saturday, the Sun will follow suit.

Then, on Sunday, the Moon will enter Leo for an unusually resonant New Moon conjunction with the Sun a little more that one hour later. Needless to say, Mars will still be in the same zodiacal neighborhood.

There are many useful metaphors for how an ingress expresses. To cite just two, the object in question can be thought of as an actor changing costumes (and hence roles); or an athlete removing one uniform and putting on another (consequently moving on from one position to another, one sport to another, or even from one team to another).

If a famous professional athlete gets traded, it takes a while to get used to seeing her or him playing for another side. Imagine the same thing happening to several teammates at once, and it gives you an idea of what to expect after Mars enters Leo Thursday (and, by implication, what to expect in part for this entire year).

Should you find yourself a bit disoriented later this week, it might simply mean you are (on some level) paying attention. Wouldn’t that be better news than mistakenly assuming you are lost?

If your life seems to have been (and continues to be) one thing after another in rapid succession, it is not necessarily a bad sign at all. In fact, you should feel at least some reassurance if your existence is being distinguished by some of the same themes implicitly evident in how the solar system as a whole is moving and interrelating.

Of course, it helps to be aware. It is useful to know your physical location and what comes with the territory. Knowing what day or time it is comes in handy. The same goes for distinguishing themes, and the defining timeframes during which they are expected to take place.

Simply being present to at least some of the astrological tableaux which have been (and will continue to be) repeated during this calendar year could make a very big difference for you — especially if your life is evidently moving in parallel. That way, instead of wondering what’s wrong, you will have the perspective to see just how right things (and you) can be — even if some adjustment is occasionally required.

Offered In Service

By Amanda Painter

Earlier this week on Planet Waves I looked ahead to this weekend’s square between the Cancer Sun and Eris in Aries, describing it as a red flag trying to get us to notice what’s happening around us, especially in our digital environments. Specifically, I suggested that readers notice how they respond to chaos, subversiveness and provocation for its own sake. And right on cue, the news has served up a perfect example for our consideration.

Photo by Amanda Painter

I’m speaking, of course, of this week’s revelation of Donald Trump Jr.’s eagerness to accept what he was told was the Russian government’s help in his father’s presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton.

In this column, I’m not interested in trying to prove the news is ‘true’ or ‘false’, or even in trying to predict what its political fallout might be. I’m more interested in how it illustrates the astrology, and how that relates to you personally.

This incident offers up awareness (the Sun) of an act of subversion (Eris), and the chaos that has ensued (Eris again). It brings up a question of identity (Aries), and of feelings and ‘home’ (Cancer): What does it mean to be ‘American’ in the digital era? Who gets to influence American presidential campaigns? How do you feel when you discover someone’s subversive actions, especially those happening within your ‘home’?

Continue reading →

We are now past the first Full Moon of the current season, which took place in Capricorn on Sunday. You might, then, logically perceive a theme of consolidation or elaboration to be setting in. With the Sun about to complete its third week in Cancer, the perception is being reinforced.

Trends that initiated since the Cancer solstice in June would now be expected to begin assuming some sort of recognizable form. One example would be length of days relative to nights compared to this time last month.

Trends, however, are subject to interruption. It is not unusual for a long spate of sunny weather to be occasionally, and temporarily, disrupted by clouds and rain. Looking ahead to the astrology for the remainder of this week, similar scenarios could well become evident.

As today’s Aquarius Moon wanes further into Pisces tomorrow, it will set up a water trine (a separation of 120 degrees on the zodiac) with the Sun on Thursday. If that aspect correlates with some emotional disruption, you should remember to keep a longer perspective in mind.

This is not to say that emotions (or intuitions) you experience this week are in any way without significance. How you feel, regardless of the time or context, is always an important matter. The idea is to integrate what is implicitly of ephemeral quality so as to make the more enduring nature of any continuum a more sustainable experience.

Rain absorbed in the ground keeps life going once the skies have cleared. By the same token, any inconveniences you encounter before the weekend will probably turn out to have a silver lining of their own.

This would therefore be a good week to experience everything to the fullest, come what may. Even if you encounter some interruptions of your own, engage with them as fully as you can. That way, when the Moon moves into Aries to begin the weekend, you could very well find yourself more refreshed and energized than you might otherwise be.

Of course, if you feel the need to take shelter, you should. There is something to be said for knowing and respecting your boundaries — especially as they differ from others.

To the extent that you can, however, it would probably be a good idea to take in all this week offers. With more than two months to go in our present season, the time to orient yourself with indications of a foreseeable future is drawing nigh.

Offered In Service

“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
— Paul McCartney

It’s been a busy week for the sky. Venus left Taurus behind to ingress Gemini as Tuesday segued into Wednesday. Almost exactly 24 hours later Mercury departed Cancer to enter Leo. Now a Full Moon is coming up, and it’s time to do a loving turn.

For all but the easternmost time zone of North America, the Full Moon opposition from the Cancer Sun to the Capricorn Moon will be exact late Saturday. Farther eastward, it will happen sometime Sunday.

For consenting adult couples, you could not choose a better Full Moon for romantic weekend activity. For much of the world, it’s an optimal time of year to be outdoors and comfortable at night. Of course, not everybody is part of a loving couple.

Anybody reading these words, however, is part of the world. If there is no one person with whom you can cuddle, the world at large could use some love right now. A significant contribution might begin with loving the Earth.

All of us take from the Earth. There is nothing wrong with that. Some, however, are more careful than others. If you want a way to honor the Full Moon alignment this weekend, you could start with treating our planet a little better.

Perhaps this would be a good weekend to leave the car parked. Alternatively, you could plant a tree — or simply water one. Even if all you do is pick up a little carelessly discarded litter, it would help. It would be even better if you did not litter at all. A similar principle applies to showing love for your fellow inhabitants of Earth.

Showing love in a respectful way for other beings can sometimes mean simply leaving them alone. That’s nearly always true for animals in the wild, and often also true for people. At the very least, you can rarely do wrong by doing no harm.

Nearly every day presents you with the opportunity to refrain from doing harm. If another person is not currently receptive to so much as a kind word, you can still show your love by not writing or saying anything harsh to them. Indeed, perhaps the surest form of manifesting love in the world is to exercise restraint.

It is seldom, if ever, that any person can change the world (or even a single life) by themselves. Reality tends to be more complex than that. What you can realistically do is behave so as not to make things worse.

Even if you cannot improve a single person’s lot going into next week, it does not mean you are powerless to show love. Sometimes your most effective forms of caring and affection are not outwardly demonstrated at all. Restraint may not seem to count for much, but sometimes what you don’t do will be the best thing you could ever have done.

And in the end, taking some loving care of yourself could make the biggest difference of all.

Offered In Service

By Amanda Painter

As I was preparing to write about this Sunday’s powerful Capricorn Full Moon conjunct Pluto, I happened to read a 2015 article by Asam Ahmad titled, “What Makes Call-Out Culture So Toxic.” I realized the article speaks to one possible level of experiencing this Full Moon, or one of its messages.

Last year’s Cap Full Moon; photo by Amanda Painter.

The astrological setup is that the Sun in Cancer will oppose the Moon in Capricorn, exact just before 12:07 am EDT on July 9 (04:06:30 UTC). The Moon will be precisely one degree away from a conjunction to Pluto.

The Sun and Moon are both making their way to square Uranus and Eris in Aries, though the Moon will make its square later the same day.

Uranus and Eris in Aries are emblematic of much of the social and political chaos we’re currently living in — particularly as it is experienced via (and is shaped by) digital media.

In this Full Moon chart, Uranus-Eris represents not only our cultural environment, but the way that environment is provoking us — both consciously and unconsciously — and creating a sense of tension you may need to act on.

With the Moon-Pluto conjunction, we get an image of deep emotional transformation, particularly with regard to what has seemed previously set in stone. It also speaks of a sense of loneliness that can be inherent in such a personal, internal process.

The Cancer Sun in opposition sets up an interesting dynamic: emotional sensitivity, but of the kind that could potentially get overly concerned with what’s going on within others, or get a little defensive in reaction to what’s being mirrored. It speaks of the urge to seek safety by identifying with one’s ‘tribe’ or family in reaction to some interpersonal confrontation — such as being faced with changes that are beyond one’s control; or even the attempt to control those changes and others’ emotions anyway.

Continue reading →

On Tuesday, the U.S. will mark its birthday amid pomp, circumstance and — potentially — the total fragmentation of its democratic institutions. The current president and his party might very well be focused on infrastructure: what they are not letting on is that they’re looking to change the infrastructure of the nation itself.

One good thing about these times is the reaction that has been inspired — mainly expressing itself through protest. This is from the Science March in San Francisco, CA. Photo by Mark Gould / Flickr

The astrology of July 4 is suggestive of this being a watershed moment — and indeed, Eric has already written about the significance of these times for the U.S.; the forthcoming Aug. 21 eclipse, alongside the country’s natal Pluto return, being at the center.

Pluto is currently getting a lot of attention via planets in Cancer and Libra, as if experiencing one long T-square, and there is tension building. Meanwhile, Neptune (also involved in this pattern) is precisely square the Great Attractor, which speaks of confusion over our choices; and perhaps also our spiritual and ethical priorities. It’s certainly clear that the U.S. as a nation is facing some tough decisions.

As historian Nancy MacLean pointed out on the June 29 edition of Democracy Now!, the radical right appears to have a coherent plan to deconstruct the U.S. from the ground up. She refers to ‘clustered big bangs’:

“You push things through very, very radically, a whole series of things. It’s like the shock-and-awe doctrine of warfare — right? — that you push out so much so quickly that people are utterly shocked. You know, they just don’t even know where to start to resist. And they can’t — they can’t respond to the whole panoply of measures. And while they’re shocked and dazed, you’ve effectively changed the terrain.”

Some very recent instances of Congressional Republican behavior offer a key to just how willing the GOP is to play dirty. Notwithstanding the maelstrom of shadiness that is the Russian hacking scandal — behind which many equally nefarious problems have conveniently hidden themselves — indicators such as the refusal to confirm Obama SC nominee Merrick Garland, or to hear the thoughtful, poignant words of Coretta Scott King at Jeff Sessions’ hearing, betray the determination of McConnell, Ryan and others to force through their partisan agenda. (Perhaps even more astonishing is the proposed Republican replacement for ‘Obamacare’ that would leave an estimated 22 million Americans without insurance coverage.)

The determined weakness of the Democrats is not helping. Stubbornly clinging to all the worst facets of its character, the DNC has proved itself to be utterly aloof from real people, and unwilling to change that impression, no matter the consequences.

This is deeply troubling, as what the U.S. so badly needs is a credible left alternative. Over in the U.K., Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is demonstrating, with considerable success, how that could look. Corbyn’s following is quite as passionate as Trump’s; yet his politics are almost precisely opposite. The Democratic establishment could learn a good deal from his performance. As things stand, however, this would require very little short of a party-wide revolution.

The context of American politics is a troubled history indeed: a land mass taken from its Native population through war and genocide; an economy built on slavery; and a group mind clinging to the tenets of laissez-faire capitalism, and outdated prejudices. What we are faced with now is the logical conclusion of that ideology, which is fascism. What seems to be required to avert such a visitation is a wholesale uprooting, and rebirth on the foundations of truth and compassion. Now that would be a day worth celebrating.

Today is the last day of June. It is also the eve of what may be one of the most subtle yet significant astrological moments of 2017. Tomorrow, shortly after 3 am EDT (07:09:23 UTC), centaur object 2060 Chiron commences a retrograde in the next-to-last degree of Pisces. You will not regret taking note.

How the 2017 retrograde station of Chiron matters is a subject as complex as the object itself. Even so, you will probably be able to get to the heart of how the event relates to you by remembering one of the most brilliantly concise astrological characterizations ever made.

Shortly after Chiron was discovered in 1977 (and named in 1979), the late, great Al Morrison called it “The inconvenient benefic.” It did not take long for that one statement to prove itself as one of the most prescient ever made by an astrologer. Perhaps because Al Morrison and Chiron shared a certain facet of personality.

Charles Kowal, the astronomer who discovered Chiron, called it a “maverick” because of how and where it moved. Analogous to Pluto, Chiron has a very eccentric (elongated) orbit that is steeply inclined to the ecliptic plane of the solar system. Much as with comets, Chiron crosses the orbits of better-known planets (in this case, Saturn and Uranus). At first, Chiron was thought to be an asteroid.

Yet, Chiron is much larger than (and does not exhibit the periodicity of) a comet. By the same token, Chiron does not quite qualify as either asteroid or planet. With time, a whole new astronomical category (“centaur object”) was coined to define it. Maverick, indeed. Just like Al Morrison.

During his professional lifetime, Al Morrison upset a lot of astrologers with his challenges to tradition and precedent. Even so, he exhibited proficiency, and got results nobody could deny. Even now, decades after his transition from this biological coil, Morrison remains both highly controversial and deeply influential — just like Chiron. It would be fair to say that astrology, as it is now practiced (on Planet Waves and elsewhere) would not be the same if it were not for him.

It is almost as if Al Morrison recognized himself in Chiron. It would not be too much of a stretch to say that he somehow lives on through his fellow maverick. For those reasons alone, Morrison’s succinct (if not complete) expression of how astrologers might interpret Chiron is worthy of remembering and putting to use.

You might wonder what the term “inconvenient benefic” means for you. First off, when it comes to Chiron, it is important to recognize its implicitly complex and subtle nature. No single phrase (neither Kowal’s nor Morrison’s) will do. You can’t pin Chiron down like a euthanized butterfly. That being said, there is one practical interpretation of “inconvenient benefic” you can apply to your own life: ultimately, Chiron is not exclusively about inconvenient problems, it is also about beneficial solutions.

You might also ask how this particular Chiron retrograde is so significant. For that reason you need only look ahead to the total solar eclipse coming up on Aug. 21.

The Great American Eclipse will take place in the last fraction of the next-to-last degree of Leo. Tomorrow’s retrograde station of Chiron will take place exactly (to the arc minute) 150 degrees away in Pisces. One arc minute, by the way, is one-sixtieth of one tiny degree. For astrologers, at least, such precision cannot be disregarded.

Yet, saying what the aspect between Chiron’s 2017 retrograde station and our next solar eclipse means is a task similar to translating Chiron itself. It’s subtle. It’s complex. Nonetheless, there is a way to work with it.

When two objects are separated by 150 degrees on the zodiac, astrologers call it a quincunx. It is the midpoint between the better-known trine aspect (a separation of 120 degrees) and an opposition (two things on opposite sides of either the sky or zodiac). Trines are considered easy; potentially too easy, as with a proverbial ‘slippery slope’. Oppositions represent a climax at the middle of a cycle, preceded by a build-up and followed by a denouement (think of a Full Moon opposition between the Sun and Moon to get the point).

It is therefore logical that many astrologers consider quincunxes to have something to do with adjustment. To cite just one example, a well-adjusted person knows when (and when not) to depart from the path of least resistance to confront a challenge and get stuff done. Therein may very well be a key to Chiron’s final retrograde station in Pisces.

Make note of the beginning of Chiron’s retrograde tomorrow. Then, make a note on your calendar for the end of Chiron’s 2017 reversal on Dec. 5, 2017. In between, keep two words in mind: ‘adjustment’ and ‘solution’. Every once in a while, think about how those two words might combine to indicate a possibly inconvenient yet also probably beneficial course of action in your life. Above all, don’t think too narrowly.

During what remains of 2017, adjustment might mean redoubling your efforts. At other times it might simply imply letting go and releasing attachment to the outcome you previously envisioned.

Similarly, efficacious solutions might sometimes be what you want, need or have in mind. On other occasions what ultimately proves to be the best and most appropriate solution could very well be something you would not have previously accepted.

Finally, between now and the total solar eclipse in Leo, watch what other people are doing — not to compete and compare, but to learn. Much as Al Morrison found himself reflected in Chiron, the extent to which others are consciously aware of adjustment and solutions could well provide you with an example that will open your own doors of perception as never before. Or did you think it meaningless that the glyph for Chiron looks like a key?

Offered In Service

INVOLUTION has now been published! Order all 12 signs of INVOLUTION here for instant access, or choose your individual signs here. Check out our all-new video preview.