Category Archives: Columnist

More Kicks than Pricks?* The Aries Full Moon

Sunday night’s Aries Full Moon, which will be exact at 5:08 pm EDT (21:07:45 UTC), brings the Saturn-Pluto conjunction to the forefront. Full Moons are one of the most palpable astrological events we experience — both internally, and through witnessing others’ behavior. This one is like running the essence of Saturn-Pluto in through an IV line.

Photo of a 2019 Full Moon by Amanda Painter.

Both the Aries Moon and Libra Sun are square Pluto in Capricorn; the Sun will remain so for the next couple of days. The Aries Moon is also conjunct Eris, which the Sun will oppose on Oct. 17.

When an inner planet event activates such a pivotal upcoming aspect pattern (Saturn-Pluto square Eris is exact in January 2020), it’s a clarion call to pay attention now. Don’t wait. These intersections of astrological events point out how the big changes and trends we see happening around us are not separate from us; rather, they’re reflecting and echoing what’s happening within us — just on a magnified, collective scale.

Inner planet aspects also bring some ‘personality’ to the larger, slower event (which can otherwise seem a little abstract) when they intersect. The themes of the slower aspects emerge into our personal lives in more tangible ways.

Continue reading →

The Aries Full Moon and Friends

1 Reply

By Amanda Painter

How’s your sleep this week? And your relationship to authority figures — the ‘real’ ones and the internalized ones? Where are your thoughts going, and how do you feel about it? What about your urges and responses in your more intimate relationships? How conscious are you about using your energy in a creative, focused way?

The 2015 Aries Full Moon; photo by Amanda Painter.

As we end this week, several planetary events are conspiring to drive questions like those. The headlining act is the Aries Full Moon on Sunday.

Before we get there, Mercury enters its pre-retrograde echo (or shadow) phase tomorrow. On Saturday, Venus opposes Uranus to add a little extra voltage. Let’s take them in chronological order.

Mercury entering its shadow/echo phase Friday evening is your heads up to prepare any and all things related to communication, its related technologies, spending, transit, and how you handle your frame of mind in general. As in: back up your computer, tie up any loose ends with contracts and major purchases, and begin to get back into habits that help to safeguard against sending emails that ought not to be sent.

Mercury won’t actually station retrograde until Oct. 31 (Trick or Treat!). But as you may know, things can sometimes get even funkier prior to the retrograde than during it. Mercury will station direct — still in Scorpio — on Nov. 20.

Continue reading →

Action and Resolution at the Quarter Moon

6 Replies

By Amanda Painter

Full Moons and New Moons tend to carry more weight in astrology writing. Yet this weekend’s first quarter Moon happens to connect with one of the more important aspects we’re building up to, as does another event this week.

What’s in the dark under that rock? Mercury in Scorpio wants to find out. Photo by Amanda Painter.

On Saturday, the Capricorn Moon squares off against the Libra Sun. That’s the quarter Moon, traditionally describing an opportunity to lean into projects and processes you can build some early momentum with.

Yet the Moon will also be conjunct its own South Node and the planet Saturn. The South Node can represent what is familiar, ‘comfortable’ and habitual in a way that does not help us to grow. You can also think of it as karma: repeated patterns that we’re trying to learn from, so we can move on toward a greater sense of lived purpose. Saturn, of course, holds the line of authority, responsibility, limits and restrictions. Its presence also connects this quarter Moon to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in January.

Continue reading →

Libra New Moon: Tipping Points, Reconciliation and Relationships

Leave a reply

By Amanda Painter

As I write this on Tuesday, the internet is blowing up over two things: 16-year-old Greta Thunberg’s impassioned speech to the UN, in which she spared nobody in her condemnation of leaders’ inaction to stem the climate catastrophe; and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that the U.S. House will open a formal impeachment inquiry against Pres. Trump. With the Sun on the Aries point — via the first degrees of Libra — and the Libra New Moon on Saturday still in that zone where personal and collective meet, this is fitting.

From the Sept. 20 Climate Strike; photo by Amanda Painter.

Libra’s hallmarks include balance, justice, initiative and — worth noting — the possibility for something to go either way. That’s the tricky thing about tipping points.

One would think that the tip would necessarily occur in the direction opposite to what has been experienced up until that moment. That might even be true for these two particular issues. Yet ‘the collective’ and the political machine seem to carry far more inertia than, say, personal tipping points.

Continue reading →

Get Ready for Get Real

Leave a reply

Tomorrow — Monday, Sept. 23 — the Sun enters Libra, heralding the equinox. It’s the beginning of a new season (autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, spring in the Southern Hemisphere), and therefore a natural check-in point.

A student at the Portland, Maine, Climate Strike last Friday quoted teen climate activist Greta Thunberg. Photo by Amanda Painter.

As such, the Libra equinox is arriving as a pointed contrast to much of the energy that has colored recent weeks — and, really, much of the past year.

We’ve essentially been living the life of Jupiter in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces this entire time: those two gas giants made their first exact square on Jan. 13, the second was June 16, and the third and final exact contact was yesterday (Sept. 21).

Continue reading →

Saturn Direct and Jupiter square Neptune — Or: What You’ve Learned Over Summer Vacation

2 Replies

By Amanda Painter

Saturn is now in direct motion in Capricorn, as of Wednesday; this begins the final approach to its conjunction with Pluto in January. On Saturday, Jupiter in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces will complete their last of three exact squares this year. Both of these events seem to ask: what have you been learning about yourself?

Continue reading →

Navigating an Impressionistic Sea

Leave a reply

By Amanda Painter

Have you ever seen an image of an outrigger canoe? Attached to the main portion of the boat is a smaller hull (without seating) that sets out a ways from the primary hull. These boats were developed by early Austronesian-speaking peoples of the Southeast Asian islands for sea travel; the design — and its offshoots, such as catamarans — continue to be popular.

Fire engine abstract; photo by Amanda Painter

Something about this week’s astrology reminds me of an outrigger canoe.

Mainly, it’s that the Virgo planets opposing Neptune are receiving some stability from Saturn in Capricorn. The relationship from Virgo to Capricorn is a trine between earth signs: a relationship of harmony and support, but not great power.

In an outrigger canoe, all the power to move the boat comes from the people in the main hull, paddling. Nobody is paddling in the second hull; it has no seats for people. It’s strictly to help keep the boat balanced and afloat on ocean swells.

The outrigger part of the boat offers stability, but not a guarantee. As we know, the ocean is vast, deep and very, very powerful.

You could say the same about Neptune, particularly in Pisces. It might not be a ‘stormy’ placement. But it can describe a high probability of disorientation. Without landmarks or literal stars visible — such as on a dark, cloudy day — early ocean navigation (pre-compass and sextant) could be incredibly difficult.

Continue reading →

Welcome to the Movie Theater of Your Mind

2 Replies

By Amanda Painter

I was meditating this morning on the chart for Friday’s Virgo New Moon (which is exact at 6:37 am EDT / 10:37:01 UTC) to see if a new angle on it might emerge. And an image did come to me: people collected together in a movie theater, watching a film being projected onto a screen.

Cropped still from Alfonso Cuaron’s 2018 film Roma.

It surprised me how tangibly the scene came through, and how appropriate it was, with an unusual collection of Virgo points clustered together opposite Neptune in Pisces.

For example, all of the ‘personal planets’ — the ones that describe our most basic traits and urges — are in early Virgo: Mercury (the mind, communication), the Sun (ego, conscious self-expression), the Moon (emotions, the unconscious), Mars (drive, ‘masculine’), Venus (receptivity, ‘feminine’). Along with them are the asteroid Juno (relationship needs), a hypothetical point called Transpluto (narrow focus, learning wholeness and integration) and a few other minor objects named for ancient deities with all-too-human characteristics.

Continue reading →