The astrology has been like a highlight reel lately. There were eclipses. There was a Mercury retrograde. Jupiter wound up more than a year in Virgo and moved on to Libra. Then the Sun followed Jupiter into Libra to precipitate a new season. After all of that and more, one might think Venus changing signs would not be very special. Think again.

Earlier today, Venus embarked upon a cruise through Scorpio’s fixed water. The tour will last until Oct. 18, when Venus will move on to Sagittarius. It’s not rare for Venus to visit Scorpio. Roughly speaking, it happens once a year.

Neither is Venus considered to be powerfully expressed in Scorpio. That’s because Scorpio is on the opposite side of the zodiac from Taurus. Along with Libra, Taurus is where Venus is said to be in its ‘domicile’. For astrologers, any planet opposed to its domicile (the sign it rules) is considered to be in ‘detriment’. Anything happening in Scorpio, however, is intrinsically going to defy simple interpretation.

Scorpio is complex. Water signs tend towards the enigmatic. Fixed signs can be resistant. The combination is often mysterious. With Scorpio being a feminine sign ruled by assertive Mars, there is an explicit polarity as well. Include a historical association between Scorpio and not only scorpions, but also eagles and snakes (to name just the most prominent corresponding animal totems) and the assertive nature of Mars is further emphasized.

Add on Pluto as Scorpio’s modern co-ruler and there is an implicit layering of meaning, which adds depth to the fixed quality while also provoking ambivalence and representing the counter-intuitive.

This particular traversal of Scorpio will feature Venus symbolically merging with both Black Moon Lilith (a calculated point in the Moon’s orbit) and the asteroid Juno — both of which represent powerfully independent facets of the feminine.

Eric’s new class, It’s All In the Houses, will be held on Oct. 8. Discover the key to truly understanding a chart. You may sign up here.

The implied consequence is that Venus opposed to its domicile this year will express as anything but domestic. Depending on your point of view, that lack of domestication for Venus may not be a detriment at all.

A larger context, which takes the entire zodiac into account, only furthers the impression that Venus in Scorpio this year will correspond with the feminine defying any confirmation with traditional expectations. To cite just two examples, consider the other signs where Mars is considered to be strong: Aries and Capricorn.

Aries, the other sign ruled by Mars, is currently hosting the background aspect against which the rest of the astrology is playing out: revolutionary Uranus sharing the same degree with disruptive Eris. Implicit in that conjunction is a symbolic indication of some rather big changes regarding everybody’s place in the order of things.

In addition, Mars itself will be moving on to its exaltation in Capricorn (and, ultimately, a conjunction with Pluto) early next week. Almost as if Mars is trying to add fuel to what’s going on in Scorpio.

In sum, don’t expect the 2016 tenure of Venus in Scorpio to correspond with sugar, spice and everything nice. Rather, look forward to a very special time, which can also be a very good time — so long as you do not limit yourself to traditional expectations.

Offered In Service

By Amanda Painter

Sometimes even when things are most frustrating or confusing, the universe will offer a little humor. Case in point: just before writing this on Wednesday, which is trash day in my neighborhood, I took a walk. Along the way, I saw a total of three empty vacuum cleaner boxes, and another box for some other cleaning device, in the recycling bins.

Morning fog dissipating over a silvery sea. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Why is this funny to me?

Because today, Thursday, Mercury stationed direct in Virgo at 1:31 am EDT (5:30:30 UTC).

And it did so with the Sun in the last degree of Virgo — the Sun enters Libra at 10:21 am EDT today (14:21:03 UTC), for the Libra equinox and the beginning of a new season. But at the time of my walk, the Sun was at the far edge of Virgo.

Now, Virgo is a sign closely associated with being (or getting) organized and focused on the details, and putting a plan into action. All those new vacuum cleaners seemed to suggest a common experience of people wanting to tidy up better.

Yet, at the same time, I had to wonder: with Mercury retrograde, did these people actually get the best vacuum for their needs? Will it work right? Will they have to return it for a more suitable model?

Regardless of those details, the sightings made for an amusing illustration of the astrology: After journeying deep into Virgo and acquiring a new tool (vacuum), you release the parts that are not necessary (the box), and then you’re free to use the tool productively.

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By Amanda Moreno

Sometimes I feel like I’ve said everything I can in this space. I know that’s a ridiculous thought. It’s only been two years and a few months. My colleagues have been writing for far longer, always relevant, always articulate — and yet… for me, several core themes always resurface.

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

I remember when I set out on my Planet Waves adventure I had plans — to research, to dig deep, to explore themes that would benefit from having the structure and discipline of a weekly column. Alas, my pattern has by and large been to wait until the last minute.

Part of that is because relevance and timeliness seem to be tied together — writing comes with far more ease when I’m feeling in the flow and tapped into whatever is most relevant as close to publishing as possible. That flow often comes under pressure. Part of that is that life is perpetually packed.

When I add in the fact that this is a website that focuses on astrology and that my column is supposed to be about ‘spirituality,’ my job gets a bit easier. Astrology is a focuser. It’s also, as the astonishingly brilliant Len Wallick points out in his piece this week, the key to freedom and the door to responsibility.

Let me say that again: Astrology is the key to freedom and the door to responsibility.

Becoming aware of our own patterns and habits, recognizing where we might be a bit tightly wound, means that we have more choice. We have more freedom to act. Bringing awareness to our complexes, our gifts, our nature as suggested by the interwoven threads of our charts and our experiences means we have a moral responsibility to act accordingly — at least as far as my belief system is concerned.

The astrological worldview allows us to participate creatively in our destiny, but it does not concretely define it. Astrology is great at predicting spiritual and emotional trends — but how you react or respond to those is nothing I’d ever care to predict.

For some that physical ambiguity is the downfall or shortcoming of astrology, or any divination practice really. For me that is its blessing and its curse. It gives me free will. It gives me freedom. And what good is divination if it is not going to tell you concretely what to do? It leads you to shadow. And as I become aware of my own shadow, it seems to get heavier, to beg for attention, to demand integration and increased awareness.

The eclipse window that just ended was somewhat brutal for me — in a deeply flat and empty way. And yet… I used my tools. I participated in conversations with other seekers, received validation that I was not alone in my submersion in the depths, and came up with strategies to support myself in various processes of surrender.

I was able to look at my chart and see what functions of my psyche were being invited into the spotlight for examination. I got to hold onto the hope that what I was feeling was bound to a time-sensitive process that would in fact cycle out again. I got to read other astrologers’ descriptions of the shadow side of Pisces, re-introducing me to the theme of existential crisis, leading me to definitions of the concept that helped me to locate myself in the process.

Didn’t make it feel better. But it brought meaning, and at least a rational recognition that this too shall pass.

Ah, yes. Meaning. So many in our culture see the search for meaning as something immature or ridiculous or flat-out harmful. I reckon this is some strange mix of two of the three prevailing myths of our time.

First we have the myth of progress, which sees our evolutionary progression as onward and upward, out of the sludge of the primitive, unconscious mind, allowing us to reconcile our more destructive tendencies in the name of expansion and growth. Secondly, we have the myth of cosmic disenchantment, which sees everything as inherently unrelated, and sees any attempts to prove or believe otherwise as a narcissistic, anthropocentric adapting process — the universe is dead; any attempt to make meaning is ‘just projection’ and science can prove it.

What this latter myth fails to note is that its accusations of projection, of accusing the search for meaning as being a narcissistic process, are actually quite narcissistic in and of themselves. Who are we to say that crows don’t have funerals just because that’s a human construct, or that elephants don’t actually mourn their dead?

Eric’s new class, It’s All In the Houses, will be held on Oct. 8. Discover the key to truly understanding a chart. You may sign up here.

Sometimes I understand why people avoid consciousness. Awareness can suck. Feeling like you have to pay attention to context and variance and the ultimate ambiguity of human consciousness can be maddening. But then again…

Last week a friend recognized how much I was surrendering and letting go of and processing and offered up a sphere of Sodalite, along with a protocol for using the sphere to remove strands of dead energy from the heart center. In the mythologically dead world, this would be the sign of insanity or at the very least something to sneer at. But in my world it’s a tool that can’t hurt, and will probably help — be it through an ultimately scientifically plausible connection of various forms of matter, or through the placebo effect. And besides, who doesn’t like talking to rocks and hoping they can help? Can’t hurt!

Today I asked two people — a friend who works at a metaphysical supply shop and a bartender — what themes they’ve been noticing among their friends and customers lately. Both of them remarked that people seem to be experiencing the phenomena of one step forward and two steps back (or is it two steps forward and one step back?). And yet suddenly, things seem to be feeling like they have traction again.

To me, this reeked of cardinal energy — which initiates movement only to knock us back a few steps — combined with the floundering of our submergence in the mutable signs for the first three quarters of this year. Now, it’s as if Jupiter’s movement into cardinal Libra, followed tomorrow by the Sun’s emergence into the same sign, are beacons of hope: no longer shall we be treading water in a sea of mutability as deeply we have been. Perhaps there can be forward movement, change and traction through step-by-step processes? Gotta engage that transiting Virgo North Node, after all!

For me, forward movement is going to be marked by an equinox massage. I can’t afford it, really. But this much treading water and existential crisis, letting go and moving on, have left my muscles feeling sore and sticky. A splurge feels necessary if I’m to get my wheels back in motion.

Sun-sign horoscopes are currently advising me to be wise with my finances and strategic with my to-do lists and goals. Sometimes I think the wisest option is to spend money I don’t quite have on something that assists my physical being in coping with the demands of my own astrologically predictable spiritual and emotional trends. That’s a choice I’m making of my own free will.

I suppose that’s a good example of the way astrology works — one step forward, two steps back, a little bit of freedom brought by bringing consciousness to the pattern; a lot of responsibility, and a whole lot of surrender.

Astrology is not destiny. If you retain only one fact about astrology for the long run, remember that one. It is the key to freedom and the door to responsibility. The next thing to remember is that the type of astrology nearly always referenced here on Planet Waves (tropical astrology) is so named because it is synchronized with Earth’s seasons.

With a change of season only a few days away, it’s a good time to review valid principles and free yourself from invalid conclusions. Begin with the fact that the season you are experiencing at any given time depends on two factors.

The first factor that determines the season you experience is where Earth is in its orbit around the Sun. The second parameter is where you are on Earth. Those two variables function as they do because our Earth is tilted on its axis of rotation. The degree of tilt is essentially constant and steady at about 23-and-a-half degrees. In other words, Earth does not flop around like a fish.

Instead, the orientation of Earth to the Sun changes as the Earth orbits the Sun. Once a year, for one day, at one and only one part of Earth’s orbit around the Sun, the northern pole of Earth’s axis is pointing directly at the Sun. On that day, the Sun is shining directly overhead at about 23-and-a-half degrees latitude north of the equator. That latitude is called the Tropic of Cancer, and on that day the Sun enters the sign of tropical Cancer. From the surface of the Earth we see the Sun rise and set as far north as it will ever get on that day, which is called a solstice.

See how it works? The same principle holds true for the one day (about six months after the Cancer solstice) when the southern pole of Earth’s axis is pointing directly at the Sun. When that happens, we see the Sun rise and set as far south as it will ever get. The Sun is directly overhead at the latitude commonly called the Tropic of Capricorn, precisely as astrology’s symbolic Sun enters the sign of tropical Capricorn to mark the southern solstice.

In between solstices we have two equinoxes. You guessed it, that’s when the Sun is directly overhead at the equator. One day each year we get the Aries equinox, which takes place when the Sun’s risings and settings are about half way through the process of moving north, and the Sun is entering tropical Aries. Then, as if to balance things out, about six months after the Aries equinox comes the Libra equinox, which will be taking place in two days.

On Thursday, shortly after 10:21 am EDT (14:21:03 UTC) the Sun will be directly overhead at the equator, about halfway through its process of rising and setting farther and farther towards the south. At that time, the Earth’s poles will be pointed neither toward nor away from the Sun. From the surface of Earth you will see the Sun rise directly East and set precisely West no matter where you are. On that day, everybody — no matter where they are — will get the same length of day and the same amount of night as everybody else.

Equator. Equal. Equinox. Who needs groundless speculation about destiny and fate when you have such amazing and undeniable facts? It is a fact that we will all literally be equal under the Sun on Thursday, the first day of solar Libra. It is a reminder from the cosmos that our place in the universe is defined in part by equality, which is the basis of justice, which is essential for peace. In peace, cooperation is made possible. With peace, communities can thrive.

Cooperation and community is how we survived this long. If we are to survive any longer, cooperation and peace are what we will have to practice. And it all comes from the Sun and its relationship to the surface of Earth where we all live. It’s that simple. One would think we could remember it.

One might think we could finally understand that destiny is the cumulative result of choice. Your choices, their choices, his choices, her choices, all flowing together to create fate. Astrology can help you to make those choices, but not if you give your powerful place in the universe away to astrology. Astrology can only be of constructive use when you take your power from it.

Take your power in order to practice cooperation. Take your power in order to form and strengthen communities. That is what we are here to do. It’s so simple. If we forget more often than not, it is not because we are destined to do so. It is a choice, and we can get better at making it. If you can remember only one thing to think about on Thursday, think about that.

Offered In Service

This live audio class covers the most basic level of astrology: where things happen, the houses. If you understand the houses as environments and groups of themes, you can read a chart. We will hold the class by teleconference at noon EDT on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. You may sign up here.

As Eric has mentioned numerous times, planets further removed from the Sun become more astrologically accessible when they are in aspect from planets closer to the Sun. For example, today’s Full Moon and lunar eclipse in late Pisces is making Chiron (also in late Pisces) a more strongly felt factor.

Because of a combination of factors, the same principle will continue to be true this weekend as Venus moves through late Libra. First off, Libra is one of the two signs (along with Taurus) where Venus is considered to be the so-called ‘ruler’.

When a planet is moving through a sign it rules, the qualities of the object in question tend to be more strongly expressed here on Earth. Because human beings have been aware of Venus for a long time, its qualities are many. To begin with, astrologer Robert Hand has succinctly noted how, “In its highest manifestation, Venus is love, the emotion that brings people together without force or compulsion.”

In the context of today’s Pisces Full Moon and lunar eclipse, emotions are likely to be of immediate concern for the near future. Venus moving in late Libra to oppose the Aries conjunction of far-out Uranus and even more ‘out there’ Eris in Aries over the weekend would seem to provide some context in turn — beginning with the aspect itself. Planets in opposition can conceivably imply conflict, but that’s not usually the case. More commonly, astrological oppositions indicate something of a complementary reflection.

Of course, the most familiar and prototypical representation of an opposition is a Full Moon. Full Moons happen when the Sun opposes the Moon from across the sky (which is also to say, from across the zodiac circle), with Earth moving somewhere between the two. Hence, from our perspective a Full Moon reflects the Sun’s light fully, like a great, big mirror.

Lunar eclipses (such as the one today) happen when Earth is moving precisely between the Sun and Moon so as to both throw a shadow on the Moon and also make their prototypical opposition aspect more emphatic.

Venus is now moving to follow the act of a Full Moon and lunar eclipse, symbolically adding still more emphasis. Given that Uranus last met up with Eris in Aries nearly 90 years ago, the implications of Venus in opposition to them would seem to extend today’s Full Moon through time while providing a more specific context.

Among other things, the qualities associated with Uranus tend to be on the revolutionary side. When interviewed for the October/November issue of The Mountain Astrologer, Robert Hand even went so far as to call Uranus a “crazy planet.” Even though Eris was discovered and named only in this century, it would appear to be proving itself rather intense as well — especially as regards to issues of identity.

BALANCE, our exciting 12-sign Midyear Reading on forthcoming astrology, including Jupiter in Libra, is available for instant access. Get all 12 signs here, or choose your individual signs.

When you take into account that any opposition between Aries and Libra has relationship implications, the total picture of the two oppositions (Virgo Sun to Pisces Moon, followed by Venus in Libra opposing both Uranus and Eris in Aries), becomes more focused. In its highest manifestation, the emphasis would seem to include how love can be a revolutionary act that functions to reflect on who you are.

Fortunately, love is not against the law in most earthly jurisdictions. Therefore, both showing and being open to receiving some love this weekend would appear to be a safe and sound way to flow with the astrology. Just remember one thing: what works for you may not work so well for the object of your affections.

By all means, show your love, but in a gentle (even subtle) way — at least until reciprocal signals are reflected back to you. Don’t love anybody into a corner. Love so as to show who you are while simultaneously allowing others the freedom to be who they are. You might be pleasantly surprised by what happens. Similarly, if you are the object of love from another, endeavor to receive it graciously while also practicing self-respect.

When you consider all the other stuff going on in the world (and undoubtedly, in your life), you could do a lot worse than to be brought together with others without force or compulsion this weekend. Who knows, with morning’s echo on Monday, your life could quite conceivably have become a lot better as result.

Offered In Service

By Amanda Painter

Are you feeling the tension? I sure am. Not only are we getting close to the Pisces Full Moon on Friday (exact at 3:05 pm EDT / 7:05 UTC), but that Full Moon will also be a penumbral lunar eclipse: the Moon will pass through the outer ring of the Earth’s shadow, called the penumbra, dimming slightly. More importantly, it will make rather intense astrological aspects to other planets.

Snail might have the right idea…Photo by Amanda Painter.

We all have different tolerance levels for frustration, different ways of releasing or dispersing it.

Some people are great at letting a little pressure out of the proverbial tire — gradually, consciously and proactively — to prevent a blowout. Others get caught up in waiting for ‘just the right moment’, unwittingly giving the pressure a chance to reach the red zone and pop, seemingly out of nowhere.

I’m actually writing this on Wednesday, and already today I’ve seen two friends (one being Ms. Moreno in her column here yesterday) write about how they’re finally learning the difference between ‘reacting’ and ‘responding’, why it matters, and how to avert the former and choose the latter. It occurred to me that it’s more than coincidence: it’s an integral part of the message of the Full Moon and eclipse.

The Sun is currently in late Virgo (in one week it will enter Libra for the equinox). On Friday, the Moon will oppose it from Pisces, conjunct centaur object Chiron.
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By Amanda Moreno

The theme of letting go has been present in my life for some time. Perhaps the entirety of my 36 years — it gets hard to tell sometimes. This eclipse season seems to have plunged me into new depths in the cycle, and for that reason I’m not entirely fond of it even if I’m of the opinion that everything happens for a reason.

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

You see, I’m kind of sick of letting go. Maybe that’s the point. As my life becomes increasingly Neptunized, I’m becoming intimately acquainted with the disillusionment and despair qualities of our foggy overlord.

The latest plunge even has me letting go of the hope factor, getting down to realities I’m not sure I want to face and that I’m pretty positive I have no choice but to step up to. Sometimes it feels as if I’m being taunted as well: Which realities do I have to face? Which are illusions? What is being tested here and why? Reminds me of the subtitle of Maurice Fernandez’s Neptune book: The End of Hope the Beginning of Truth.

It’s hard to write this stuff without sounding totally fatalistic in ways that might set off alarms. I assure you — and most importantly my mom, who is likely reading this — that I’m still a functional human being, even though I crave more time to just stay holed up in bed and sleep. The thing is, I know I wouldn’t sleep. I would lie there and ruminate and analyze and probably end up far more brooding and melancholy than I am.

I’ve seen astrologers write about the potential for feeling existential crisis during this eclipse season. An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life. I’d say that resonates at every level. Existential crisis is a new experience for me — I’m much more familiar with grief and the kind of despair that comes with that.

This is an experience that’s been punctuated with reprieves in the form of laughing fits with friends and entirely too much work to get done. I’m considering changing my ethos when it comes to using astrology to plan things — when you’re a person who apparently tends to feel quite deeply, it might make sense not to schedule one of the busiest weeks of the year when the astrology is highlighting so many points in your chart and saying: hey! You might be emotional the week that such-and-such-an-astrological-thing is happening! Beware!

Then again, that Virgo business is what’s grounding all that Pisces desperation and emptiness. As I make the decision to just hold myself through the process — to just be in it. I’m also recognizing that, in light of the fact that all of the mental elucidations of these transits are telling me to make concrete decisions, perhaps the most concrete decision I can make is to not make any decisions. Because of this, the requirement of keeping busy feels life saving. Clients and classes and grants, oh my! I’m also aware that pushing myself in this way when my energy is this off means that eating well, getting enough sleep and drinking lots of water are absolutely imperative to keeping my physical systems working.

BALANCE, our exciting 12-sign Midyear Reading on forthcoming astrology, including Jupiter in Libra, is available for instant access. Get all 12 signs here, or choose your individual signs.

At an astrology lecture last week with Kristin Fontana, she mentioned the energy of transiting Saturn square the nodes as being that of coming to a breaking point, of facing the harsh reality of things that just are not working for us. Of being forced to take responsibility for the state of one’s life and where it’s going — and how much fear that can raise.

I’ve already unconsciously funneled fears into a few things that kind of blew apart as a result; but now that I’ve recognized the energies, I’m doing my best to slow down, be patient, and try to be responsive rather than reactive. I never knew what a life-lesson response versus reaction was for me. I’m just getting the gist of it now.

Surrender. Letting go. There are so many things we are called upon to let go of in our lives: objects and people and relationships, sure; but identities, dreams and emotional patterns as well. Hell, sometimes it’s even food preferences, or routes to work, or just seasonal plants or herbs we grow in our own yards. Put in that context I suppose letting go seems run of the mill.

But it’s such a complex process. The body holds on. It clings. It imprints tensions, the sources of which we lose track of over time. We adapt our body movements to work around those tensions, those pains. We brace ourselves. We change the way we exist in the world as our physicality attempts to shield us or protect us from outside physical or emotional harm — or the harm we cause ourselves.

I remember looking at the 2016 Mercury retrogrades at the beginning of the year, noticing they were all in earth elements, and seeing a recurring theme of taking care of the body. And yet, it’s taken me until mid-way through the third retrograde period to put the pieces together and remember the importance of bringing it back home to body — be it because I’m triggered and crying and need to come back to what is immediate and ‘real,’ or because I’m aware I’m taxed and need to feed myself well to keep my systems healthy.

Sitting at breakfast with a friend the other day, he asked me a question. I stopped, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath to listen to how my body was responding, and answered accordingly. He mentioned maybe writing poetry based on a process like that one. And I remembered at the beginning of the year I had said I’d like to honor my body in poetry, to write love songs to it, to listen to what it has to say and channel it out in that form. I never did it. How easily we forget all of our tools — perhaps another form of letting go. And yet, those tools are so vital during times of releasing and opening to the unknown.

As usual, I have some friends and clients mirroring these processes and experiencing similar things during this eclipse season; others are seemingly fine. If you are someone who is in the former camp, I send my love and hugs to you. I also send you a link that just gave me a hearty laugh and made me quite happy. There is, in fact, a WikiHow page for everything.

*Climacteric: (n) a critical period or event; (adj) having extreme and far-reaching implications or results; critical.