I am entertaining myself writing horoscopes on an all-night train ride from Zaporizhzhia to Kyiv. This is a USSR model railway car, and the trip is 12 hours, alternately crawling, chugging and cruising through the eastern European countryside, making every stop.
In transit from Zaporizhzhia to Kyiv the night of Jan. 30 to 31, aboard a 60-year-old train made during the USSR era. The blue cloth and witch hazel are to keep my hands clean.
We are currently passing through Kryvyi Rih, the town where Volodomyr Zelenskyy was born. According to my chief of research, Mike Pompeo, secretary of l’etat c’est moi, just arrived in the capital and is meeting with Zelenskyy this morning.
Then there’s a press conference at noon, which I would crash except that I have to be at the airport. (I still carry valid British and international press credentials, souvenirs of my last European tour.)
We have a little cabin that Anatoly says is about the size of his quarters when he was on a submarine crew in the Soviet Navy, only there was one extra deck of bunks then and the food now is much better because his wife Iren prepared it today.
People are of differing opinions whether the heat system on the train is powered by wood, by coal or both. I’m not going to bother sorting that one out. They are equally hilarious. This is a little like an overnight camping trip, and there is even a fire, somewhere.
A Russian lady delivers hot tea for about 50 cents a cup, which is a glass and metal thing that Anatoly says is vintage USSR. The same lady who serves tea also keeps the wood and/or coal stove stoked.
I’m in one of those “Am I really doing this?” travel moments. In fact I am, and I even have a date for breakfast in Kyiv.
Despite my wildly middle-of-nowhere situation, I have periodic internet by toggling my laptop off of Anatoly’s phone, so I’m watching email come through in response to my various queries I made with the February monthly horoscope, which just went out. Here it is again on the off chance you have not heard about it three times.
We Are Arriving at the Cross Quarter
The chart I used for the horoscope below is for the Sun’s midpoint in Aquarius, known in some traditions as Imbolc. Here’s an old article about it called In the Belly of the Stars from StarIQ.com, from way back around the time this train was built.
Imbolc is one of the tipping points of the year. For those unfamiliar with the Celtic calendar, there are four seasonal points situated midway between an equinox and a solstice, of which this is one. They are called the cross-quarter days. My chart is cast for 11:03 am on Feb. 4, 2020, Ukraine time.
One reason the cross-quarters are meaningful is that they are taps into the Aries Point and therefore run a lot of voltage. They are “power points” in that there is concentrated energy and momentum available. Decisions and events count for more. However, this can be subtle and requires some practice tuning in and making oneself available to natural forces. It is not magic.
A glimpse of Kyiv by night. Photo by Eric Francis.
Here is what stands out of the chart.
Mercury is now in Pisces (it enters on Monday), where it will turn retrograde on the 16th.
Saturn and Pluto are still within two degrees. It looks like a close conjunction; it will not be for long.
Jupiter is working its way across Capricorn and is now close to the midpoint. Its next big event is the first of three conjunctions to Pluto, which I have neglected to mention much but I’m very excited about. This is a big, bold call to soul.
The Venus-Mars-Neptune arrangement that defined the second week of the impeachment trial (still unresolved as I write early Friday morning) has dissipated some, though it’s still recognizable. Venus is in Pisces square the Galactic Core, and Mars is in Sagittarius, approaching a conjunction to the Galactic Core.
Jupiter and Neptune are in a sextile (60-degree aspect), connecting Capricorn and Pisces in perfect harmony. The world may be spinning off its axis and the United States government is convincingly on a one-way ride to hell, though there is a hint of order to the cosmos.
Please, accept my personal invitation to step up to the challenge of our moment. There is no time like this particular present to collect all of your spiritual training (or perhaps leave it behind) and show up for the need for all of us to be aware, together, right now.
There is a conversation that needs to be had, and since nobody else is ringing the bell or the cast iron bar summoning everyone to meeting, I’m picking up the sledgehammer and clanging that metal chime loudly enough to hear it echo off the hills.
Somebody make coffee and chaga tea. We got some things to talk about.
With love from the actual middle of nowhere,
Your faithful astrologer,
