Tag Archives: Centaurs

The Day of Cosmic Comedy: Birthdays and Planet News

If Your Birthday is April 16
The Day of Cosmic Comedy | Order Your 2019-20 Aries Reading | All Other Signs

Gather your energy and the passion you feel on a specific project and be ready to drive it forward to fulfillment. You will likely have a pretty clear final sprint; though if you find yourself hampered by any doubts, address those first and get them resolved. It would probably also help to tie up whatever loose ends might remain, as soon as you see them. The more thorough you are in covering these bases, the easier your path to the finish line.
— By Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

Have you been thinking about a particular second chance lately? (For example, maybe one from the past, or one you wish to have.) Today Mercury, late in Pisces, is making its third of three squares to the centaur Ixion in Sagittarius; the other two were March 2 in direct motion, and March 9 in retrograde motion. You might check your calendar to see if you can detect any kind of through-line along this theme between then and now.

Ixion is a centaur, which means it’s associated with raising awareness. In this case, that could be awareness of how capable you are of acting in ethically questionable ways — and your ability to make a different, better-aligned choice. This entails thinking through all the possible implications and repercussions — no matter how inclined you are to gloss over ‘pesky’ details.

On a related note, Mars in Gemini is making a square to Nessus in Pisces; Mars is also warming up a square to Neptune. It appears there may be two sides (at least) to the stories of ‘what you really want’ and ‘where your boundaries really are’. Nessus is another awareness-raising centaur, one focused on things like boundary transgressions of various sorts, their generational ripples, and the ability to decide that enough is enough.

One excellent way to navigate this dynamic today may to articulate the different views you have on a situation, particularly the role your desire is playing in it and your options for taking action. This should help you to avoid repressing energy that could make things complicated if you stay in denial of it. Later this evening, Mercury leaves its post-retrograde shadow (or echo) phase and enters new zodiacal territory for the first time in two months.
— By Amanda Painter

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Planet Waves offers readings for all the signs and rising signs. These readings are must-haves among a core group of people who love them, though perhaps you have not heard what Eric is doing. We’ve taken many readings from 2018 and put them on a 24-hour audio stream, which anyone can tune into. Whatever your sign, you will find it interesting no matter when you tune in. If you’re up late and want something soothing and informative to listen to, or if you’re curious about astrology, tune in here. No login is required.

What We Birth Amidst the Chaos

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By Amanda Painter

On Saturday, the Aries Sun slides right into the square between Pluto in Capricorn and Eris in Aries. As was written about at the beginning of the week, this is part of a long series of era-changing and defining aspects covering the last ten-plus years. Chances are you can see a substantial amount of the change, stress, growth and discovery in your own life in that span of time as a reflection of this astrology; this week’s rumblings may be stirring up some uncertainty and tension — possibly with deep roots, along with great creative potential.

“Mystic Mountain,” a detail from the much more extensive Carina Nebula, which astronomers are studying the complicated physical processes that form new stars. Photo by NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

“Mystic Mountain,” a detail from the much more extensive Carina Nebula, via which astronomers are studying the complicated physical processes that form new stars. Photo by NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

One thing that could feel tricky about it, though, is getting a handle on how this energy is coming through for you personally.

Eris and Pluto move slowly; they tend to describe generational (or longer) processes.

Pluto, in particular, drives social (and, in Capricorn, institutional) evolution by breaking down what’s no longer functioning constructively. Eris adds a destabilizing factor: an element of chaos, subversion and (in its recent association with Uranus) provocation via the ways we define identity itself.

Another thing that might be challenging right now — yet easier to grasp — is the lingering effects of Mercury, and now Venus, moving through the focus-dissolving, imagination-distracting, and enticingly escapist field of Neptune in Pisces. Mercury is also still working through its post-retrograde shadow phase (it exits for new astrological turf on April 16). I’m hearing from a number of people comments about how this is still feeling a bit hiccup-y. It’s okay to continue taking things as slowly and deliberately as you need to.

Looking at Saturday’s chart, I noticed an interesting complement of minor objects in close contact with the Sun-Pluto-Eris aspect. I think they paint a fairly clear thematic picture, whether applied personally as you see fit, or culturally. I’m going to list them briefly.

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The Day of Excess: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is April 9
The Day of Excess | Order Your 2019-20 Aries Reading | All Other Signs

Employ your powers of reason and strategy to the utmost. You already have the passion, drive and willingness to work toward your goal. Now you just need to figure out how to get there efficiently and without having to take too many backward steps. A solid plan will be well worth the time and energy spent on careful crafting and double-checking details. Let your enthusiasm serve as fuel, without letting it run away with the process.
— By Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

Small moves appear to count for a lot right now, particularly in the realms of sex, healing, teaching, being seen for who you are, and holding space for unorthodox relationships, desires and identities. So if you’re feeling tension around any of those topics, how might you express and release that energy just a little? It’s not that you can’t go bigger; it’s that you can probably accomplish more with less effort than you’d expect. The aspect pattern in question is the centaur Pholus (small cause, big effect) in Capricorn making a square to a triple conjunction of Vesta (holding space), Chiron (raising awareness) and Salacia (sex, especially if ‘scandalous’) in Aries.

If you’ve been actively trying to repress and ignore any tension related to one of these topics, how is that working out for you? Is it starting to come out sideways, or to feel even more overwhelming and messier already? Note that with Aries involved (a sign ruled by Mars), it would be wise to consider your anger, too. Do you have a safe place in which to express your anger and frustration (including sexual frustration)? Can you create one — such as shouting out in the woods alone, or asking a very grounded friend (or counselor) with good emotional boundaries to hold non-judgmental space, and to witness you as you rage? (Just remember not to direct your fury at your witness; that’s asking them to process your feelings for you, which is solely your job.)

We don’t have a lot of practice with this in Western culture, especially for men; and ranting on Twitter or Facebook does not count. If anger is not part of the equation for you, creating art, writing, ritual or masturbation could just as easily be part of your process. The idea is to find or create a space in which you can get to the root of whatever’s itching to be let out of the proverbial bottle. It might not turn out to be what you think it is; and that discovery could itself open the way to actual healing.
— By Amanda Painter

The Day of Consequence: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is April 5
The Day of Initiative | Pre-order Your 2019-20 Aries Reading | All Other Signs

Focus your energy actively on your higher ambitions and thoughts. Resolve that distractions will be kept to a minimum. This is a pivotal moment for you, and you have every support possible at your disposal to facilitate constant growth. Treat the matter as if no door is closed to you, because that will be pretty near the truth. Even if getting through some of them might take considerable effort, set no limit on your sights.
— By Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

Today’s Aries New Moon — a conjunction of the Sun and Moon — takes place at the very midpoint of the sign. This means it’s also square the position of the Capricorn New Moon and partial solar eclipse that we experienced on Jan. 5. You might take a moment today to think back to that week (and the whole winter eclipse season). How does what you’re doing now relate to the clearing, intention-setting, constructing and initiating you were involved with three months ago? Can you see any continuation, development or sense of integration?

Also intriguing about this New Moon chart is that it features four separate conjunctions across Pisces and Aries: Venus conjunct the centaur planet Nessus in Pisces, Mercury-Neptune in Pisces, Vesta conjunct the centaur Chiron in Aries, and then the Aries Sun and Moon. Taking a broad view, this mix of spiritually sensitive and imaginative energy with the fiery get-up-and-go of Aries could be a potent combination for getting some things done. What might those things be? Healing of past hurts and growth processes is one possibility.

This chart also speaks of the process of bringing vision out of the clouds and into contact with vital life-force energy — whether that be through creativity, sex, or any other form of enacted agency. As in, the kind of thing that creates you as you are creating it. Any time we commit energy to tangible actions, we not only have an effect on our environment, but on our perception of who we are. That effect might be subtle; it might take a while to fully manifest, or for you to begin noticing the ways you’re growing into it. Why not plant some seeds of initiative and see what next step appears before you?
— By Amanda Painter

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Pairing Up with the Aries New Moon

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By Amanda Painter

Early on Friday the Sun and Moon conjoin in Aries for the Aries New Moon. This is occurring right at the midpoint of the sign, in a rather interesting chart. The sky right now features a strong mix of Aries and Pisces; and while that often occurs at the very beginning of this season, the mix is feeling especially striking to me this year.

Simplified chart section for Friday's Aries New Moon, showing the four pairs of conjunctions. From top: Nessus & Venus, Neptune & Mercury, Vesta & Chiron, Sun & Moon.

Simplified chart section for the Aries New Moon, showing four conjunctions in Pisces and Aries. From top: Nessus, Venus, Neptune, Mercury, Vesta, Chiron, Sun, Moon.

I chalk that up partly to the fact that the Mercury-Neptune conjunction is still going strong, its influence seemingly all the more potent due to its level of exactness when Mercury stationed direct a week ago.

Related to that, for the last week I’ve been repeatedly confronted by a mix of my intuition being right on some things, and other thoughts and feelings — sometimes related to the same topic — being completely wrong. Heightened awareness of energetic, emotional or spiritual boundaries, particularly when I’m starting to overstep them, has been another prominent theme for me.

What has your week been like? Your personal experience of the energy may vary considerably, yet Mercury-Neptune is the background against which tomorrow’s New Moon occurs, so it’s worth considering. I sometimes think of the Aries New Moon as kind of the ‘other shoe’ to the equinox. It’s a ‘restart button’ for a shorter-term cycle (lunar rather than seasonal) that invokes, concentrates and then releases into the same energy of newness, growth and initiative.

Yet what caught my eye about this New Moon chart is that the Sun-Moon and Mercury-Neptune conjunctions are only two of four conjunctions in effect right now across Pisces and Aries. There’s also Venus conjunct the centaur planet Nessus in Pisces, and Vesta conjunct the centaur Chiron in Aries.

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The Day of Dignity: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is April 1
The Day of Dignity | Pre-order Your 2019-20 Aries Reading | All Other Signs

Keep your moral compass and your spiritual sensibilities as honed as you can get them. You may be on a special mission to help point the way for others, amid all the confusing stimuli of this age. Make sure you set aside enough time for yourself to meditate, reflect and/or cultivate your personal relationship with the divine, however that manifests for you. You deserve to have that space and those moments.
— By Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

Vesta in Pisces is currently in a square to the Galactic Core (GC) and the centaur Ixion in Sagittarius. Although Vesta-GC looks like a need to integrate the ways you tend your inner flame with how you serve the greater good of humanity, Ixion highlights how that process can get complicated or corrupted. This looks like a great reminder to watch your boundaries — especially the subtler ‘spiritual’ or energetic ones, though they all count.

Do you know the difference between ‘holding space’ and transgressing it? When you’re excited about helping someone, are you able to stay clear about your motivations? (In other words, are you unconsciously being driven by unmet needs of your own, or some ego-related idea of what you can do?) It’s possible that any situation you encounter fitting this theme represents a ‘second chance’ of sorts to make a course-correction if you overstepped sometime in the past. Remember that asking if you have permission to give what you have to offer is a good way to stay accountable. This could increase in importance after the Moon enters Pisces later today.
— By Amanda Painter

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You’re Not Actually About to Float Away

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By Amanda Painter

Are you feeling like a total space cadet this week? Or maybe like you’re beaming in somebody else’s daydreams? How many times have you absentmindedly suffered a minor injury / locked yourself out / thought it was a different day? Are your efforts at sensitive, empathetic communication just not landing anywhere near your intended target (especially online conversations)?

A giant Pinocchio balloon above the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in Manhattan, probably during the 1930s. Photo by Walter Kelleher / NY Daily News Archive.

A giant Pinocchio balloon floats above the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and its many handlers in Manhattan, probably during the 1930s. Photo by Walter Kelleher / New York Daily News Archive.

Is the world an ever-morphing mix of crazy-beautiful and scary-surreal?

Okay, I’ll grant you, that last sentence has been applicable for a good three years now — or perhaps for all time. But from my perspective, all those other questions appear to have been peaking in this last week — described by Mercury traveling in apparent retrograde motion in a tight conjunction to Neptune in Pisces.

Mercury makes its direct station today at 9:59 am EDT (13:58:41 UTC). It does so (cozied up to Neptune) while making a T-square to the asteroid Juno in Gemini and Ceres in Sagittarius.

This image just came to me as I was writing that sentence: that Juno and Ceres are kind of like a couple of handlers from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, each holding a line to one of those giant cartoon-character balloons high in the air. (I know, I know: wrong season. Just bear with me.)

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The Day of Beguiling Simplicity: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is March 24
The Day of Beguiling Simplicity | Pre-order Your 2019-20 Aries Reading | All Other Signs

Recognize that in living through many of your past experiences, especially the most seminal, you’ve come away with a gift: be that additional strength, wisdom, friendship or something else. These moments have helped shape the person you are today, and as you continue along your path, you can use them as beacons to light the way and help you acclimatize to the new territory. You have more of a grasp in this area than you know.
— By Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

Can you spend today daydreaming, playing with art supplies (creative writing or anything visual/performance-based/musical/poetic also counts), or immersing yourself in your spiritual side? Any of those activities, practiced within clear boundaries, could be a fun and safe way to express the combined energies of Mercury and Neptune today. With Mercury retrograde, you might add to the list of ideal activities a review of creative or spiritual lessons that could apply to your current situation.

That said, Mercury-Neptune in Pisces, combined with some Aries-Cap square energy, describes the need to use discernment and a light touch today in all actions and communications. Check back with yesterday’s Written in the Planets for more detail on that score. There’s pent-up energy looking for a way out, mixed with a generally soft grip on things like mental focus; and the only person you can truly direct through this is yourself. A sextile between Venus in Aquarius and the Galactic Center and Ixion in Sagittarius may offer a second chance to serve the highest good through an act of friendship. To do so, however, you’ll need to stick closely to your ethics. That could be tricky right now; regular reality checks will be crucial.
— By Amanda Painter