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Caring in Action: the Cancer Eclipse
By Amanda Painter
Dear Friend and Reader:
Eric wrote at the beginning of the week about today’s Sun-Chiron square, and the collective healing needed to our inner masculine/yang sides. Then I looked at the chart for the July 2 Cancer New Moon and solar eclipse, and started thinking about the daily assaults on our empathy and capacity to care that are being made by the daily news.
Demonstrators gather to protest against the separation of immigrant families at the border in Austin, Texas, on June 14, 2018. A year later, things are no better. Photo by Amanda Voisard / Statesman.com via AP
And it all cascaded together in my perception of what amounts to the ongoing psychological and physical torture of immigrant children separated from their families and being held in detention at the U.S. border. I’ll get to the astrology in a moment.
I’ve been seeing a lot about this in my Facebook feed and my email inbox. The strongest recurring theme, however, is an overwhelming sense of paralysis: not knowing what we can do; wondering ‘why isn’t anyone organizing a mass protest?’; asking ‘who is organizing something I can join with?’; feeling completely at a loss regarding which actions will help and which might actually make things worse.
They Can’t Shut Down the Cosmos
By Amanda Painter
We’re not quite at the midpoint between eclipses — that occurs Jan. 14 with the first quarter Moon. How are you doing with ‘looking where you want to be’? Are you feeling drawn to continue clearing out some space, or to initiate a project, or to dive into something? Are you feeling optimistic or frustrated (or something else entirely)?
M100, known as a ‘grand design’ galaxy, is 56 million light-years away, and is similar to our Milky Way. Studies of variable stars in M100 have played an important role in determining the size and age of the Universe. Photo by NASA / ESA / Hubble.
I ask simply as a prompt for some reflection and self-assessment; a way of taking a barometric reading on your inner and outer environment. With all the major sign-ruling planets in direct motion — and therefore not ‘forcing’ introspection — it occurred to me these questions might be useful.
Did you watch Pres. Trump’s Oval Office address Tuesday night? I confess I did not, trusting that I could read all about it afterwards if needed, without subjecting myself to his toxic projections in real time. It’s challenging enough being surrounded by its effects as they ripple through the collective. But in researching some of the current astrological aspects, it occurred to me just how reflective his speech and government-by-tantrum are of the astrology.
The first aspect to really speak to me of this is tomorrow’s Sun-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn. Now, on the level of your own personal life, you may experience this as another wave of deep cleaning and space clearing related to the recent eclipse — particularly regarding how you express or present yourself to the world. Or it could come through as the drive to get beneath the surface of something. Or perhaps as the need to repair a thing or situation that’s broken and needs radical changes to be able to continue.
Of Restlessness, Retrogrades, and Choices
By Amanda Painter
How is this Mercury retrograde going for you? We only have about a week of it left (not counting a few days for things to shake back into place after it stations direct on Dec. 6); so hang in there. Personally, I feel like some of the other current astrology is contributing more to a sense of restlessness; but really it’s all part of the same environment, so it’s hard to say for sure.
Photo by Amanda Painter.
For one thing, we have several objects in the last degree of their respective signs, or about to be. In zodiac order, these include: retrograde Uranus in Aries, Venus in Libra, Mercury about to retrograde into late Scorpio, Pholus in Sagittarius, and Vesta in Capricorn.
Planets in the last (or ‘anaretic’) degree of a sign are often said to feel a little edgy; kind of like how we human beings can get a little edgy in anticipation of a big transition in our lives. Add in that some of those planets are making oppositions or squares to each other — aspects of tension — and the restlessness factor increases.
Plus, we have the Sun in the last sign of a season (Sagittarius), the civil-calendar year is almost over, and Mercury is retrograde in a sign that’s partly about forward intention (in a long series of inner-planet retrogrades this year). The sky seems to be reflecting a general sense of just wanting to get on with it — whatever ‘it’ might be.
So we end up with some questions. What absolutely ought to wait till Mercury’s direct, so that you don’t make more work for yourself than is warranted? What must you address or take steps toward so you can channel this energy creatively, rather than repressing it in unproductive ways?
What can you get started on — such as research, preparation, getting organized, making repairs, reviewing your progress — that might put you in a much better position to take bigger steps in the near future? What’s the different between being wisely cautious and giving in to crippling self-doubt or paranoia?
After the Election: Which Jupiter Will You Feed?
By Amanda Painter
As the dust settles on Tuesday’s midterm elections in the U.S., I wish I could say the political landscape looked even more different — but I am grateful for the movement that was achieved. Voters came out in increased numbers on both sides, and women were voted into office to an unprecedented degree. There is no longer a one-party lock on all three branches of government.
A blue wave? Jupiter’s south pole, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometres). Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles
This opens the way for House Democrats to put things in motion, specifically subpoenas to investigate Trump’s taxes and his involvement with Russia in 2016. Of course, Trump is already saying he’ll be happy to work with House Dems — as long as they don’t go after those subpoenas; in which case he’ll “fight fire with fire.”
Even so, we now have the first two Native American women in the U.S. House (for context, more than 10,000 people have served in the House since the first Congress met in 1789). The first two Muslim women have been voted into the House. A Latina woman is the youngest representative ever elected to the House, and there are new African American women elected to this branch of government, with USA Today putting the total number of all women in the House at 118 as of midday Wednesday — breaking the previous record.
Colorado elected its first openly gay governor. And although Democrat Beto O’Rourke lost his Senate bid in historically red Texas to incumbent Ted Cruz, he did strikingly well in counties that border Mexico and have higher Latinx populations (as well in as the more diverse urban centers in the state).
In These Days, Do Not Play Dead
By Amanda Painter
We’re in the midst of the Days of the Dead (a Catholic celebration of departed souls that has pagan roots, and echoes in many ancient indigenous cultures), and I have a question: How does one honor one’s ancestors when so much of what they helped to build is being dismantled, perverted, mocked and cut down?
View of October leaves from below; photo by Amanda Painter.
I’m not referring to past institutions that we’ve come to realize are systematically racist, sexist or in some other way oppressive; the process to recognize and dismantle those strikes me as being one of the reasons we’re all here at this time.
I’m talking about cultural advances that were made to lift up and empower as many people as possible, and which now appear threatened. I’m referring to past cultural lessons about things like fascism, which many people seem to have forgotten or somehow never learned in the first place.
If you are someone who chooses this time of year to honor your deceased ancestors, how do you bring your meditation and ritual intention into action? How might you choose to connect the past and your place in your familial lineage with serving the highest good for all concerned?
I have a couple thoughts on that, especially this week, in view of the pointedly anti-Semitic murder of 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh, PA, synagogue (including one survivor of the Holocaust), and Pres. Trump’s declaration that he intends to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship (which is protected by the Constitution). Trump’s refusal to denounce outright the violent actions of ‘white nationalist’ extremists, and his repeated, toxic, inflammatory language whipping up that demographic, is having visible — and measurable — effects.
Looks Like Libra, Smells Like Scorpio
By Amanda Painter
Although the Sun is still in Libra, some of this week’s news events appear to have a distinct Scorpio scent. This would seem to relate to astrology involving Mercury in Scorpio that is bookending the current workweek.
Mossy micro-landscape at Acadia National Park in Maine one year ago. Photo by Amanda Painter.
We began the week with news coverage intensifying about the disappearance of Washington Post journalist and Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi.
Turkish officials allegedly have audio and video evidence of Khashoggi being tortured and dismembered within the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, which he had visited to obtain legal documents pertaining to his upcoming marriage.
We might interpret this as representing a dark shadow side to Mercury conjunct Venus in Scorpio, which was exact on Monday and which was also sextile Vesta in Capricorn. Usually astrologers describe Mercury-Venus conjunctions as stimulating an appreciation for beauty or declarations of love. Yet Mercury-Venus can also help one to see the underlying patterns in a relationship. The alleged events surrounding Khashoggi’s disappearance and apparent murder do appear to be laying bare certain unsavory facets in the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
Neptune on My Mind
By Amanda Painter
What’s on your mind? Or, perhaps a better question might be: how is your mind behaving this week, especially in response to the unexpected or the unclear? I ask because Mercury in Virgo (a sign it rules) is making some aspects that could well be affecting your thought processes and perception.
Street art in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.* Photo by Amanda Painter
The primary aspect in question is Mercury’s opposition to Neptune in Pisces — exact today, though it’s been in effect for several days and will continue to be so for several more.
Mercury is also in a square to the rather mysterious Great Attractor (a deep-space phenomenon in mid-Sagittarius), exact today. And between now and Sunday, Mercury is making a trine to Pluto in Capricorn and a sextile to Jupiter in Scorpio.
But first: Mercury and Neptune. At its best, this can be an aspect of heightened spiritual sensitivity and awareness. With Pluto offering assistance with investigating deep issues and mysteries, and Jupiter lending a hand with seeing how things fit the underlying patterns in your life, you may very well uncover some profound truths with this astrology.
Here’s the thing, though: in our mainstream culture and everyday life, it’s relatively rare to witness or experience Neptune in its higher manifestations. More often, we encounter Neptune’s glamour, cloudiness, slipperiness, confusion and outright deception.
One look at all the clickbait online, glossy magazine ads, the proliferation of ‘fake news’, Brett Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS confirmation hearing, and the escapist nature of most of our entertainment options will tell you where we, collectively, stand with Neptune — not to mention the many forms of mundane denial so many people live in, covering everything from the truth of our desires and most intimate relationships, to things like climate change and the abuses of the Catholic church. Which is to say, Neptune is great at obscuring where one really stands in relation to almost anything, including in relationship to oneself.