Dear Friend and Reader:

We’re now looking right into the vortex of a total eclipse of the Moon in Libra. Like all lunar eclipses, this is a Full Moon. It takes place at 8:06 am EDT (12:06 UTC) on Saturday, April 4. Eclipses are always portents of change and often of progress. They have a way of shaking things loose and moving things along. This one seems to be doing a fine job of that, as we approach it.

Full Moons, on their own, often have a property of breaking or releasing a deadlock. This particular Full Moon eclipse is bringing that property to the forefront. Now is the time to apply some energy into anything that has been stuck or intractable, no matter how long it’s been that way.

Like the corresponding total solar eclipse of March 20 just prior to the equinox (though for different reasons), Saturday’s eclipse seems to be another sendoff of the 2012-era — the years encompassing the seven exact contacts of the Uranus-Pluto square, from June 2012 to March 2015.

What makes Saturday’s eclipse interesting is how it nestles right into the Uranus-Pluto square. All the points in question — the Moon, the Sun, Uranus and Pluto — are located at about 15 degrees of the cardinal signs. They are all in aspect, arranged in the shape of a T.

In the plainest talk possible, think of Uranus-Pluto as the astrological engine that is driving the times in which we live. But it’s not easy to perceive that effect; it can just come across as all the usual madness, lurking in the background, usually imperceptible.

Bring the Moon and the Sun into the arrangement and what was previously cloaked in the invisible environment has a way of coming forward and making itself known. Of all the ‘personal points’, the Moon and the Sun are the most personal. They are our elemental reflections in the cosmos, the objects we follow through the days and months and years. They’re what we identify with the most closely, because we can feel them the most palpably. They are the most basic landmarks of home on the inner and outer planes.

What were you doing in 2012? Do you remember?

When you put them into contrast with those potent but often veiled background factors — Uranus and Pluto — you may suddenly be able to feel, to orient, to sense your existence in relationship to your environment.

We live with the illusion that nothing much changes. That’s certainly one of the dominant effects of our time — ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’. I assure you that’s not true. I suggest you take this weekend and consider the changes that have worked their way through your life over the past three years.

Then go back even further and consider where your life was, what your expectations were, and what you were doing in 2012 and the years prior. Take the time to consciously observe how much progress you’ve experienced or created for yourself personally since then. I think you will be impressed.

Yes, you have a long way to go. Yes, there is plenty left undone. That’s why you’re alive. Being alive means you have time, specifically to work within time, so that you may do the things you want to do, and that you need to do.

There is one pressing question I would leave you with in these last hours before Saturday’s Full Moon. Eclipses are transpersonal events. They seem designed to connect individuals with the wider world around them. Like the Aries Point (something that’s very much part of this particular eclipse pair), eclipses are the junction of the individual and the collective.

This is especially true when you blend one with a boldly collective event, the Uranus-Pluto square. My question for you is: if you have any aspirations to do something larger, to connect with a wider purpose, to involve yourself in the movement of your culture, what are you doing about that?

Young people have high ideals and want to change the world. Do they have the skill and persistence to do so? Are older people passing along their tools and wisdom? Photo by Eric, Times Square, 2011.

We live in a very strange era where the whole ‘get involved’ thing is concerned. For one thing, most people are convinced they have no time to do anything but the most basic things demanded of them. Yet at the same time, there seems to he this profound, unresolved need, verging on an urgency, to bring oneself into collective life.

This is as true for younger people as it is for older people. Millennials, a generation I’ve been studying lately, are brimming with idealism and the need to change the world, but seem confronted by a kind of glass casing around what they want to change. There would seem to be no way in. This is being exacerbated by a variety of other factors, including debt, lack of tangible examples, and many, many illusions presented by the digital environment.

For example, in the digital environment, when you want to change something, you download an app, then tap on it and like magic, you get an effect. The world does not work that way. It requires much more persistence, a more involved relationship with time and energy, and the slow cultivation of knowledge and experience.

And we’re having to do this under the illusion that time is running out. The oceans are rising, and clogging with plastic. The ice caps are melting. Species are going extinct. There’s this sensation that there’s simply not time to gain the knowledge we need to make the changes we need to make.

Are you passing along your wisdom and tools to younger people? They need what you have to teach them.

But I would ask, is that really true? And if it is, what then is the purpose of time, of experience, of growth, of learning? I believe that most of the illusion that it’s impossible to participate and make a change is born of believing those things are true. If you want to test that out, at a certain point you need to step up and involve yourself; you need to make your process of growing and gaining experience available to the culture around you.

If you’re someone with a bit of age and experience, I would ask: to whom are you passing your knowledge, your tools, your documents, your perceptions? And while you’ve still got them, what are you doing with them?

The questions we face are indeed vexing, and daunting, and scary — just like the times we live in. But they are all the more so for not actually asking them, and for not attempting to answer them honestly.

We are having to do all that we do not just from within the digital environment, but as products of it. In other words, all these years of dealing with and through robots have made us all a bit robotic. Most everyone is, at this time, unaware of their plight. They know something is different, a bit off, perhaps a bit wrong — but few people have words for it.

So I leave you with one last question, as the Moon drifts out of Virgo and into Libra and into the shadow of the Earth. What are you doing to retrieve, to discover, and to express your humanity?

Lovingly,

NOTE TO READERS: Sunday night I’m planning to introduce the first in a series of special generational readings. This one will be devoted to the Millennials. I have been studying this group of people and its astrology for many years, and I am ready to offer a report that will help clarify the numerous questions and mysteries held by these gifted people and their families. Please watch your email Sunday evening. Thank you. — EFC

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $97/year. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Brendan Merritt, Amy Elliott, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno, Casey Smith, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick, Lizanne Webb and Chad Woodward.

 

 

Just Sing

By Amanda Painter

I don’t know his name. I’m not even sure what he’s singing about — although one commenter on the YouTube page says, “I can’t give you exactly what he is singing, but to summarize he sings of how Chingiss Khaan was a great conqueror, about the sky and the mountains, and how beautiful their land is.”

What I do know is that every time I watch this video of a Mongolian man throat singing on a craggy mountaintop high above the plains below, something about humanity, and the vastness of nature, and traditions handed down through generations, and the innately expansive nature of opening one’s body into song suddenly feels crystal clear, and simple, and beautiful.

As we approach an eclipse spanning the sign of individual expression on one side, and the sign of balance, beauty and relationship on the other, you may find this worth a listen.

 

 

The Germanwings Air Crash, Mental Health, Mercury Conjunct Chiron and the Total Lunar Eclipse in Libra

This week I look at the Germanwings murder/suicide, focusing on Mercury conjunct Chiron in the chart [view chart]. I also read the chart for the total lunar eclipse that happens Saturday, and what we get when we pull back the veil over the Libra Moon. My musical guest is The Grateful Dead — in special form: a song by lyricist John Perry Barlow performed by keyboard player Brent Mydland; and then an oldie from the famous Barton Hall concert, Row Jimmy.

 

 

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscopes for April on Thursday, March 26. Your extended monthly horoscopes for March were published Thursday, Feb. 19. We published your Moonshine horoscopes for the Libra Full Moon  Tuesday, March 31. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

 

 

Aries (March 20-April 19) — What is your concept of original? Something you haven’t heard of? That would be a good start, though you’ll probably need to go further than that. Your relationship circumstances are calling for a deeper approach than you might ordinarily take. Or said another way, something unusual is happening and you need to respond in a way that’s appropriate to your situation. It’s not exactly a new development. It’s more like a situation that’s been brewing for a long time is revealing something you hadn’t seen before. The surface of something is being drawn back, and you’re getting a look at some of the underlying tensions. Those, in turn, describe a level of necessity that it would help you immensely to consider honestly. You are in a “things are not what they seemed” moment — which means you get to see them as they are.

 

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Focus  your efforts, your energy and your intentions on specific goals; or perhaps even one of them. There is plenty going through your mind; many ideas, desires, visions. In fact you may be feeling a level of chaos brewing on that off-to-the-side level of awareness. At the same time, you have the ability to concentrate your strength and really get something done — as long as you don’t distract yourself with too much head-tripping. That will be easier said than done, till you actually step up to the challenge with some determination. Make a few decisions about what your top priorities are. Make sure you’re not neglecting anything that simply cannot wait. Then ride the wave of momentum connected to the Full Moon eclipse and notice how much you get done. As for the carnival of inner distractions, that is your power source. The specifics matter less than the energy that’s brewing.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You may feel pulled between being out and among friends, and secluded in your space making art, music or writing. I suggest you take care of your inner needs first, and then be amongst people and have that kind of more extraverted fun. You have real ideas simmering, and they need your protection and attention. You also have a limited window of opportunity act on certain factors (which I would say is Friday night into Saturday night), whereas the out-and-about kind of fun will still be there waiting for you. Right now your creative process is your most helpful therapy. It’s the place where you’ll be able to get insight into yourself, and find some answers to the questions you’ve been asking. But they are not likely to come in a tidy package. Rather, they’re likely to arrive as part of a discovery process, and you’ll know you’re really on that journey because you feel like you’re taking some unusual chances with what you say or express. That sense of risk is essential.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — What is your concept of home? What is your concept of secure? To the extent that involves a relationship, you may need to rethink your approach. In truth, safe is not what will help you feel safe and secure is not what will help you feel secure. It would seem that you’re challenging yourself to live outside of your past notions of what made you feel grounded. That, in turn, may be somewhat troubling because your sign is known for its needing grounding and security. But if you seek that in a relationship, you’re seeking in a place that is one of the least dependable, because relationships change so often. Which leads to this weekend’s eclipse. You just might benefit from exploring the aspects of relationship that are anything but secure in the conventional sense. Where you will feel the most natural and the most at home is in the realm of ‘forever changes’. It does indeed.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You cannot be clear with others if you’re not clear with yourself, and your chart is saying it’s time for both. There’s an inherent paradox in determining that you need clarity, though. It requires some clarity to notice that fact. This weekend’s eclipse describes some scenario in which you get at least that far. You might, for example, notice what you don’t have the words to say — and then you can figure out what those words should be. There is a pressing necessity, however. You have a lot of responsibility on your hands right now, and you’re accountable for the actions of others. Therefore your alertness and awareness (or lack thereof) will spread out into the world or into a community. You remain in the position of setting an example, though unlike in recent weeks, you’re now setting an active example rather than a passive one. This calls for more assertive leadership. And that demands clarity first and foremost.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Everything comes down to self-worth. By everything, I mean the state of our relationships, of the world and of existence. Reality is self-mediated. That is, it’s fairly obvious that how we experience the world is a product of our perceptions. The problem with that approach is that it’s often difficult to put it into practice. Or said another way, how you feel about yourself seems difficult to control. But really, that’s on the moment-to-moment basis. Self-esteem is best conducted as a long-term project. It would include a study of the past, in particular of influences that have impacted how you feel about yourself (positively and negatively) and a series of choices that you make on the level of your values. In essence, every value you hold is a reflection of how you feel about yourself. Once you begin to bring your values into line with what really works for you, your self-esteem will improve. Focus this issue and Saturday’s lunar eclipse will carry you light years in a few short days.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — A total eclipse of the Moon in your birth sign is taking you below the surface ideas you have about yourself. The thing is, you may have already thought you were aware of what was going on down there, and I don’t doubt you’ve made some helpful observations about yourself. Yet there is always deeper you can go, and you may surprise yourself as you make contact with what I can only describe as your real agenda. One thing that’s clear is that your attachment to the past is starting to fall away like so many autumn leaves, and something new is sprouting like so many springtime buds. You have also placed a high value on independence in your relationships. You’ve been willing to confront the factor of instability that’s often necessary on the way to making some space for yourself, though the real message of this weekend’s eclipse is that you are the most stable and dependable presence in your own life. Therefore, count on yourself.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may fear you’ve taken the risk of letting others run your life, but not exactly. Actually, you and someone close to you have just about everything in common — except maybe a sense of familiarity with the territory. For you, unfamiliar is hot. Remind yourself that. It’s what you crave and what stokes your curiosity. For someone else, your encounter with the unfamiliar is a reminder of how good it can be. As you explore this territory, you will encounter places where your desires and seeming needs are grafted onto the past. Make sure you update your ideas about what you need, and especially about what you want. At this stage, desire is the name of your particular game. Needs, in truth, are few in number and you have many of them met. Desires are more complex; they can seem like a luxury; they may feel open to editing by others. Try wanting what you want, in the moment — especially when it’s right in front of you.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You are seeking a sense of higher justice — of fairness that really means something. For you, that also translates to having a vision for your own life that matches what you suspect your true talents to be. I want you to know there is an opening for you. By opening I mean a way through; a space in society where you can live and grow. Do not fall for the notion that the world is some kind of closed book. It’s true that opportunities seem few and far between, and many people cling to what they have with a kind of desperation. Pay no mind to that. Pay attention to what you’re doing. Stay focused on developing your talent, and more than that, putting it to productive use. Don’t hoard what you have — share what you have: your knowledge, your skills, your ideas and your talent. Keep an eye on possible paying gigs, or better paying gigs, but keep your heart and soul tuned to who you are, and what you actually do. Do that; be that.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Guide yourself not by instinct but by intuition. Instinct is generally made of old programming; intuition is immediately relevant information that comes in fresh from moment to moment. Your role in the world is changing, from moment to moment, and it would be wise of you to keep up with the news. By role, I mean your calling, and your choice of how to respond. Over the next few days you may notice that an old concept of what you’re ‘supposed to do’ is replaced by a much newer idea. The place where you make a subtle pivot is on the level of taking leadership more seriously. The thing about leadership is that it’s an unusually compelling and necessary calling, and yet at the same time, anyone who is called and who answers must confront a degree of isolation and solitude, at least at first. Consider that you’re aware of necessities others cannot or choose not to perceive. You are responding to what would make others uneasy and insecure. That will not stop you.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You’re still in a position where you must be strong for others, even if they don’t see it that way. To do this, you’re having to juggle and shuffle a diversity of self-interests, set them aside, get them out of the way or put them on hold. This is temporary, though you’re learning something interesting, which is how resilient you are. There’s always enough food to go around, enough resources, enough of you. Remember that. What you’re able to offer is largely the result of what you’ve been through over a very long stretch of your life where you seemed to experience everything there was to experience. So you know what others are going through. But more significantly, you have sufficient experience to give you confidence that you can handle anything. The energy you don’t waste worrying whether you can stand up to your current challenges, you’re able to invest in the world around you. Think of your life and all the people in it as a farm that you’re tending. Hard work — but worth it.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Keep your arrangements flexible, and make sure any agreements you enter are responsive to your immediate circumstances. You are in a rather significant moment wherein anything is up for renegotiation. Evaluate everything first on the basis of how it works for you, and then on the basis of how it works for others. You will need to meet both qualifications for something to be functional for you, though remember the order of operations. Most of all, stay in contact with your environment. Ultimately, that is your primary relationship, and your environment will give you nearly all the information you need about what to do, and how to do it. You probably already know that adaptability is your greatest strength. Put it to work now. Make any changes you need to make. Focus on being flexible, with everything from money to time to any arrangements you need to make to your physical body. Look at the world and be limber enough to look into it, and even through it. You will be told everything you need to know.