or, go to the entire Archive Index

Solar eclipse early followed by lingering, compulsive Pluto and Venus retrograde.

December grasps for anything and everything as the month-long trend is the lingering conjunction of retrograde Venus with Pluto, adding Mercury in at the end of the month. That’s both compulsive need and grab-and-snatch followed by regret and reevaluation of why you wanted it in the first place. All in Capricorn, so the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Hopefully the late addition of Mercury will provide a plan of extraction before more losses are racked up.

Saturn again makes the exact square to Uranus, so the conflict of old and new is back on the table, with another year of it yet to come. As always, the slower planet ultimately triumphs (that’s usually Saturn, but not this time), so tech and the new game will sweep the table in the end, but not without a lot of heated arguments over later-obvious truths that always cause needless suffering in hindsight. It’s fine to do it the old way yourself, but not to force it on others. History repeats itself, something it is very good at doing.

Finally, the solar eclipse sets the stage for lingering uncertainty, bring surprises early on that actually don’t repeat themselves but linger in the watchful awareness they create. Look out where you step, before you step in it, as after that the road is clear. A holiday season that’s way less fateful than last year’s, but still will take some patience to mine the joy and avoid the arguments – with plenty of both within reach, so choose well…

 

Moon is eclipsed, while Sun boils with storms and eruptions, cosmic blasts.

November turns intent into action, as Mars moves from urging on the Sun to putting Mercury to the fire. Time to turn your plans for action into moving manifestation, put your mind where your mouth was. But, it’s also eclipse season again, with a lunar this month, a solar next, so be careful the rug isn’t pulled out from under you, watch that banana peel with your name on it.

Mars leads locomotive skies half the month, then Moon blows it out into a bucket of reactions, complaints or compliments, general stewing over the actions that had to be taken. Jupiter is on the move again and will be out of Aquarius by the end of next month, so finish up new directions as they’re going to begin to look old by the holidays.

Finally, the Sun is literally boiling, bringing blasts of solar wind that push colorful auroras way South but also jam up the works electronically, messing with Earth’s magnetic field and likely your mind as well. And with Mars closing in on Mercury, it will be the opposite of Mercury retrograde – its not breakdowns from malfunctions, it’s collapse from overloads. The winds of winter may be knocking in the Northern Hemisphere, but it’s going to be a sizzling November anywhere you go…

It’s Sun-Mars go-go-go, but beware Pluto and Venus square trip-ups midstream.

October is for action, as Sun and Mars run together all month, stoking energy and firing up inner boilers that were only simmering before. And, that immense output of the two most energetic bodies is increasingly untrammeled as one-by-one, four of six retrograde planets go direct, loosing ties and open up space to move as Earth itself heads toward the outer reaches on the other side of the Sun by spring. They lead locomotive skies, another indicator of speed and power, adding to the windup. Basically, it’s go-go-go, but with some serious tangles thrown into the picture involving Mercury, Pluto, Jupiter, and Venus.

Just as Mercury, Jupiter, and Pluto make their station turnaheads, they hover in locked positions with each other – Mercury trine Jupiter (big plans, grand visions, ambitious programs) on the plus side, but Pluto square that Mercury on the downside, bringing in all sorts of power-plays, manipulations, and skullduggery that threaten to hamper or pervert progress at both social and personal levels. Add to that Venus’s combination of trine to Neptune (dreams and ideals being chased) mixed with its square to Jupiter (oversized and under-judged appetites and budgets), which causes the best intentions to devolve into greed and self-indulgence.

So, it’s a fast-paced, finally-underway month, but time to keep an eye out for the exploitation or misdirection of strong positive influences that can turn long-awaited progress into an explosion of selfish waste and even theft of energies that would otherwise benefit everybody. Catch the wind, but don’t let grasping hangers-on swamp the boat…

Mostly-retrograde planets move without touching as Moon keeps an eye on them all, a time for preparation.

September is marking time as the planets all move along without actually crossing each others’ paths – only the Moon visits everyone, as she does each month. It’s a slowly-evolving shift to a much more active fall when Sun, Mercury, and Mars will tangle, leading the sky, and the currently five (at one point six) retrograde planets turn around and start moving things along. The sky lacks fire planets, so inspiration is short, and even the struggling square of Saturn and Uranus (old against new) is on pause.

The one tight and lingering aspect is a square of Mercury and Jupiter, representing plans of expansion that get snarled up and require reconsidering, from the personal level all the way to the fate of nations. The original ambitions aren’t working out and repeated attempts to square that circle bring wasted time and money, when the cleanest and cheapest way may be to simply pitch the original approach and try something entirely different. Half-baked or reworked recipes are bound to fail, and easy to fall into right now, so be the one to insist on starting over, even if the rest of the crowd is still milling around confused.

This is not a pause that refreshes, but a time to weed out what’s holding back progress, before action is required next month and there’s not the time to think things over anymore…prepare now, so you’re ready to make your move without hesitation when the time comes…

August is about sunshine, a final month of a summer with planets in fire (Leo), after a fireless spring and going into a fireless fall. In some places there have been a bit too much fire, but most will be appreciating the inspiration the planetary kind brings. So the opportunity is to make hay while the fire shines, without setting your barn uncontrollably ablaze. That closes out when the Sun enters Virgo in the last week so get it on while the skies are still cooking.

It’s a selective and moving feast, as four planets are still retrograde, with a fifth (Mercury) coming next month, so universally the trend is about figuring out the details of how to live with the new normality brought on by the winter’s all-direct skies centered on the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. There’s really too much to digest, so all care in doing so will at least get you on the right track if not all the way there.

Also, this month and next, we’re free from the one-sided skies with all planets in a bowl and instead they’re spread out in impressive array all over, see-saw and splash patterns bringing more aspects daily and more actions and opportunities waiting to be sprung on and developed as the sky rotates. It’s like a feast of sunflowers has sprung up and you can not only enjoy the spectacle but eat the seeds, but be sure to save some for next year’s planting...

That burning sensation is inside as well as out, as Venus and Mars heat things up with a steamy tangle in Leo.

July is hot under the collar, as Venus and Mars tangle in loving (or at least exciting) conjunction in Leo for most of the month. That union is sometimes called the point of passion, so perhaps the just-post-Covid “summer of love” predicted by some may indeed become a reality, if real-weather seasonal  overheating allows and it isn’t just “too darn hot”…  However it goes, most of the month you’ll have to take it as it comes, with a Pluto-led locomotive chart being the most-common shape of the sky. Only during the second week does Moon fill in the blanks and then a splash sky means anything goes.

Four planets are retrograde, so reconsidering what you’ve done— and trying to make sure that what you do next  doesn’t require that –  is the trend until well into the fall, so get used to the feeling. Even Jupiter, which had pushed a tentative toe into Pisces has retreated back into Aquarius, perhaps bringing back some of the memories of the recent Saturn conjunction and the shifts that went with it only a half year ago. We are far from out of the woods there, but not quite so in crisis about it. Jupiter will get back to Pisces by next year and the feeling that we are comfortably on the other side will likely return, and a better estimation of the “new normal” will emerge with it. Right now, the soreness of change still haunts…

So take advantage of that hot Venus-Mars conjunction as it’s  a July sky special and won’t be back again until next February…

Heat rises as Mars enters Leo after fire sign deficit, but correcting retrogrades can derail new enthusiam.

June wakes up Mars previously-dormant in Cancer, suddenly liberated in Leo, a palpable change after no planets in fire signs for almost two months. It happens with a flip and a bang as the second, solar eclipse of the season pulls the rug out from under many, while others learn to skate on the suddenly-flying carpet. As freewheeling as it all sounds, a lot of the revived energy will get diverted by having to correct and overcome hasty or wrong-headed decisions made in the last six months when no planets were retrograde and people didn’t look before crossing the street. A few months of mop-up starting with Mercury retrograde and ending the month with four planets retrograde give a taste of the challenges that last well into September. It’s part of the roller-coaster skies that have been plaguing us since 2018 and will continue to through 2027.

Jupiter in the early degrees of Pisces only this month and next give a new twist to style and what may be the main fashions and approaches coming next year, when Jupiter returns from a retreat back to Aquarius and covers the whole of Pisces in a few short months. In Aquarius, approaches have been reconciliatory, in Pisces more passive and wait-and-see, leading to an eventual blast-and-blister tack by mid 2022.

The undertone beneath it all is the ongoing square of Saturn and Uranus, where technology, new ideas, and progress are fought tooth and nail by backwards-looking power interests who will twist the truth and even sabotage security in the face of danger to perpetuate their entrenched positions. The world is still ringing from the deafening Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of last winter solstice and the edifice of what is to come is still shaky and vulnerable in its early growth stages. If you don’t keep at the front of your mind which side you’re on, we are all still in peril of a close first start devolving into shambles…

May relaxes the frenzied pace of retro-free post-Great-Conjunction change and world rearrangement. Not that things have slowed down that much, just getting into “new normal” speed with the ordinary average two planets retro at month’s end. Still the sky remains tightly-packed inside only one-third of the ecliptic, with the Moon wandering out to the other side (when it’s visible) and then back again. So, like last month, it’s alternately move ahead in concert or take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing…well, you know the rest…

And as if there weren’t enough surprises already becoming usual expectations, it’s eclipse time again, with a Sagittarius lunar eclipse at month’s end – which will be total, but only if you’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean…may be just as well. What you can count on everywhere is Jupiter making its first move into Pisces, testing a new, post-Saturn-conjunction mood uplift, albeit it short and a little foggy, being Neptune-ruled. It won’t last long – only until the end of July, when it will fall back into Aquarius. You’ll have to wait until after Christmas to see that new cast really take hold and come to fruition. But, as it dips its toe into one of its two naturally-strong signs, you may get an inkling of what the new trends will be like next year, and get your foot in the door ahead of time…

Uranus  causes sudden flips while sailboarding the new normal, as Saturn pulls things off course.

April is a month for surprises, as Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus all pass over volatile Uranus, bringing on everything from explosive conflicts to original approaches that break through to new ground and needed solutions. Not everyone will be pleased, as recalcitrant Saturn is square Uranus and some will be fighting progress tooth and nail, trying to keep the ship from sailing, the plane taking off, the train leaving the station. Slowdowns may result, but there’s no holding back the flood started by the turning of the world’s social and economic tides following the recent Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. Those who are willing to surf the forward wave may take risks but can see reward in the process. Those who try to hamstring efforts to harness the powerful currents will find themselves overrun anyway, while taking down innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

Such is the whirlpool effect of Saturn trying to rein in the sudden lightning effects of Uranus, more a circular falling of dominoes than a battle royal between opposing forces. It will be all too easy to pull down the fine balance of the flood of adventurous life-surfers, adding to the peril of swimmers all around, but to no avail to anyone. Which side history is on has already been indicated, it’s now time to fish or cut bait, to help and help out, without disrupting the delicate placement of those still not steady or yet in tune with the changing of the tide…

A new, multi-input  evolutionary spiral  is underway, constructing the new normal for decades to come.

March comes in like a lamb compared with February’s lion. The planets are still bundled together on one side of the circle, with the Moon making its whole circuit around the lot. But, this time Mercury is not retrograde and the big Mars square has moved on.  So, the confusion, conflict, and delay of last month is gone and nothing in the sky is in the way of full-tilt motion ahead on the ground.

It’s not the dynamic, world-changing skies of the December-January Grand Conjunction where long-awaited developments explode to pivot into a new future. Nor is it last month’s land-clearing D-Day push to turn the tide in the coming direction – rather, it’s time to race ahead and start taking advantage of the earlier breakthroughs and get some mileage out of the new configurations that will mark the future and the new normal that is going to quickly develop over the next year or so. With no planets retrograde, haste makes waste that may have to be made up for  six months from now, but right now it will be nice to see anything but the conflict and stagnation that has marked the most recent set of political, medical, and economic disasters.

Although the yearly pass of the Sun and inner planets through Pisces is usually a more gradual event, this year it will mean a spurt of growth and development that picks up the speed of recovery and reconfiguration of how we put ourselves together and redesign ourselves to evolve the new era…

D-Day was last month as Jupiter/Saturn moved to Aquarius,  now the hard slog to victory.

January was like D-Day on the beach, February like the spreading battles that ensued. It begins with Mercury retrograde, at the end of which are unusually tight bundle skies (less than 120 degrees, the same as D-Day itself). Naturally, a month of that also entails emotionally-intense lunar bucket skies, and Mars locomotive skies. Conflict may abound, but of a different, more determined, grass-roots nature

The overall sky shift brought on by the Grand Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn means the emphasis is no longer on failing Capricorn structures but has become heavily Aquarian instead. The emphasis is on repairing what is broken by unifying the people seeking new solutions and a new way of doing things from the bottom up instead of the top down. The break with the old has been made worldwide, but the creation and installation of new and better approaches will be a heavy lift getting into place.

The bad part: the old troubles dealt from selfishness (individually and collectively) and greed are still with us. The good part: the cavalry has come to the rescue, and it is us, altogether and one at a time. The struggle continues, but the lead battle has been won with the overwhelming might of Jupiter and Saturn, the main source of the new world to come now ashore with no place to go but the sacrifices still needed to gain and ultimately enjoy the rewards of final victory…

About       Susan       John     Readings     Astro*Reports       Contact Us       Order      Music   Articles       Last month's Jupiter and Saturn meeting is followed by a rough spinoff from the black hole-like vortex.  blank

January extends the tumult of the dramatic skies of late last year, when the long-awaited Jupiter-Saturn conjunction delivered the beginnings of massive cultural and political change right on time. The short-term results, complicated by the ongoing worldwide pandemic, will not be easy and may be at times contentious and even violent. The all-planets-direct winter phase of roller-coaster skies make events hard to keep up with, and many moves now will have to be rescinded or redesigned when the all-retrograde summer returns. After the main-event winter solstice “Christmas Star” planetary alignment, the top-off will be the violence-prone Mars-Uranus conjunction on the very afternoon of America’s presidential inauguration, not an easy start.

All in all, this marks the entry point into rocky recovery from four years of political and cultural chaos, particularly in America and Europe (though many other places as well), and pulling out of that spiral into the vortex we described back then will take some time and suffering. Whether those that remain will become more “strong at the broken places” or are simply destined to repeat history all too soon is yet to be determined. What is certain is that history itself has just been made. A “new normal” is having its birth pangs, and its path both in the sky and down below is irrevocably underway…

Drifting Stones (LiveScience) – Stonehenge was just wafted there by glaciers, dropped in place...what a concept...

Backward Aliens (NY Times) – The new reverse-orbit asteroid isn’t from here, and there are more...

Changing Our Orbit (NY Times) – Venus and Jupiter alter our whole orbit shape, from circular to elliptical, lasting hundreds of thousands of years...nothing mystical, it’s gravity, stupid...

Sun Waves (MPS) – Solar weather is the same as here, waves twisted by rotation...as above, so below...

Pluto, Yes! (Washington Post) – Of course it’s a planet, and a more established, developed, and unusual one than many of the rest as the recent flyby discovered...

Wakey-Wakey Moon (BBC) – Yes, a full Moon does keep you up at night, and no, there’s nothing you can do about it...more on the original study, from the Beeb..

A Queer Moment (Mashable) – Astrology is big in the gay community lately...but then it always has been...

Why Do You Believe? (Bustle) -- ...in astrology? We don’t, and certainly not based on this drivel, expanding on a self-promoting market study of what people are looking for, searching for, needing, or mainly, buying...

No Flip (Daily Mail) – Looks like the poles aren’t going to flip, after all, just a little brinksmanship..

Flat Earth Pac-Man (Newsweek) – Fall off the edge, and you’re magically on the other side, just like in the video game.

Final Bang (CAM) – Stephen Hawking’s last theory, created just before his death, revealed: big bang smooth, multiverses fewer...

Diamonds of the Lost Planet (Sentinal) – A Mars-sized planet that didn’t make it has just dropped its jewels to Earth..

Godless Gatherings (WildHunt) – Under the full Moon, but not godless, just a different pantheon...

Rappin’ the Stars (Complex) – Astrology in hip-hop music, for real...some wonderfully stretched sign-rhymes here...

Obnoxious Uranus (Gemini) – Add another quality to its shock value: rotten eggs.

Solar Tornadoes That Don’t Spin (EWASS) – We just imagined they did, sounds like a lot of astrology...

Order in the Cosmos (RUB) – Chaotic galaxies turn out to produce very ordered magnetic fields. There’s a lesson here for physical astrologers...

Mercury Retro: Who Cares? (Time) – More folks than ever, it would seem, as now Time magazine weighs in on the current Millennial-astrology meme...