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Santa flies through complicated skies, so better to tend to the holidays, let the astral tangles pass...

December is for holidays, which provide the perfect excuse to drop out and have fun instead of trying to make progress under newly-tangled retro skies. The Sun and inner planets have moved on from last month’s T-square with Saturn and Uranus and into a new T-square with Mars and Jupiter-Neptune. Mars is retrograde and will back out of the pattern by month’s end, but its dwindled energy is still not a firm push-off for new ventures. On the other hand, Venus and Mercury run close, which is good for beautiful surroundings and holiday cheer, so that’s probably the best direction to take.

Further, Venus and Mercury are trine Uranus as Christmas approaches and switch positions as Mercury slows down for another retro, so they make grand trines with the Angles daily, a sure sign of unexpected surprise gifts and a generally party atmosphere that totally suits the season.

The skies are back to a bowl except when the Moon breaks out and that means the totally non-retro period is again on the way, just as the Sun and inner planets roll over Saturn and Pluto, which will mean things get lots more serious after the holidays. So get into gear and make it a fun break, so you’ll be refreshed and ready when things get more serious in 2023…

 

Skies are all tangled up with T-square turning to grand cross, retro Mars, and an added lunar eclipse.

November is a tangle of cross-purposes as the ongoing Saturn-Uranus square, old vs. new, turns into a T-square with Sun, Mercury, and Venus, with Moon filling into a grand cross at the second week of the month. Things that were rolling along as expected suddenly get stuck, flare-ups abound when all does not proceed as planned. Mars is retrograde all month, so the energy for full-tilt endeavors is sucked away and former advances by the mile turn into fought-for feet of headway.

Add a highly-visible lunar eclipse right on Uranus entering the second week and issues of stability and cooperation will very much be under fire. Sudden turn-arounds fueled by blocked energies make the straight and true very unpredictable and shifty, as that T-cross gets turned into a grand cross freeze-up as it is on the Angles four times a day.

If you can avoid full engagement and let others wear themselves out in disputes while you rest up and save energy for when firmer ground appears, that’s likely the best way to handle it. If not, try not to make mountains out of molehills over what will turn out to be not worth fighting for when skies open up again next year. Start the holidays early if you can, and take pleasure in the smaller, natural parts of life and don’t let thwarted human endeavors become center stage. All will resolve soon enough, and those with fresh energy who have avoided the fight will become the leaders of the pack by natural selection…

 

Saturn closes in with a grand air trine, so for once the ringed giant has hidden jewels to offer.

October’s opportunities include a grand air trine of the Sun and Venus with Saturn and Mars that makes for enduring charm offensives that last well beyond their debuts. Despite the lingering square of Saturn to Uranus (new vs. old), this two-week mid-month aspect could be a gold mine for those looking to make a lasting impression of charisma mixed with wisdom, so let both shine out.

Six retrograde planets at beginning reduce to only four by month’s end, but it’s also a switch-off as the last mutation brings on retro Mars which lasts over two months and brings energy-consuming projects to a halt. So if you feel you’ve reached a high-water mark anywhere, you probably have, so stake your boundaries, dig in, and prepare to defend what you’ve achieved. Don’t try to go a bridge too far, or you could lose hard-earned gains, when you find that the bridge has been burned behind you.

Instead, with the generally splash skies, bringing every day something new, diversify and go wide instead of deep. Jupiter has backed into Pisces, so the Aries urge to surge forward has lost its luster and drive until next year’s return to Aries, so better to check for what you’ve overlooked and make up for what might have been missed opportunities, fill in the spaces.

Finally, it’s eclipse season again, with the leading solar eclipse the first of two, so expect the usual one-two banana peel slips and falls, sudden reverses and turns in traffic, especially after this month’s solar and before next month’s lunar, the usual shaky two-week window to avoid making long-term commitments and instead seize unexpected windows of opportunity for short-term profits. If you can turn on a dime, you can turn up a dollar, then invest, repeat…

 

Busy splash skies, as we pass six retro planets, speed up/take up time -- mostly rearranging things.

September is like August, or what August has been lately but no more. Finally splash skies dominate, meaning something is afoot all the time, busy-busy-busy, as Moon is constantly making conjunctions. But, what it’s conjoining is mostly retrograde planets, six of them, so much of that business is reversing or making adjustments to stuff that was done in the late winter and spring when they were all direct. So, get ready to get back in gear, and change the gears you were accustomed to using.

Otherwise, the planets are again moving mostly alone by themselves, as with last month, the only major tangle is Sun and Venus catching up to and conjoining retrograde Mercury in the latter part of the month.  That’s all inner planet doings, so can be momentarily inspiring, but not an indicator or world-shaking cycle coming to a head which conjunctions of middle and outer planets forbode.

The main takeaway right now is Earth is passing closest to and overtaking everything all stacked on the one side of the solar system, meaning we’re a little closer to the action and can better interpret their meanings, the opposite to our riskier stance a half year ago when we were on the other side of the whole system, going it alone, and making less-informed decisions. That is the difference between direct planets (far away) and retro (nearby) – if you don’t learn this large-scale repetition during these years of roller-coaster skies, you won’t have the chance again for years to come…

 

August explodes across multiple horizons, as the dread Mars-Uranus conjunction detonates on the first day, painting a picture of where volatile events will occur during the next two years. For details on how that also works personally, see “When Uranus Meets Mars”  along with a primer on the subject, and our last article about the one that triggered the Arab Spring. In short, where this conjunction rises or culminates will likely be where the more violent and disastrous coming events occur. That will rise in an arc from UK down to South Africa and culminate on a line from central China down to Western Australia. The conjunction is further entangled with a square to Saturn (culminating over Ukraine and Russia), which limits but prolongs its effects.

Shorter-term, the Mars-Uranus-Saturn square will swell into T-squares and grand crosses throughout the month, bringing sudden, but inhibited, starts and stops that make navigation difficult and dangerous. And charts of people born or decisions made under the skies will last as their natal horoscopes apply, like, to the end. That doesn’t mean guaranteed disaster – there are lots of places and ways to avoid it or make use of it – though it does mean watch your step more carefully.

But the good news is, perhaps, that the closed, one-sided skies of the year finally open up into splash patterns making something new happening every day, as opportunities roll over one another, asking to be harvested. Five planets are retrograde by month’s end, meaning reengagement with all the planets’ energies is demanded as we zip by them, all on one side of the solar system. If you are ready to go play, it’s definitely playtime…just keep a watch eye out for incoming…

 

Planets circle without actually touching, like birds in flight -- Pluto rules, summer splash skies still to come.

July is laggard summer, put off until August as Venus and Mercury fall behind the Sun and customary splash skies happen a month later than usual. And except for the Moon making its usual round of conjunctions, all the planets are pretty much keeping to themselves, with no interplanetary conjunctions at all, just making the shift into the next sign at the most, or at the worst going retro, like Jupiter. Last month’s brief hot blast of Mars-Moon-Jupiter intensity is history, and Jupiter will be backing off and eventually back into Pisces with no forward motion until November. The summer’s next and only planetary interaction will be the violent Mars-Uranus conjunction August 1, and that will tend to be the kind of excitement you’d as soon avoid.

Since Pluto is leading the bowl of middle and outer planets, and fronts the sky in general except for the Moon filling in as bucket handle mid-month, it’s more like business as usual but not under control. With Pluto you get the hand you’re dealt, you don’t get to pick and choose, even when you think you’re in charge. Ineluctable fate is at the helm, but it helps to know that, so you can dodge the bullets instead of walking right into them. The extremity of the roller-coaster skies that started in 2018 is only half done, with its historical polarizing and flip-flopping continuing on until after 2026.

The more freewheeling fun of plash skies will happen this summer, just not  until next month, and the tangled backfilling of mostly retro planets will be put off this year until late September. Although there isn’t much sky action, the local ground-weather can still be surprising, so you won’t fall asleep at the wheel...

 

Conflicting trends make June a stretch, but when in doubt, follow Nature as it continues its steady course.

June is a flying stretch, as two opposing trends overlap. Jupiter continues its rush into Aries just after its kick from Mars also ripping through that speedy sign. So, the urge to do something, snag the passing gold ring, jump on sudden opportunities, all will be prodding you into action. Yet, at the same time, Mercury is still retrograde as the month begins, so there’s a lot of backpedalling going on at the same time, knots to be unraveled in lines already taut. Plus, it’s the coming see-saw time when the middle and outer planets all go retro as Earth rushes by them in its orbit, so you have to stretch to keep up with the new while making sure you don’t trip over the still-underway old and lose both in the process.

Outside of the Moon’s monthly full circle in the sky, the planets aren’t interacting directly that much, with only Venus overtaking Uranus eleven days in, bringing sudden unexpected desires and changes of heart that could distract from more important focus, though providing some original takes at the same time.

Although splash skies are ahead before the heart of retro season begins, for the moment the leading edge of most days will be Pluto and Saturn, so necessity and choice-less choices will continue to make carefree living a momentary break rather than the order of the day. When the world is beset with both war and plague, interspersed with sudden local outbreaks of madness, it’s sometimes hard to keep your eye on summer fun (or winter chill if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere). Take your cue from nature as the birds still fly, plants still grow, and the planet itself goes on with life unheeding of the evening news…

 

Jupiter enters Aries but overblown projects fueled by hubris get shot down amid eclipses and sunspot surge.

May jumps and stumbles around as Jupiter powers into Aries under eclipse skies and Mercury retrograde which provide trip-ups all of the way.  A good month if you’re a tree or flower and growing according to the natural order, but puffed-up plans are riding for a fall as the summer blossom of retro planets grows to six by the end of the season, reversing much of the winter’s full-tilt boogie attempts at change unchecked by sufficient thought or planning.

Take the usual precautions of Mercury retro, when plans and tech solutions go awry and double them, because it’s a trend. And, expect surprises from Sun with Uranus early on and then at month’s end Mars with Jupiter providing rocket fuel to new plans that themselves may be headed for reversals (when Jupiter goes retro in July). 

If you’re trying to keep a steady and ambitious path, this is a month of bumpy progress when the urge to make a fast move is presented with slip-ups and derailments just ahead caused by taking the first obvious path (it’s mined) or saying the first thing that comes out of your mouth (it’s being recorded, to be held against you). No time like the present to ease away and let things develop in a natural way, and perhaps no time harder to do just that. “La ley de Dios no tiene trampas” except for those who try to override it…hubris never came so naturally, nor was so quickly punished…

Add to that the early return and surge of the sunspot cycle (short wave signals are already getting blotted out regularly), their “mass excitement” swell, and sudden, stormy surprises are the order of the month…

 

Massive movements above trigger turbulent, evolutionary changes at world, personal, even cellular scales.

April packs a one-two punch, entering with an explosive Aries new Moon and ending on a solar eclipse – all in a bundle sky bracketed by Uranus and Pluto, where the month-long, usually-sexy Venus-Mars conjunction running from Pluto to Saturn has made war, not love.  Bundle skies tend to be particularly intense and often bring conflict – in the mid-1940s it was WWII, in 1982 it was the Falklands War and the Lebanon War, in the early 1990s the harrowing fall of the Soviet Union.  And now…previously, each time it looked like things could escalate to Armageddon, in the end it passed.  This time, March told the start, and April will tell much of the rest of the tale.

The normally-big astrological news is the 13-year conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune this month, usually associated with spiritual trends and developments, but its dark side can be clouds of deceit and confusion, lies and delusions. Which way it will manifest, or perhaps in both, is yet to be determined, and after the downturn of the usually-positive Venus-Mars passage, all bets are off. The downside may be particularly emphasized by its position at the exact midpoint of violent and deadly Uranus and Pluto, which mark the outer borders of the bundle sky.

And then you add all planets direct, no retrogrades to slow things down and give pause for thought until Pluto turns around at the very end of the month. The elements of physical and transcendental trouble are all in the mix for the month, so step with care. Although it’s easy to see these all manifesting at a world level, it also makes its mark at the personal scale as well.

Charismatic Venus and Mars, which together with Pluto  brought war, at month's end will crash into Saturn...

March winds fan the flames of a major world cycle, the coming Jupiter-Neptune conjunction, in a confined, violent bundle sky outlined by Uranus and Pluto. The charismatic Venus-Mars conjunction continues for a second month, and after first hitting Pluto in Capricorn and marking the beginning of a war, it will end the month in the arms of Saturn in Aquarius and then disperse. Rarely has this usually-fun and sexy aspect been so hurtfully modified, above and below.

At the center of this tight (105 degrees) sky, with destructive Uranus and Pluto on either end, is Neptune, with Jupiter fast approaching its conjunction there, an event that recurs every thirteen years and marks spiritual and idealistic awakenings and the births of future leaders of creative and aspirational events and movements. How that will manifest in the midst of increasing violence and danger is yet to be seen, but it could be an awakening call to trim ship before the vessel comes apart, or an opportunity to flee into the inner world to avoid the tumult of the outer. Or both, depending on location and population.

As we emerge from one Neptune-ruled crisis (Covid) perhaps the addition of Jupiter will bring out the better side of that planet, which will be much-needed in the face of the other two outer planets teaming up to demonstrate their darker sides. Whatever the mix, the predicted exit from the doldrums into a suddenly-brilliant and faster reality is well underway and will continue. The effulgence has turned out to be the light of burning homes, and the speed that of fleeing families. We shall see what filters down from the next imminent set of sky changes…

 

Retrogrades removed, Venus and Mars together paint Capricorn with charisma but end up in Pluto's arms...

February sparkles with possibilities, as retro Venus and Mercury which have been putting an extra-long cap on the awaited upward winter swing of the roller coaster finally get out of the way and instead the sexy-charismatic Venus/Mars conjunction leads a tightly-bundled sky across Capricorn. Sun sloughs off Saturn early and it’s off to the races for everyone, though by month’s end the free-swinging Venus/Mars runs into Pluto adding compulsive force and over-insistence to their mix and Moon slumps into Saturn, causing the balloon to deflate a bit from its earlier wild inflation.

But whether it’s the dead of your winter or the height of your summer (down under) all planets are direct, as Earth swings away from all of its planetary cousins and goes it alone. When the cat’s away, the mice will play, though we may regret or have to adjust what we do now when we get right in the middle of everybody in six months.

Although it’s a freewheeling ride, the inspiration and spiritual side of real enthusiasm is in short supply as there are no planets in fire all month, in fact all the way into spring when Sun enters Aries. Speed, urgency, passion are all in play, but the higher and more uplifting aspects are missing, in part because the pressure outlet after being held down by difficult skies and local circumstances doesn’t allow for the niceties of creatively playing with the new motion. When you gotta go, you gotta go – you can come back and make more of it next time, when there’s more time to warm up and less urgency to get it all out.

Retrogrades, Saturn and Pluto encounters, slow up and repress pulsing, pressured urges to move on...

January is hurry up and wait, as what would be by now full-tilt forward skies are held back by Venus still painfully retrograde bringing changing goals and desires, and Mercury goes retro as well, with its usual mixups in schedules, planning, and technical execution. Early-on concentrated skies (almost a bundle shape) with their inclination to focus and move directly on turn into multiple directions as Moon moves out and repeatedly opens up and changes the skyscape.

Beginning with Sun running into Pluto and Mercury stationing on Saturn, and ending with Sun, Moon, and Mercury all just getting past Saturn, it’s a month of encountering and figuring out ways to deal with slowdowns, blockages, and generally recalcitrant situations when underneath the feeling is things should be back underway already, spurring conflicts an upsets. But they’re not. Jupiter, however, has now firmly changed sign into Pisces, so there’s an intuitive hope that the long-awaited expansion is just about here, if not quite reachable until things clear next month.

After that, expect things to get moving, better late than never, bringing doubling-up to make up for lost time that people have been talking about for months, but have been hamstrung by reality and its restrictions. No one to blame for that, and a waste of time to play that game, just get the necessary field-clearing done in preparation for some cooperative movement as the winter picks up next month.

Babies on Board (Astrobio) – Having life aboard spaceship Earth, or any other planet, leaves a signature in the air…

Solar Sailor (Arxiv) – Was the mysterious Oumuamua that passed through our solar system an alien sailing ship? Could be, in detail, here’s the math…

Virtual Exoplanets (YouTube) – Award-winning 360-degree virtual reality documentary on exoplanets…immerse yourself…

Aurora Sounds (SpaceWeather) -- Those space-driven Northern Lights translate into real sounds on the ground...

Dark Matter Day (DarkMatter.com) -- Make Oct. 31 truly astral, welcome those trick-or-treaters into a black hole...it's worldwide, no kidding...

Astrology Myths Not To Believe (Bustle) – Debunking the debunkers, refreshing…

Moon and Pluto Should Be Planets (LiveScience) – To astrologers, they already are…

The Goblin (NPR) – It’s orbiting far out, and may be pointing to something bigger, farther out…

Full Moon Patents (thenextweb) – Patents under a full Moon, wild and crazy? Find out every lunar month…

Rare Tea (BBC) – India’s rarest and priciest tea is picked only under the full Moon…

Moon, Meaningful (NY Times) – All things, to all people, across all ages…that’s our satellite, as told by the Grey Lady…

Moon, Electrified (National Geographic) – When the Moon is full, it literally gets juiced up…

Dark Matter Melanoma (AstroWatch) – Skin cancer may be related to influx of dark matter, associated with orbit of Mercury…

An Extra Pole (Nature) – Jupiter’s got more of everything and some to spare, including a third magnetic pole…

Endless Summer (BBC) – The EU would like the noonday Sun permanently off the MC…

Not a Vortex (Forbes) – Our motion through space isn’t quite what those spirally animated pictures would have you believe…it’s much cooler than that…

Fake but Fine (NY Times) -- Gemini Grey Lady journalist is of two minds on mysticism...

Reversal on Reversals (ANU) – Now it appears that Earth’s geomagnetic field switches may happen more quickly and more severely than previously thought – and could sizzle all our gear…

Tracking Space Weather (Warwick) – Sunspot cycle data may now reveal when the big storms are on their way, way ahead...

Near Miss Flyby (MPIFR) – Would explain slanted orbits of Pluto and other outers, and more..

The Wall (Space.com) – Turns out the whole solar system has a wall around it...ICE, anyone?...

Solar Blackouts (AGU) – Looking for rescue after a hurricane hits? The Sun could be your undoing...

Flee or Die (NewsMinute) – Some people take their astrologers a bit too seriously...

Sun Song (CNN) – The resonant sounds of our star are almost like the timbre of a meditation gong...

Electric Spiders (SpaceWeather) – When the Sun floods us with electromagnetic pulses, it picks arachnids off the ground and sends them around the world...

Steer Clear of the Deer (North Country Now) – Study reveals traffic collisions with deer peak at full Moon, despite (or maybe because of) better visibility...

Full Moon Moles (Bloomberg) – Full Moon is time for huge train heists by unknown, human “moles”...

Changing the Seasons (Nature) – Astrological signs are defined by season changes, and now we’re changing them...what does it mean?...

End of the World (The Mirror) – Next Friday, on Blood Moon eclipse, put it on your calendar...

Cult Movie (Paste) – 1975’s little-known The Astrologer may be the best of them all...

Planetary Hums (Gizmodo) – Mystery resonances are rife, so are explanations...but not yet suggested: wave overtones of other planets, here...

Interplanetary Chatter (Mysterious Universe) – In light of the above, Saturn is actually talking to one of its moons...

Forbidden Histories (Forbidden Histories) – All those founders of modern science were astrologers, among other things...

Secrets of the Past (Daily Grail) – It’s not just astrology that’s been covered up in the history of science...

Solunar Hand Prints (Seeker) – Here’s research that connects full and new Moons, extrapolated back to conception, with presumed-genetic mental conditions...via the palm lines...

Pythagoras Henge (Ancient Origins) – New book claims Stonehenge builders knew Pythagorean geometry long before the Greeks...

Warming the Moon (thenextweb) – Where we put our feet down, it got hotter...

Collective Gravity (U of Col) – It may not be Planet X that weirds out the orbits of our farthest planetoids, it may be the roller coaster effect we’ve been talking about...

Lengthening Day (Wisc.edu) – Summer makes days longer, briefly...the Moon does it, permanently...

Buy Bitcoins (MSU) – That’s the message of Uranus moving into Taurus, according to buyers themselves...

Clean Eclipses (SpaceWeather) – Lunar eclipses look really different, depending upon what you’re looking through...

Comet Pluto (SWRI) – Pluto was made from a billion comets?...highly theoretical, indeed...

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...