John Townley's AstroCocktail News Archive 2014

As above, so below...

This holiday season is a welcome bookend to the last one, which began a year of struggle and a cardinal grand cross that took the world by storm, literally and figuratively. By contrast, this month marks the final halt of the post-cross runaway Jupiter, now in the third part of Leo, as Saturn put its toe into Sagittarius, after two years of holding down Scorpio.

In another show of slow, it’s also the end of three weeks of only one retrograde planet (Uranus), as Jupiter makes its backward turn a week into the month. And with only the still-lingering Uranus-Pluto square causing trouble, it could be a welcome time of getting off the merry-go-round, tuning out of the rat race however briefly, and actually having time and space to celebrate the season and the coming new year. At least until Uranus goes direct just at the solstice and looks for new pots to stir in the months ahead.

If last year the planets were assembling to threaten us, this year December looks more like family and friends gathered beneath the star (in this case Jupiter ruling the night sky) steadily shining atop the holiday tree. As the stars and planets make their appointed rounds, with thankfully-slowed and benefic Jupiter at their head, we can all pause for a piece of peace on earth, at least for a moment, and be glad the last year is put behind us…

November brings increasing stability after the recent wild ride of Jupiter untrammelled and last month’s Mercury retrograde and two eclipses. The out-of-control elements are beginning to get more easily handled and there’s more time to tend to matters of growth, developing new opportunities, and generally taking advantage of the qualities of Jupiter in Leo that used to manifest in more ordinary times (you have to look back three cycles to 1978 for a peaceful version of that – last two times there was an Iraq war in process, as now). For the rest of the fall and winter, Jupiter will dominate nearly two-thirds of the sky, without rushing to move on, so now’s the time to enjoy the possibilities.

The only rough spots are the conjunctions of Sun and Venus to Saturn and Mars to Pluto (see Skies page for dates), when it might be time to pull back and just enjoy a crackling autumn fire on the andirons, absorb the season’s growing darkness (with apologies to those Down Under where it’s spring!)…and when you’re out, the fast-moving season inspires business and anticipation, this time of a more astrally-blest holiday season than under last year’s grand cross, and reason to understand that things do move in cycles and after tumult comes peace, at least for a time, so enjoy…

After the recent runaway Jupiter, resulting in all sorts of often-deadly world overgrowth and cross-invasions, the big planet has slowed and it’s time to try to reap some benefits of normally-helpful Jupiter in Leo. Big plans, new kingdoms and alliances, spreading ambitions all raise their heads, so get in there and take advantage.

Not all is joy, health, love, and peace, however, not yet – with Mercury retrograde almost all month, it’s still time to keep putting new, stabilizing structures into place to rein in the previous overkill. Further, it’s also crazy eclipse season again, with a big, red lunar eclipse on the Hunter’s Moon of October 8 right on the former cardinal cross planets (Uranus and Pluto) and a partial solar eclipse at 0 Scorpio October 23. The first looks like trouble, but the second with a Cazimi (very exact) Venus conjunction could be hot and steamy and very profitable, particularly for those with planets near that degree. But the climate will still be full of the unexpected, the sudden turnaround, so don’t unfasten your seat belts quite yet.

Nevertheless, although aftershocks are still being felt, the summer’s runaway train is finally beginning to get back to a reasonable and useful speed, just enough to make something good of it without being carried over and off the embankment…

September continues the runaway train (see our article, below right) as situations further explode out of control around the globe and in your back yard. Jupiter rocketing through Leo, like an unguided missile launched from the remains of the last year’s now-defunct cardinal grand cross, offers lots of opportunity to all, but it’s a suddenly-rising trajectory that can put you over the Moon or just get you lost in space. The trick is to at least get on board for the ride and not be left scorched on the smoking blast pad below…

The third Super Moon in a row, the full mid-Pisces Harvest Moon of September 8-9, will again likely mark the month’s high tide of burgeoning events, along with the Libra New Moon of September 24. Be ready to move quickly, or just duck and cover until it’s over.

Once Jupiter slows down a bit and we all start to get a handle on sometimes radically-changed situations, there can be profits to be reaped from all this – but only after yet another set of sudden, unsettling shifts as eclipse season arrives again in October in the middle of Mercury retrograde. So, for the moment, hang on as the rocket ride continues…

August sees Jupiter exploding like a bursting sunflower through the first third of Leo, untrammelled by the former chains of the last year’s now-dispersed grand cross. Suddenly all things seem possible as the big planet’s weedlike growth surges like the throttle on a runaway train, urged on just a week into the month by the extra intensity of the second of three Super Moons.

Dog days weather will tend toward the extreme, both inside and out, but with Jupiter quincunx Neptune half the month, eager positivism can change to overambitious delusion causing many to overshoot the mark and find their dreams go up in the smoke of misjudgment or painful collision with competitors equally over-expanding their boundaries. Hope and idealism abound, but take care that you’re aware of how others are experiencing this same, long-awaited rising tide of possibilities. You’ll get more from staking claim to virgin territory than vying for already-targeted terrain.

All in all, it’s a big go for most anything you want to apply this rampant energy to, and now’s the time to do it before this fall’s Jupiter-Saturn square starts to inhibit new and free-wheeling approaches. Put the pedal to the metal, but check your brakes first…at this speed, that coming curve in the distance arrives sooner than you think…

As July begins and the solstice season really gets rolling, the gates are opening and the race is on. The nasty cardinal grand cross and/or T-cross that has held the world in bondage is over, though the still-rampant Uranus-Pluto square section of it still remains, especially in war-torn areas. The price of Uranus (revolution and change) is still too-often death and destruction (Pluto).

But, the fabulous news is that the two planets which could really energize and improve things – Mars and Jupiter – are finally moving forward and free of their previously-paralyzing restrictions. Most notable, Jupiter swings into larger-than-life Leo and out of confining Cancer by mid-month, ushering in a year of positive thinking and optimistic outlooks long overdue.

Add to that Mercury just finished with its triannual retrograde and back into gear, as the month progresses it’s all systems go with refreshingly little to hold things back. If you want to start a juggernaut, now’s the time, and if there is any caution needed it is that it can be easy to find yourself on a runaway train as the long-frozen brakes suddenly get released. So mind your speed, especially should you see a curve coming up ahead – it’s closer (in time) than you think and may be upon you before you can adjust the throttle…

Now that the Jupiter swing is fully underway, perhaps it’s a good time to review our prescient, preview coverage of the broader implications – and also the dark side – of this major historical cycle, in order to understand it better… it can run the gamut from heavenly redemption to catastrophic hubris, and we’re already seeing signs of both…

Summer is icumen in, and with it the imminent arrival of Jupiter into Leo next month and a new dawn after a year-long dark night of cardinal grand cross tie-ups that seemed like they’d never end. The grand cross is now history, but a sticky T-cross still remains until Mars gets back up to speed and peels out of range of Uranus and Pluto, also next month.

Mercury is retrograde the last three weeks of June, so it’s the perfect time to re-corral your ducks until they’re all in a row and ready to take off to the sky with Jupiter’s tailwinds beneath their wings. After a long winter of discontent everywhere, this will finally be a summer in which to take flight – and once you’re aloft, to stay there and make the most mileage of Jupiter unchained and master of the heavens and all below.

Dawn is breaking, time to arise, get the cobwebs out of your brain, and at last set sail into an inviting ocean promising adventure, new fortunes, and a date (or two) with destiny…

This particularly cruel April has passed, and with it the worst of the remarkable, repeating and reformulating cardinal grand cross, recently aggravated by two eclipses just to add chaos, making it one of the more difficult months at all sorts of levels. Whether it was a looming, invasive superpower, riots in the streets, or just unremitting local and personal pressure following on a particularly harsh winter (summer, if you’re down-under), it’s been a time to put safely into your rear view mirror.

Well, not quite yet. Mars is still retrograde most of the month,and that cross is still hanging around, but not as grindingly exact as it was, its trouble loosening up but adding extra hassles nonetheless. But, better a gale than a hurricane, and by the time summer makes its entrance, small craft warnings will seem a summer breeze in comparison with what all crafts have had to put up with this year. And, as Jupiter flees the cross and, soon, leaves the sign of Cancer and bursts into Leo, it will be full sails and (relatively) prosperous weather once again – really the first time since Saturn’s sway starting in 2008-09 brought down the Great Recession and the very idea of predictable security fell apart for much of the world.

So, have a little more patience as the planets slowly make their way into a new sky pattern, when it will be appropriate to make something of it. It’s not yet time to wade into deep water, but certainly the right month to start putting preface to your next new voyage, in anticipation of a fairer sky and a friendlier sea…after long frustration, the natural day is at hand, yours to turn into art:

Spring in a foreign land,
Once so well-known to me,
I thought would take me by the hand
To lead me through eternity
Now hems me in with harsher, new-found walls
Where I within am beckoned from without
By calls (like syrens in Ulysses' ears
That promise less yet more the more he hears)
To come and come about,
Till this fell channel's put behind
And sailing on a fairer wind
Perhaps, withal,
Remember that the warming days of spring
Are yet a common, repetitious thing,
And as their light is shed upon the heart
Reveal but nature, all the rest is art.

April showers are more like a hard rain as grand cross skies, eclipses dominate.

April is the cruellest month, this year for sure. It comes in with a bang on Sun conjunct Uranus, and gets more intense from there, as the much-vaunted and now-perfect cardinal grand cross of Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto is supercharged by the Moon four times on April 6, 14, 20, and 27 – every one of them rife with potential for surprise, strife, explosive change, and impacted contrariness. The pattern has been revving up since Christmas, and this month is the heart of it, though it will take another several months for it to unwind and for things to get back to normal.

Part of that is because Mars is still retrograde, so making energetic moves trends towards failure or a twisted outcome instead of sureness of foot and decisiveness. It’s no time to be invading other people’s space, yet it is often just when that happens historically. Bonaparte, Hitler, Tojo, and too-often Israel (even the U.S. at times) have sadly run acropper of this, so Mr. Putin should be a little more cautious…and so ought folks in their personal life, or they’ll come to regret it. It’s a good time to change course with sly subtleness, but not one for launching premeditated conquest.

And to add further confusion to the general disorder, it’s eclipse seasonagain, the usual matched pair this time, with a lunar eclipse April 15 (tax surprise!) at 25 Aries/Libra and a solar eclipse on April 29 at 8 Taurus. If you have planets in those degrees, brace yourself for sudden turnarounds in the areas they cover. The sky this month has a lot of planetary aspects coming to bear, so check this month’s mileposts for the details. All in all, it’s a regular blitz, but tips on how you can keep out of its way on a daily basis are here. And April showers? Floods, more likely…but for those who need rain, at least the better half of a generally mixed blessing…

Eclipses come but twice a year,
Their reputation’s rather drear,
They hold astrologers in fear
Because they land you on your ear,
Sure to catch you off your guard,
Hoist you on your own petard.
If it’s been wet, they’ll make it dry,
Or downpours bring from droughted sky,
If you’ve been rich, they’ll make you poor,
Or, drive the wolf right from your door.
Things in repair oft wind up broke,
As what you’ve got goes up in smoke,
And everything anticipated
Turns reverse of what’s awaited,
Leaving all confused and vexed,
…and just six months until the next!

March begins ten weeks of Mars retrograde, forward efforts get stuck in the mud.

If February was a fractious month (and as predictied, it was, locally and globally), March begins the rearward march of Mars, the center of which in April will bring the rise of grand cardinal cross conflicts at every scale to its apex, followed by a drawdown until it all dissipates in the mid-summer. Every two years, Mars goes retrograde for a ten week stretch, during which time forward efforts bog down and previously-gained ground may have to be given up in a rearward retreat.

That’s always frustrating enough, but this time Mars retreats into the center of the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto T-cross, turning the whole affair into a grand cardinal cross which grinds across the Angles four times a day for what may seem like forever. The worst of that will be mid-April, but March 17 sees a repeat of the lunar cross of February 18 (which saw four separate international locations burning and riot-torn – Kiev, Caracas, Syria, and Bangkok – on the same day), and March 2, 10, and 24 will reach similar but likely lower intensities.

How does one get through all this? Well, we’re helping, or trying to.The names of six separate full articles of advice on how to better understand and handle the overall situation are in our “This Month’s Mileposts” section, so go take a look, then find them in our articles section. Our planets on angles section will also let you know the daily times to watch out for, so you can dodge the particularly bellicose moments as they approach and then pass, hour by hour. Forewarned is truly forearmed. Our prescription, such as it is: “Keep calm, and keep your eye on the sky”…

Unless you’re suffering from a blistering summer Down-under, this February is a cold, dark, winter’s night marked by the ongoing cardinal T-cross (and occasional added-planet grand cross) of Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto. It’s the sign of the pressure of progress (Jupiter) being blocked by the hostile intransigence of two outer planets that won’t give an inch and are ready to fight about it. It’s a familiar tune, most recently clogging up the works worldwide last summer and early fall, now back in full swing. And it’s only going to get more intense as Mars becomes the fourth arm of the cross in its always-frustrating retrograde phase, which will last through March and April.

What to do about this? Short-term, it means a lot of crossed wires and breakdowns that take precious time to sort out and repair. Long-term, it means that efforts begun during this period (anything with a horoscope: births, contracts, purchases, promises, marriages, etc.) will have this tangle natally and will always be problem children. So, it’s probably a good time to tend to re-sorting, unravelling, and mending rather than boldly staking new claims or risking major beginnings. 24/7 it’s a dark and stormy night out there, so keep the lights burning and the home fire well-tended and go about your chores, awaiting the better weather and more light that the summer will eventually bring. And when you have to do something important, make sure that troublesome tangle is off the Angles at the time. These tables will help you do that.

And finally, let those lights you burn and fires you tend be a guide and assistance to others out there on the deep, so to speak. You are not alone. In the words of P.P. Bliss:

2014 Ahead: If you ever got the feeling that the world is spiraling crazily on with or without you, this winter should confirm it all. With the late-summer and early-fall’s cardinal grand cross returning as the new year enters, with Venus retrograde (reversal of desires, plans, needs) and with Mars going retro just before the beginning of spring, the cost of progress (Jupiter, part of the grand cross) is going to be dissension and often chaos, reorganization, and peremptory elimination of obstructions to the wave of the future. It began, as predicted, mid-December, but now it’s cranking up. It’s not personal, though it may seem so, just the final throes of Jupiter's battle past the obstructionist and often violent Uranus-Mars square, made more confrontational by Mars in the mix.

What to do about it all, when the big guys upstairs are battling it out? Keep an eye on the grand cross, explained here and its daily times (to be avoided) here and you’ll stay out of the fray and the occasional metaphorical drive-by shooting. Unless you’ve got natal planets in mid-cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), putting you in the line of fire, in which case you need to be extra careful, and put on your psychic flak vest. We like to be positive purveyors of pleasant purposefulness, but this is a repeat of what shut down the U.S. government last fall at every level of personal non-cooperation. Expect to see it all again, or something similar, in a neighborhood, marriage, workplace, or government near you, even if you’re not the main player. It’s a good chance to wisely exercise tea and sympathy and avoid being pulled into vortices not your own.

The good news? Jupiter wins! ...and improves everything for several years to come…but not after the blockages have been blown away and the new highways opened, sometimes at a price only rueful retrospectives may heal and justify…

New State Seen In Stars (Times of India) – The brand-new state being born was predicted by the stars, along with troubles to come…

Still Crucial (Economic Times) – To Subcontinent politicos, this venerable starcaster is still a modern must…but, there are more…

Blood Moon Hiding? (WND) – Is NASA part of a conspiracy, or just repairing it’s site? A little conspiracy paranoia, but still, what do the “blood” Moon eclipses mean?...more here...

Back to the Stars (Irrawaddy) – Star consulting again takes a front seat in Thailand’s troubled political situation, this time with populist ex-PM Thaksin’s former wife looking to ease him back in, where riots have failed…

Taking It Seriously (UPI) – The percentage of young adult Americans who think astrology is a science or at least kind of one is way up. Even most astrologers won’t claim that…

Distorted Press (ANS) – Starcaster Robert Curry rightly says media coverage misdescribes what astrology is…but not toward the “scientific” belief mentioned above…makes one wonder…

The Astrologer Did It (ANS) – A subgenre of crime fiction is growing, in which an astrologer is the sleuth…but in the Subcontinent these days, as you can see from our coverage below, the astrologer is sometimes the perp…

Prediction Tax (Times of India) – If you predicted someone’s election, and then she rewarded you after she got elected (against all odds), would you have to pay income tax on it? You bet…

Stormy Tides (The Independent) – This year’s particularly wretched winter storms have been having all the help the Moon can give them…

New Year Moon Myths, Facts (Space.com) – Lots of fun details on the Moon, its phases, and so on…gung hei fat choy to all!...

Russian Futures (Moscow Times) – A rocky year ahead for the Winter Olympics host, according to local starcasters…but an ancient prediction that a Vladimir would save all…

Werewolf Diet (Time) – If you can grow great grapes that make wonderful wine by the phases of the Moon, why not diet that way? Water weight, tides, and all that involved…

Child Sacrifice (Times of India) – More astrologers behaving badly, from our Subcontinent police blotter…

Black Moon (EpochTimes) – Two new moons in a calender month, new term, and this one’s a (new)SuperMoon, too…nice graphics, observation hints…

Planets On Your Wrist (TheVerge) – Yes, you can have them right there, humming along, but don’t ask the price, it’s from VanCleef and Arpel…

AstroPsychology (ANS) – Dr. Glenn Parry rephrases his dictum that psychology is actually astrology, or is it the other way around?...soft science defined by soft science…

Scary April (The Guardian) – Susan Miller says grand cross makes April so scary she’s giving classes on it…well, we’ve been telling you that for some time…

Astrologers’ Consciousness Levels (ANS) – It seems we’re a dreadfully aware bunch, if you accept the definitions of awareness in this somewhat strange study…

Solar Cycle Freeze (Orlando Sentinel) – Solar cycle will send us into an ice age, not global warming…heard this one before…

Stronger Jews (Israel International News) – Egyptian starcaster says Saturn going into Sagittarius will aid the Israelites, and always has…

Kepler Appreciated (ANS) – Astronomers pooh-pooh his astrological work, but without it, there would be no modern astronomy…

Maxi-Moon, Mini-Moon (Wunderground) – Worth being reminded that this New Year’s cardinal grand cross SuperMoon (new Moon variety) is followed by a full Moon of minimal effect…and that’s always the case, even when you reverse it…

Earthly Star (NASA) – Earth, Jupiter, and Venus make a blended Christmas Star, as seen from STEREO’s space camera…plus, from NASA, a nice Star of Bethlehem conjunction tale…

Three Cycles to Watch (Marketwatch) – In the coming year, some repeating periods are coming to fruition…

Emotional Cycles (Reality Sandwich) – Basic four personality types from traditional astrology may be seasonal and cyclic, and quite real…fascinating research…

Ritual for Child Sex (Times of India) – Sounds more salacious than it is, but astrologers shouldn’t be guaranteeing a couple a boy (or girl) child by planting a lemon tree…health department is investigating…

Shakin’ and Quakin’, Again (Novinite) – Bulgarian starcaster drumming up anxiety, scaring the horses, and neighbors, for which he was sued last time…

Peace Predictions (The News) – 83-year-old Bejan Daruwalla, India’s high-profile astro-sage who “looks exactly like an astrologer should look like”, journeys to Pakistan to forecast end of seemingly-endless Subcontinent superpower conflict…

Free Apps (BRW) – That’s what everybody expects in astrology, makes it hard to make a living, even for rich and popular Sun-sign purveyors like Susan Miller…well, you get what you pay for…

Mini-Moon (Washington Post) – Supermoons, at their biggest and closest, are much-heralded. This one was the opposite…but it was also right on the Galactic Center…does it matter?...it’s going to be a complicated December, anyway…!

Self-Indulgent (NY Daily News) – People into astrology are so self-involved, just too into themselves…or so this odd bit of research would have you believe…

New Moon at Saturn? (Daily Mail) – Is the Dour One spawning a little one? Looks like it…

Was Jesus A Gemini? (ANS) – Or was Christ a Capricorn? This one’s an old chestnut reinvented, with an exact time of birth, yet…but our only Christmas-star story this year, so far…

Hitler’s Astrologer (GeeksofDoom) – The comic book, The Shadow at work in 1941…we love it…

Another Lifetime (Un. of VA) – Kids recalling past lives, with Virginia’s Jim Tucker back in the news at his alma mater…no astrology here, except thatit happened to us, sort of…

Cricket Astro-Fix (Economic Times) – Astrologer is calling the shots on big league cricket team, government is investigating…

Skeptical Rebuffs (ANS) – Some retorts for those who think astrology is hokum, but use hokum to make their own points…

Zodiac Killer (New Indian Express) – Well, sort of. An astrologer who murdered five people, now in custody…we can’t resist the police blotter…

Astrological Case Files (ANS) – A collection of 54 short stories about what it’s like to consult with an astrologer…

Flame or Fizzle? (Sky and Telescope) – Comet ISON, once touted to be the comet of the century, may have made it past the Sun…after which it may, or may not, be a spectacle after all…running updates here…

Dirty Girl (The Guardian) – Venus is drifting in a cloud of dust…who knew? Maybe it explains something…

Crowdsource Asteroids (NASA) – Groupthink approach may fine-tune threats, ward off disaster. Could we do this with astrology?...

Seasonal Birth Disorders (The Atlantic) – Multiple diseases are associated with births in certain times of the year…is it astrology? Many would hate to admit that…

Prize Winner (PBS) – Author is youngest ever to win Booker Prize, for a mystery novel with an astrological theme…

What Happened To Mars? (NASA) – Once warm and wet, it’s now cold and dry…how’d that come to pass?...NASA intends to find out…unless Russia does first…

Halloween Storms (NASA) – The atmosphere was all a-glow, despite this weak (though freaky) solar max…

Wikipedia Biased… (ANS) -- …against astrologers, and proponents of every other edge science that official skeptics hate, such as Rupert Sheldrake…

An Asteroid Named…What??!! (ANS) – With something like 17,000 named, small asteroids roiling around, what are the chances of their conjunctions being meaningful…? Is this nominative determinism, or something else, entirely?...

Comet Strike (WITS) – Tangible evidence, for the first time, of early comet collision with Earth, destroying all in its path…

Lonely Newborn (Institute for Astronom y) – A brand-new planet, wandering lost in space…

Diamonds In The Air (National Geographic) – When lightning strikes on Jupiter and Saturn, the atmosphere crystallizes…

Oaths of Office (The Hindu) – Subcontinental politicians can get totally twisted up trying to get it straight with the stars…some hilarious tales of just such attempts gone awry…

Mars Trojans (Icarus) – Yet more gatherings at Lagrange points L4 and L5, most recently Neptune, this time around Mars…that sextile-trine orbital point is so mellow, everybody wants to be there…