Astrology Writings

AUGUST 30, 2023

Full Moon in Pisces

On this Full Moon in healing, imaginative, compassionate, whole-picture-seeing Pisces (exact at 6:35pm PDT on 8/30/23), may we integrate our ideals into our tangible, earthy lived experience, into our concrete choices and actions (Virgo).
Coming into greater Pisces/Virgo congruence may involve letting go or releasing something so there is space/time/opportunity to engage in a different, more Piscean experience.
Saturn’s involvement in this lunation supports our capacity to ground and make real more of the Pisces dream/possibility, perhaps involving a creative/spiritual dimension in our lives.
Tonight, in honor of the Full Moon’s invitation, Dan and I are going to tune into Dr. Rick Hanson’s Wednesday night meditation and talk.
Participating in a weekly Buddhist meditation group is something we’ve been wanting to integrate back into our lives for quite a while now. Super excited to be making it real tonight in alignment with the glorious Super Blue Moon!!
AUGUST 23, 2023: VIRGO SEASON

Welcome VIRGO Season!

The Sun entered into the earth sign of Virgo at 2:01am PDT on August 23, kicking off VIRGO SEASON through September 22!

In its most empowered expression, Virgo is deeply oriented to ever-learning, living and guiding with humility. Virgo is a service-oriented sign and is motivated by the joy of being able to show up with practical, tangible wisdom and a skill set to help a situation improve.

Virgo, naturally attuned to details and patterns, understands the minutiae of manifestation, the ways we must organize and strategize to create the changes we wish to see in our lives and in the world.

Step-by-step and with intention toward a vision is quintessential Virgoan wisdom. It’s all about what we practice in our daily lives. The choices we make and how we relate in our day-to-day will create our future.

I have an altar on my desk right now (pictured above) to honor some of the predominant astrological energies being stimulated both personally, in my own birth chart/life, and in the collective. Virgo energy is strong here, represented by the embroidery hoop by Shanalee Hampton revealing a key to some powerful Virgo manifestation magic: “MAKE tiny CHANGES.”

A slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a different destination.”
–James Clear, author of Atomic Habits

Virgo Season invites us to get grounded and look through a detailed lens upon our current situation (individual, relationship, community and society). What are the ways in which conditions need to improve? Virgo demands specificity. Devote patient time here. Critically examine.

And, when you’re ready, or perhaps simultaneously, with equal specificity, envision what improvement would look and feel like. What would be ideal? What would be glorious and life-giving? Let your imagination be vast and free. Spend spacious time here. Join with other hearts and minds to dream.

Then, embark upon a process of breaking down into bite-sized, tiny pieces how to get from point A to point B. Outline it. Map it. Whatever your method, make the path and practices as detailed and accessible as possible, knowing you can continuously refine and evolve the plan.  Adaptability is a Virgo superpower due to this earth sign being of the mutable modality.

In the spirit of Virgo Season, I want to honor Andrea Ritchie, who “is a Black lesbian immigrant survivor who has been documenting, organizing, advocating, litigating, and agitating around policing and criminalization of Black women, girls, trans, and gender nonconforming people for the past three decades.

She has a new book coming out in October (which you can pre-order now) titled, Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies. This is the next book in the Emergent Strategy Series started by adrienne maree brown in collaboration with AK Press back in 2017 with amb’s groundbreaking book Emergent Strategy.

My partner, Dan, and I went to hear Andrea Ritchie speak on a panel at San Francisco State University, along with Angela Davis and Ny Nourn, several months ago. The event was in celebration of 25 years of the national grassroots organization, Critical Resistance, working to abolish the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). It was my first exposure to Andrea Ritchie, and immediately upon returning home that night, I cued up a couple of podcast interviews with her to listen to in the coming days. Here’s one from the Emergent Strategy pod hosted by adrienne maree brown. 

Andrea Ritchie has over 20 years of experience as a researcher, policy analyst and advocate on criminal justice issues. The depth and precision of her knowledge coupled with her capacity to articulate the reality of the current moment and ways we can move into new possibilities was profoundly grounding and igniting. I can’t wait for her new book to arrive. Here’s the synopsis:

“Practicing New Worlds explores how principles of emergence, adaptation, iteration, resilience, transformation, interdependence, decentralization and fractalization can shape organizing toward a world without the violence of surveillance, police, prisons, jails, or cages of any kind, in which we collectively have everything we need to survive and thrive.

Rooted in analysis of current abolitionist practices and interviews with on-the-ground organizers resisting state violence, and nurturing organizations and convergences that can grow transformative cities and movements, Practicing New Worlds takes readers on a journey of learning, unlearning, experimentation, and imagination to dream the worlds we long for into being.”

You can pre-order here!

To read more, please visit my 2023 Virgo Season Newsletter.
JULY 23, 2023: SEASON OF THE LION-HEART (LEO)

Welcome Season of the Sun Itself: LEO!

Each sign of the zodiac is ruled by a particular celestial body and for LEO THE LION it is the bright, warm, life-giving SUN.

At one of Steven Forrest’s Evolutionary Astrology Apprenticeship immersions years ago, I remember Steven inviting us into the essence of LEO by having us close our eyes and imagine a young child on a swing at a playground. The child is gleeful as the swing gets going higher and higher and excitedly calls out to their parents who are standing nearby, “Look at me, look at me!!” The parents’ faces light up, and with huge smiles they exclaim, “Wow, honey! How fun! You are amazing!! Way to go!!” We can imagine the child’s whole being filled with joy, confidence and warmth, like that of the Sun, at having been fully seen, affirmed and celebrated in their aliveness and glory.

Ahhh, yes, this is what the LEO energy within all of us needs! And it’s important to note that in order to get it, a risk must be taken: the bid for connection, the call to be seen, the authentic/creative expression revealed to others.

Now, of course, not all attention will necessarily be loving or positive as we put ourselves out there into the big, wide world, allowing our creative, soul expressions to be witnessed by others. So, part of the LEO process is to find our solid peeps, community who see into the heart of who we are and abundantly praise our existence (knowing this is not meant to be a one-way street as LEO energy is wired to offer this same kind of lion-hearted love and celebration to others too).

Through these genuine relationships of reciprocity, a felt-sense of belonging can emerge, becoming a source of self-confidence, open-heartedness and joy that is essential for LEO creation energy to unfold into all of its splendor and radiance.
To read more, please visit my 2023 Leo Season Newsletter.
JUNE 3, 2023: SAGITTARIUS FULL MOON

In honor of the Sagittarian Full Moon ♐️🌝🔥🌟

Images above from the Sagittarius Moon Medicine in Minneapolis, MN.
Oh, the joy of gathering together with deep, open, curious souls…beginning our evening with Gemini sunlight streaming in the windows and ending with an enormous, beaming Sagittarian Full Moon on the rise.
Thank you, Yess Yoga Studio, for such a gorgeous, abundant space to circle, soar, rest, reflect, grieve, ground, create, “organically engage with the music,”😘 shed, connect, grow and share from our hearts what inspires and opens us to live in hope-filled, visionary, ever-expanding ways.
Thank you, Sagittarius!
“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it…”
—Rainer Maria Rilke
“…trust the growing part of you to lead you home.”
—Alexis Pauline Gumbs (from her book, “Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals”)
AUGUST 2022: LEO SEASON

LEO Season: Hella Feminist

Image above: Recommended reading @ the HELLA FEMINIST exhibit (Oakland Museum of CA)

In the spirit of the fiery, creativity-sparking, passionately expressive, belonging and joy-seeking energy of LEO + (r)evolutionary, breakthrough, warrior-for-new-realities-beyond-systems-of-oppression MARS, URANUS, NORTH NODE CONJUNCTION!!! – I want to share with you some pieces of HELLA FEMINIST, an exhibition at the Oakland Museum of CA, which ignites and fills my soul with collective vision, fuel for action and so much gratitude.

Being physically in this inclusive, truth-telling, visionary space brimming with exacting, penetrating critique of patriarchy (including exorcism of patriarchy – images further below), along with opportunities for embodied experience right here and now of healing choices beyond patriarchy was fortifying, reality-expanding and cleansing in a deeply felt way. 

I found out about this exhibition through Oakland-based astrologer and medium, Jessica Lanyadoo, who has created an interactive portal as part of the exhibition, “where visitors can release their frustrations, anger, despair, exhaustion, and other emotions caused by a world that continues to be inequitable and unjust.”

After experiencing the portal, which was a profound emotional release, I came back later to take a photo. I took several attempting to get a clear image. Not happening. Here’s a look (only blur!):

I have featured Jessica in a couple of my past newsletters, as I immensely value her astrological perspective and critique of dominant culture (hetero-cisgendered-patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism…). If you are into astrology and haven’t checked out her Ghost of a Podcast ya gotta!! She rocks.

From the HELLA FEMINIST exhibition description:

“Feminism. It’s a loaded word; as empowering to some as it is challenging for others.

Hella Feminist is rooted in the idea that discrimination against all elements of identity (gender, class, race, sexual orientation, physical ability, education, age, etc.) is interlinked and that no element can be addressed in isolation.

Organized around three core themes—mind, body, and spirit—the exhibition features fascinating historical artifacts, provocative contemporary artwork, and interactive elements. Showcasing everyday acts of resistance as well as historical flashpoints, Hella Feminist invites you to experience the concept of feminism in all its struggle, triumph, and hope; to re-think your relationship to the word and the ideas it represents; and to consider how all of us can take action to shape a more just future.”

If you live in the Bay Area or are planning a visit out here, you don’t want to miss this! The exhibit is running through January 8, 2023.

Now, sharing a few images and artists from the exhibit (this is only a tiny, tiny fraction of what is there…a person could spend a whole day…and come back many times to soak it all in).

Image below: MUSEOEXCLUSION EXORCISM by Tanya Aguiñiga

In the grid above: Copal, Prehnite, Selenite, Baking Soda, Washed and dried eggshells, Rock salt, Charcoal

Images below: RESTORATIVE REALM created by Inés Ixierda (Mestizx interdisciplinary visual artist, media maker and curator), sylk (queer trans nonbinary Black herbalist, land steward and artist), Elokin Orton-Cheung (pronouns they/them, community herbalist, acupuncturist, activist and big garden nerd) and Alex de las Mareas (Xicana sex educator, anarchafeminist, cancer sun and interdisciplinary artist).

Please feel free to read more from my August 2022 newsletter: Hella Feminist + Fractals

JULY 2022: Cancer Season

Cancer Season

We are now solidly in CANCER SEASON (June 21-July 22, 2022), with the SUN moving through the sign of Cancer, one degree per day, and tonight MERCURY also enters this deeply sensitive, primal, feeling, water sign. Mercury represents the Mind (thinking) and Cancer is ruled by the Moon, which represents the Heart (feeling), in Evolutionary Astrology.

For the next couple of weeks (July 4-19), as Mercury embodies this deeply lunar energy, we are supported in consciously merging our thinking minds and our feeling hearts.

Mercury also governs language and communication. During this period while Mercury is in Cancer, which occurs once every year, the door is open to deepen our capacity and skill to articulate what we are feeling in a more nuanced way.

Recently, I was given the book, Atlas of the Heart, by a dear friend, which explores 87 different emotions. Wow – it’s so broadening. And, I have been spending with the emotions/feelings wheel (pictured above).  Being a Cancerian Sun myself, with my natal Mercury in Cancer too, it is a life-giving stream to have access to a more expansive and nuanced vocabulary for feelings and emotions.

“Language is our portal to meaning-making, connection, healing, learning and self-awareness. Having access to the right words can open up entire universes. When we don’t have the language to talk about what we’re experiencing, our ability to make sense of what’s happening and share it with others is severely limited… Language shows us that naming an experience doesn’t give the experience more power, it gives US the power of understanding and meaning.”
–Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart

Please feel free to read more from my July newsletter: 4th of July Anti-Imperialism Webinar + Mercury in Cancer + RIP Roe v. Wade Resources

JUNE 2022: LILITH

Lilith in Astrology

Artwork above by Paula Barkmeier (Thank you for your potent creativity, vision and heart, Paula!!)

“Patriarchy has sought to repress and tame erotic passion precisely because of its power to draw us into greater and greater communion with ourselves, with those we know most intimately, and with the stranger.” –bell hooks

Lilith, in astrology, is the function or drive within all beings that seeks to confront, process through and uproot oppressive conditioning and systems of power (imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, heteronormativity, patriarchy…).

Evolutionary astrology holds the premise that human beings CAN EVOLVE BEYOND OUR CONDITIONING!🔥🔥🔥

Lilith symbolizes our untamed, undomesticated, wild and completely natural life force energy (eros). Our wholeness. Our full aliveness. Lilith’s function within us is to RECLAIM our birthright of our natural, life-affirming energies and the infinite possibilities for our true expression beyond the rigid binaries of gender, sexuality, etc, that are foundational to the operation of patriarchy.

Lilith represents the FIGHT RESPONSE within all beings towards repression, suppression, oppression, inequality, abuse of power and the erosion of agency and critical thinking.

The images I’ve included here are from the co-created altar in the center of our circle at the in-person EMBODIED ASTROLOGICAL LILITH IMMERSION I recently facilitated in Minneapolis, MN at Yoga Sanctuary.

During the dark of the Moon, when Lilith’s elemental power is at its peak, we gathered in circle. We expanded deeply and innately into sacred, wild (natural), remembered PRE-PATRIARCHAL space together. It’s times like these that I absolutely live for. I feel resourced and fulfilled at a depth beyond words. MATRIARCHAL REMEMBRANCE embodied in community. My body recognizes this feeling as home, as taproot, as true origin…back to a time before the “sale of the daughter,” the commodification of female bodies, which marks the beginning of patriarchy (3000 BCE).

Asteroid Lilith, Dark Moon Lilith and True Black Moon Lilith in our astrological birth charts symbolize Lilith’s 3-fold spiral process, guiding us to free ourselves layer by layer of patriarchal conditioning, manipulation, violence and pain that we may remember our wholeness and from that place of expanded consciousness collectively co-create new realities and choices beyond the patriarchy.
 
Thank you, Sherri Mitchell, for sharing this quote from Heide Goettner-Abendroth (who has devoted her life to studying matriarchal cultures):
 
“Matriarchies are not just a reversal of patriarchies, with women ruling over men – as the usual misinterpretation would have it. Matriarchies are mother-centered societies. They are based on maternal values: care-taking, nurturing, mothering. This holds for everybody: for mothers and those who are not mothers, for women and men (all genders) alike. Matriarchal societies…are, on principle, need-oriented. They aim to meet everyone’s needs with the greatest benefit. So, in matriarchies, mothering…is transformed into a cultural model.”
 
(“all genders” is my addition to the quote above)

Please feel free to read more from my June newsletter: Venus in Taurus / Queer = Splendiferously YOU / Matriarchy

JUNE 2022: VENUS IN TAURUS

Venus in Taurus

From May 28–June 22, 2022, VENUS, the planet of relationship, attraction, creativity and values will be moving through the primal earth sign of TAURUS.

Taurus is symbolized by the bull…very rarely the charging bull (unless pushed way past its limits), much more so a contented cow in the meadow, peacefully grazing while basking in the pleasurable coolness of a shade tree.

When it comes to values, Taurus is all about naturalness, simplicity, stability, continuity, ease and peace.

When I think of Taurean energy, this quote by poet, Mary Oliver, comes to mind:
“Sometimes I need only stand wherever I am to be blessed.”

And, in the words of Amy Herring, Evolutionary Astrologer and author of Essential Astrology:
“Taurus does not seek to push itself into blazing existence, but to plainly BE – peaceful, calm, at ease with itself and the world.”

Amy goes on to write about Taurus’s core need for peace:

“Peacefulness is not necessarily piousness or transcendent spirituality; for Taurus, peace is often sought through indulgence rather than transcendence. The activities that bring one down to earth in an immediate way are the pathways that Taurus prefers to walk, whether through experiences that refresh and enliven the senses or a familiar routine that calmly reassures the soul that life will continue.”

As Venus moves through Taurus, we are invited to slow ourselves down and settle more deeply into our natural, earthy, sensuous, instinctual selves. To allow our animal bodies to explore indulgence in creature comforts and pleasures that bring us a tangible, felt sense of peace, calm, simplicity, stability and ease.

As we orient to our sensuality and the opening of our senses, we may wish to feel into the embodied pleasures and comforts of certain tastes, types of touch or physical contact, sights, sounds and smells…

And, acknowledging that not all of us have access to each of these senses.

In whatever ways we engage with this transit, may this Venus in Taurus time initiate ever more down-to-earthiness in our bodies, our relationships, in the ways we relate and connect with ourselves, with others (human and more-than-human), with the natural world, with our immediate environments. May we we root deeper into the sensuality of what we naturally feel drawn to experience and express…in pleasure, in beauty, in peace, in connection, in creativity and in embodiment of our values…

Please fee free to read more from my June newsletter: Venus in Taurus / Queer = Splendiferously YOU / Matriarchy

 

APRIL 2022: JUPITER NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION IN PISCES

Artwork above by Forever Conscious

Jupiter Neptune Conjunction in Pisces

I’d like to share a prayer with you by Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu’ Kwasset) that feels like it gives words to the infinitely expansive, healing, heart-opening spirit and receptivity to higher consciousness with which the JUPITER NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION in PISCES invites us to align with now and moving forward. This conjunction was exact on April 12, 2022 and will remain very potent through mid-May 2022 with the effects rippling out for years to come.

This Prayer for Healing and Openness is in Sherri Mitchell’s book, Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change (p.74):

“My fate is twined with the fate of destiny, held in perpetuity with all life, spiraling all the way back to the beginning of time. As I move toward my highest expression, the wisdom of ages is wrapped around me like a cloak; it moves with me, shifting to match my own unique rhythm and then integrating that rhythm into the movement of creation. Let that cloak be a comfort to me in times of trial. Allow me to open myself to this wisdom and let it soften my defenses against it, knowing that any pain that I feel during the process is caused by denying the wise enticement of my own true heart. I seek to become a willing vessel and to open my heart completely to those whom fate has drawn toward me. Allow me to see them, not through the obscured vision of my own wounding, or the defensive shelter created by theirs, but with the clarity of vision that can reveal their soul to me. Give me strength to remain seated in this pursuit beyond the levels of my own discomfort and fear, so that I may become the boundless being that you have created me to be, capable of embracing all life and capable of giving and receiving all of the love that the divine spirit holds for me.

Kci woliwon, n’dilnabamuk.
My heart thanks you, for all of my relations.”

Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu’ Kwasset)

APRIL 2022: ARIES FIRE: THE WARRIOR PATH

Artwork above by Abacus Corvus

Greetings at the doorway of this Aries New Moon!

The ARIES NEW MOON is exact at 11 degrees ARIES on Thursday, March 31st at 11:24PM Pacific Time.

This Moon is very personal to me, as I was born under an Aries Moon. The Moon in our birth charts points to what will nourish and center us, leading to contentment and well-being deep within our hearts and souls. The Moon in the birth chart also shines a light on our specific ways of nourishing, nurturing and caring for others.

Aries is the first sign of the zodiac – PRIMAL FIRE.

The SPARK OF LIFE itself.

Aries ignites EMERGENCE. The process of birthing ourselves and our dreams continuously into existence, that we may be more and more PASSIONATELY, FULLY HERE.

EMBODIED and AVAILABLE TO LIFE!”

Aries stokes the motivation to unceasingly LEARN ABOUT OURSELVES and our DESIRE (Eros), ever intimate with the evolution of what we want and need to whole-heartedly engage with Life moving through us and around us.

Through the Aries process of self-discovery, we have the opportunity to develop our AGENCY, in which we recognize ourselves as conscious CREATORS (co-creators), as beings who have the power to SHAPE CHANGE (as sci-fi writer, Octavia Butler taught).

It’s important to note here that a less conscious (distorted) manifestation of Aries is that of the rugged individualist, which is wildly idealized and promoted in white supremacy culture. The conditioning around individualism is thick. As Tema Okun writes, “white supremacy culture trains us all to internalize attitudes and behaviors that do not serve any of us.”

With ARIES being the WARRIOR of the zodiac, can we channel this FIERCE, LASER-FOCUSED energy to uproot and divest from the characteristics of white supremacy culture?

Aries is just as much about learning what we want to say YES to as what we need to say NO to.

And, when we hold the deepest Aries wisdom at the center, we align with the knowledge that the Aries Warrior is charged with the responsibility to defend and uphold that which is LIFE-GIVING. To act with LIFE-SUSTAINING vision and intention.

The Aries Warrior path is one of relentless commitment to FACE FEARS and BUILD COURAGE so that a willingness to TAKE RISKS and STAND UP in the face of the denial of Life (characteristics of white supremacy culture, for example) is not even a question.

The Aries energy within all of us is deeply enlivened each time we rise to meet this calling.

And, know that when the Moon in the sky transits through the sign of Aries each month, for those 2.5 days, it is a time when the Aries energy within each of us receives a boost, an added stimulation. It is an opportunity for us to explore, experience and integrate Aries energy more deeply into our being.

To read more, please see my newsletter: ARIES FIRE: Emergence + The Warrior Path

 

MARCH 2022: VIRGO FULL MOON

The FULL MOON is exact at 27 degrees VIRGO (Sun at 27 degrees Pisces) in the wee hours of the morning (12:17am Pacific Time) on Friday, March 18.

Virgo is an Earth sign, here to cultivate grounded attention to detail, the capacity to have one eye on the reality of the present and one eye on the future, here to continually improve and evolve lifelong, not only self but also surroundings.

HUMILITY

Humility is a core quality associated with the empowered ground of Virgo. This could look like embodying the desire to listen and learn in every moment, understanding that others hold wisdom and experience of deep value. High Virgo recognizes that there are people further down the road, perhaps in one’s particular craft, or in another area of interest/knowledge/skill or life experience, and that we have the opportunity to grow and evolve by learning from them.

Therefore, the Virgo developmental process is associated particularly with mentorship relationships and apprenticeships.

Within the fullness of Virgo’s expression, there is the mentee/student side of things, which requires the humility to ever-learn from others and continuously admit we do not know everything! There is also the mentor/teacher aspect of Virgo’s expression, which requires the confidence to pick up the torch and step into our sharing shoes.

GRATITUDE

As my Evolutionary Astrology mentor/teacher, Steven Forrest would say (paraphrased): Even more than confidence, in the spirit of Virgo, the mentor role emerges out of gratitude for the wisdom our teachers and guides have bestowed to us. To feel a sense of indebtedness to our teachers as impetus to share the teachings is a beautiful thing and part of high Virgo realization.

SERVICE

This leads us right into the heart of Virgo, which is the desire to be of service. In its empowered manifestation, this is the act of offering something of value to others and simultaneously being nourished and fed through our giving. If we can cultivate meaningful responsibilities and work/craft in our day-to-day lives that bring value to others’ lives…wow, this is joie de vivre for Virgo!

DISEMPOWERED TERRITORY

Now, we must acknowledge that the motivation to be of service can go into disempowered territory, which could look like taking on responsibilities out of a sense of duty or obligation and ending up completely burned out and depleted. Martyrdom is one of the deepest disempowered expressions of Virgoan energy.

Let’s explore a bit more where Virgo can go in its disempowered states. We know we are there if humility is being taken too far, into a sense of humiliation, a harsh inner critic taking over, ongoing self-doubt and/or debilitating perfectionism. Basically, “I will never know enough or be good enough to share with others what I’ve learned.”

ANTIDOTE

It is very important, if we find ourselves in this territory, to spend some time steeping in gratitude for our teachers and all the gifts they have offered to us. It is crucial to remember that to live out the fullness of Virgo, we must move into sharing our wisdom too. Gratitude is a doorway.

Pisces, the astrological sign opposite Virgo in the zodiac, can also be tapped into as an antidote to painful, disempowered Virgo states. Pisces is about stepping back from the scrutiny, details and ever-striving, to soften the eyes and surrender into a relaxed gaze of the big picture.

Piscean wisdom reminds us: “Perfect is the enemy of good enough.” 🙂

Pisces also represents the experience of steeping ourselves in states of consciousness such as unconditional compassion, lovingkindness and deep self-acceptance (enoughness). I find that guided meditations can be a great gift when we find ourselves in rockier Virgo terrain, instead of trying to muster compassionate states of being on our own!

If you’d like, check out this 2-3 minute meditation on compassion guided by Lama Rod Owens.

To read more, please see my newsletter: Virgo Full Moon of Humility + Compassion Meditation

FEBRUARY 2022: VENUS + MARS IN CAPRICORN / LEO FULL MOON / NODES OF THE MOON

As I write to you, VENUS and MARS in the sky are in an exact conjunction, fused together at 16 degrees CAPRICORN. And, the FULL MOON in LEO (exactly opposite the SUN in AQUARIUS) is going to be exact at 27 degrees at 8:56am PST on Wednesday, February 16, 2022.

Big, strong, grounded and flamboyant energy!

LEO + AQUARIUS:

The dynamic fire sign of Leo desires passionate, bold, authentic expression and style, creative sparks flying and a sense of warm-hearted exuberance and belonging in community. Leo is all about the human need for joy, playfulness, self-confidence and acceptance by others (for one’s real and true self-expression). In its lower expression, Leo can compromise authenticity for a sense of false belonging and a facade of sunshine.

Aquarius being the opposite (counterpart) of Leo, can help Leo correct course if needed. If Leo moves into the territory of people-pleasing to belong or performative happiness over authenticity, Aquarius is there to shake things up and bring one back into authentic alignment.

Aquarius IS the quest for radical authenticity and achieves this by critically examining the status quo and all the ways we are conditioned by society…coupled with the process of shedding conditioning that does not align with our authentic values and expression, as well as a big dose of experimentation outside of the box. The Aquarian quest is a commitment to de-conditioning/de-colonizing ourselves – individually and in our collectives.

VENUS + MARS IN CAPRICORN:

Another dimension of this Full Moon is that Venus and Mars in Capricorn are fused together in the spirit of integration. Principles of yin (receptive) and yang (active) conjoin stimulating possibilities of greater balance and wholeness. These two planets are within two degrees of each other from February 7–March 17, 2022. They will make one more exact conjunction on March 3, 2022.

Venus represents the relationship-forming function within us, the desire to build bridges of rapport with others that lead to intimacy, connection and support. Venus is also the function of valuing ourselves and coming with that sense of self-value to relationships, discerning accordingly.

Mars represents the function of eros, passionate engagement with Life. Mars is the part of us that is in touch with our life force energy and knows our desires, wants and needs. Yet, it doesn’t stop there! Mars is also the function of our agency, our capacity to take action in the direction of our desires, wants and needs. To get them met!

To develop our Mars is to develop our internal locus of control, to strengthen our sense of our ability to effect change, to make things happen, to advocate for ourselves and all we care for in this Life. Mars also rules the art of boundary-making, knowing that boundaries are alive and can shift and change.

With these two relational planets merging in Capricorn, it’s important to frame the functions of Venus and Mars in the context of integrity, accountability and an openness to hard work which serves a greater purpose and results in a deepening of wisdom, all of which are high Capricorn manifestations. We are being stimulated by this conjunction to come into deeper alignment with these qualities in our relationship with ourselves, with others (human and other-than-human) and with Life itself.

We must also be aware of Capricorn’s lower manifestations as well, as this energy in its less conscious form can be transactional in its relations, valuing profit/individual gain over people/wider collective well-being, and at worst, can be ruthlessly extractive.

NODES OF THE MOON:

Lastly, This Full Moon is in exact square aspect to the Nodes of the Moon (South Node in Scorpio and North Node in Taurus).

In evolutionary astrology we refer to the Nodes of the Moon as “the karmic axis,” which represents past wounding and distortion (South Node) that is ripe and ready to move into deeper levels of resolution and healing (North Node). 

Collectively, over the next year and a half, while the Nodes of the Moon are transiting through Scorpio and Taurus, we are being stimulated to activate the Taurus North Node evolutionary medicine of moving slowly and deliberately into more of our embodied, instinctual animal body awareness and knowing, operating from a place of utter naturalness, listening to the wisdom of our bodies and the rhythms and intelligence of the natural world to probe into the Scorpio South Node territory: the root of our fears, anxieties, falsities and the myriad of ways we may operate from a place of disempowerment or denial.

This Leo/Aquarius Full Moon time is beaming bright and brilliant light onto the collective karmic axis, illuminating what work there is to be done here, knowing it is all in service to individual and collective liberation, empowerment and transformation.

To read more, please see my newsletter: Promiscuous Love + Leo Full Moon + Hymn to Her

JANUARY 28, 2022: PISCEAN POTENTIALS + PITFALLS

Much has shifted above and below since my last letter to you pre-2022!

One dramatic shift is that JUPITER has now joined NEPTUNE in the infinitely imaginative and empathetic, mystical sign of PISCES, which is the sign that both of these planets rule. Jupiter is the classical ruler of Pisces, and Neptune is the modern ruler. 

When planets are in their home sign, their particular archetypal field has increased potency, both in the high potential possibilities and the potential pitfalls.

Piscean High Potentials:

This amplification of Pisces by both of its planetary rulers traveling through its sign catalyzes the high potential of SURRENDER to more LIFE-GIVING VISIONS, DREAMS and ASPIRATIONS (individually + collectively). This stimulus also invites an opening into a FLOW of HEALING GENEROSITY, both in ourselves as givers and as receivers.

During this ultra-Piscean time, doors of perception are poised to swing open into heightened AWARENESS and INSIGHT, unleashed IMAGINATION and CREATIVITY and intensified SPIRITUAL CONNECTION and GROWTH.

Perhaps this connection and growth is the kind that accompanies an alignment with more of a BIRD’S EYE VIEW of Life – who we truly are (Love) and why we are here…also, perhaps through a deeper embodiment of qualities such as COMPASSION, FORGIVENESS and UNCONDITIONAL LOVE; and a deeper understanding of the INTERCONNECTEDNESS of all beings and the truth of IMPERMANENCE itself.

Piscean Pitfalls:

In terms of Piscean pitfalls, due to natural Piscean sensitivity, deep feeling and empathy, there can be a tendency to become overwhelmed in the face of intensity, uncertainty, pain and suffering. This can lead to an impulse to BYPASS or ESCAPE the intensity, perhaps by DISSOCIATION, getting lost in DELUSION or FANTASY, NUMBING OUT and/or seeking PERPETUAL HIGHS.

I want to pause right here and invite in Piscean empathy, non-judgment and compassion as it makes complete sense that in the midst of overwhelm, we would reach toward that which we imagine would take the edge off and ease the pain.

Piscean Evolutionary Waters:

The Piscean evolutionary waters are largely about learning to understand and work with STATES OF OVERWHELM, in a way that leads to a WIDENING OF SPACE inside of ourselves (and in our collectives) that we may be more expansively and open-heartedly HERE, able to be PRESENT with what IS.

When we plug into the GREAT EXPANSE of Pisces – a felt-sense of a larger reality, a deeper sense of purpose and a remembrance of who we truly are (LOVE) – we may notice that our capacity to be present with Life’s intensity naturally begins to shift and expand. As this happens over time, the possibility to be present for the whole of who we are (individually + collectively) and that which is the full spectrum of Life becomes more available to us.

To read more, please see my newsletter: Piscean Pitfalls/Potentials + Lilith in Astrology + Pluto Deep Dive

DECEMBER 29, 2021: REVISITING THE GRAND CONJUNCTION

Pictured above: Winter Solstice Cactus in bloom…a treasured gift from my partner’s grandmother.

As much as I can feel the familiar, cultural momentum of the Solar New Year enticing my energy forward, I find myself needing to remain in deep reflection and integration of the past year plus. I find myself especially revisiting the Grand Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which took place at 0 degrees Aquarius last year, on Dec 21, 2020, and whose (r)evolutionary potential will be rippling out over the next 20 years. specifically with an Aquarian zest.

The Grand Conjunction also activated a process that will be unfolding over the next 200 years, characterized not only by Aquarius but by all dimensions of the AIR ELEMENT (Gemini, Libra and Aquarius = the Air signs).

The Air element in astrology is associated with the realms of intellect/thinking, knowledge, analysis, synthesis, communication, connection, community, collective well-being, justice, both/and consciousness….

When I think specifically of high potential AQUARIAN energy, these processes flash like neon signs in my mind:

–CRITICAL THINKING
–DE-CONDITIONING
–COLLECTIVE IMAGINING AND LIVING INTO NEW FUTURES

Building our critical thinking skills, relentlessly dissecting and analyzing the soup we are swimming in, unbaking the conditioning that’s been baked into our bodies (to paraphrase Tommy Woon), and moving communally into more just and humane ways of being – the Jupiter and Saturn alignment of December 2020 activated and amplified this far-reaching process. Can you feel these processes percolating within you and your communities?

 
A couple of quotes from “Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom”, a book by bell hooks:
 

“Thinking is an action…thoughts are the laboratory where one goes to pose questions and find answers, and the place where visions of theory and praxis come together. The heartbeat of critical thinking is the longing to know—to understand how life works. Children are organically predisposed to be critical thinkers. Across the boundaries of race, class, gender, and circumstance, children come into the world of wonder and language consumed with a desire for knowledge. Sometimes they are so eager for knowledge that they become relentless interrogators—demanding.”

“…see first-hand the ways that democratic education is being undermined as the interests of big business and corporate capitalism encourage students to see education solely as a means to achieve material success. Such thinking makes acquiring information more important than gaining knowledge or learning how to think critically.”

To re-root into this Aquarian/Air element Grand Conjunction energy, I have included talks in this newsletter from some of the most brilliant critical thinkers, cultural critics and grounded visionaries of our time: Dr. Kim TallBear, bell hooks, adrienne maree brown and Angela Davis.

“Thinking critically is at the heart of anybody transforming their life.” –bell hooks

DECEMBER 2021: USA PLUTO RETURN

USA Pluto Return…

The above excerpt “What We Long For” is from Mia Birdsong’s book, How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community.

As we move into 2022, the United States experiences the first exact alignments of its PLUTO RETURN* transit at 27 degrees Capricorn, using the U.S. Declaration of Independence chart as the birth chart of the USA. The first exact alignment is on Feb 22, 2022.

*A Pluto Return occurs every 245-250 years.

Because Pluto moves so slowly, this transit has been active already for a couple of years now. Many astrologers see the Saturn/Pluto conjunction of January 2020 as the activation point for the US Pluto Return. Some astrologers look back to 2008, when Pluto entered into Capricorn, as the beginning of the US Pluto Return (because the US has Pluto in Capricorn in its birth chart).

Whichever time frame makes the most sense to you, immersing ourselves (those of us who are US-ians) in the truth of our country’s history like never before feels of tremendous importance, to be compelled by “the longing to know.” (bell hooks) And, then to embody action accordingly.

You could think of the high potential of the US Pluto Return as this country’s time of root-level reckoning, to-the-core accountability and utter transformation. A death/rebirth process…there is no question about that. And, Pluto initiates a period where the covered up truths, the atrocities of the past and present, must be brought into full light to be reckoned with and repaired. This is the high potential.

To read more, click here.

NOVEMBER 4, 2021: SCORPIO NEW MOON

Deep and Electric Greetings on the Threshold of this Scorpio New Moon…

(Artwork above by Abacus Corvus)

The New Moon is exact on Thursday, November 4th at 2:15pm Pacific Time at 12 degrees Scorpio.

If you’d like to see a snapshot of the sky at the moment of the New Moon, check out the chart below. You’ll see the glyphs for the Moon and Sun right next to each other at the top of the chart (conjunct at 12 degrees Scorpio). And, directly opposite the Moon and Sun you will see the symbol for the planet Uranus at the base of the chart (at 12 degrees Taurus). This exact opposition vibrates with the hunger for integration – integration of high Uranian* potential with the root-level, new beginnings of this Scorpio New Moon.

*Uranus rules electricity, innovation, chaos, breakthroughs in consciousness, radical authenticity and activism
*Uranus is a wild card, a maverick, a revolutionary and a catalyst for liberation

Scorpio, ruled by the planet Pluto, Guardian of the Underworld (the Unconscious), is a sign motivated to plumb the depths, to cook in the cauldron of transformation, to burn away falsity and pretense becoming more wholly integrated, empowered and fully alive.

We can be sure the Scorpionic process of transformation involves times of utter darkness, where we cannot see or know what is emerging. To be up close and intimate with the unknown and release the need to know; this is the high ground of the Scorpio/Pluto cauldron. To relinquish the need for control, trusting that in the fecund darkness there is limitless potential that gives birth to galaxies.

In the words of physicist, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, from her new book (2021), A Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime and Dreams Deferred

“Dark matter is one of the two great mysteries in cosmological physics. Occasionally scientists claim that dark matter sounds scary and foreboding to the general public. Actually, I’ve only ever heard white scientists make this claim, and whenever it happens I wonder if that’s really telling us more about the way they relate to the idea of “dark.” In my view, dark matter is extremely benign. If it was going to hurt us, it already would have. In fact, dark matter plays a critical role in making us possible: dark matter must have come into existence early on because it is essential to the formation of all structures in the universe…structures like galaxies that are full of stars, some of which have solar systems, one of which is ours.” (p. 43)

And, the poet, Rumi, sings:

“Life’s water flows from darkness.
Search the darkness don’t run from it.
Night travelers are full of light.”

Within the Scorpionic depths, the darkness of not-yet, Uranus stimulates a brave and liberating questioning. An opportunity to queer ourselves, our lives, our communities and systems more and more. To break free from status quo conformity which keeps us distanced from our authentic values, vision and expression, both as individuals and as wider communities.

Uranian stimulation often invokes a restlessness that impels us to disrupt what is constricting and make changes, both within our personal lives and within the collective structures. And, note that Uranus is rarely, if ever, subtle; rather a lightning bolt striking, a restlessness or angst that becomes intolerable, cracking through what has been conditioned or limiting, creating new space for the realness of our souls to emerge. Uranian processes can feel at times chaotic, disorienting and destabilizing. This is completely natural and part of the cycles of evolution.

An invitation that Uranus offers is this:

Any inklings you may have that something different wants to be experienced or come alive in you (and in the collective), allow space for yourself (and the collective) to engage in exploration and experimentation. Uranian electricity is all about the vibrancy of LIFE moving through us, individually and collectively, the enlivening freedom of unabashedly embodying our truest, most honest, highest values, visions and selves…our lives coming into greater coherence, individually and as community.

It feels important to acknowledge that sometimes we don’t know for sure what exactly we want, we just have a sense that something more, something different is aching to come through, to be embodied, to be experienced. Uranus is that lightning bolt invitation to venture outside of the comfort zone and try some different things out. To become experimental. To feel our way along in the rich and fertile unknown, trusting that “life’s water flows from darkness.”

To read more, click here!

September 20, 2021: PISCES FULL MOON
In honor of the Pisces Full Moon…
 
“I surrender. To a love so big it could face and acknowledge monsters. To a love so deep and wide it could create oceans and whales. To an ancestral reach so long it could become us.”Alexis Pauline Gumbs, from her book Undrowned
 

Pisces, oceanic water element, carries the high potentiality for humans to experience unconditional love and compassion…
Awareness and felt-sense of the interconnection of all beings, of oneness…
Direct connection and union with Source…
And, remembrance of our true essence (Love, Belonging)…

The Full Moon is exact, Monday, September 20 at 4:55pm PST at 28 degrees Pisces. The Full Moon Phase will then last for about 3.5 days after the Full Moon is exact. What a richly supported time to breathe deeply into and embrace these high potential Piscean qualities and states of consciousness.

 
August 13, 2021: TRANSITING PLUTO POETRY (Personal Update!)
I am currently in the middle of a Pluto transit.
In Evolutionary Astrology, “transits” are catalysts for development. When Pluto comes around to stimulate a particular planet or point in one’s birth chart, the experience is sure to be nothing short of intense AND it will last a while, as Pluto moves at a snail’s pace. A typical Pluto transit lasts about 3 years. Since the pace is slow, the work Pluto initiates is deep. Death/Rebirth. Root-level transformation.
Pluto is working on my natal Mercury right now. Mercury in the birth chart represents the function of perception. How we perceive the world, ourselves, each other, Life, the past, the future, everything…how we understand and frame reality. Mercury symbolizes our thought process and the function of sharing/communicating our perceptions/thoughts in some way, shape or form.
This poem by Jane Wong mirrors back much of what I have been feeling throughout this Plutonian time. I am eternally grateful and awed by the way poetry can bring what feels ineffable into tangible Mercurial form, the written word.
“The Waiting”
“I was waiting for something
to arrive. I didn’t know what.
Something buoyed, something
sun knocked. I placed my palms
up, little pads of butter, expecting.
All day, nothing. Longer than
that. My hair grew, fell out,
grew. Outside my window, I felt
the flick of a tail in September
wind. A bobcat sauntered across
the grass before me, the black tip
of its tail a pencil I’d like to sharpen.
I immediately hushed, crouched,
became a crumpled shock of
joy to see something this wild,
not myself. It turned to look
at me, its body muscular in
the turning. In its mouth was
the tail of a mouse drained of
blood, dangling diorama of death.
Sharp eyes looking at me and then,
not. Its lack of fear, its slow stroll
across the stream’s bridge, fur
lacquering its teeth. Sometimes
what comes to us, we never called
for. How long had I been crouched
like that? I stood up, blood rush
trumpeting. My arms wrapped
themselves around myself, lifted.
It was as if a bank vault had
opened and I was just standing
there, stealing nothing.”
July 9, 2021: CANCER NEW MOON

Several days ago I listened to Glennon Doyle’s podcast We Can Do Hard Things for the first time. The episode I listened to was the most recent one and happened to be about self-care. Spot on for this time in the astrological cycles with the Sun moving through the sign of Cancer (June 20 – July 22, 2021) and the New Moon in Cancer almost upon us (July 9, 2021 exact at 6:16pm Pacific Time).

Cancer, at its essence, is about learning the practice of self-care and experiencing the embodied reality of how healing and life-giving care for oneself can be…and how the impact of self-care ripples out and truly ends up being community care. When we care for ourselves, we have energy to care for others. It’s a beautiful thing! (and not always easy)

The sign of Cancer, being of the Water element, is particularly focused upon emotional self-care. To be in touch with one’s own emotional needs and boundaries and practicing living in alignment is the high ground of Cancer. This podcast spoke to exactly that and in a very thought-provoking, counter status quo manner. It wasn’t your typical discussion on self-care. A strong Aquarian/Uranian invitation to question our societal conditioning, to pick apart the ways we’ve been programmed to think, feel and behave permeated this conversation. A breath of fresh air!

I strongly recommend giving this episode a listen if you haven’t already! It will surely offer up some fruitful food for Cancerian introspection and action supported by this New Moon, seed-planting energy.

Also, this New Moon is taking place in the midst of the Mars/Saturn opposition squared by Uranus right now (called a T-Square in astrology). T-Squares are powerful, dynamic configurations often characterized by frustration or tension, which can trigger significant breakthrough and action. The kind of action that comes by way of a breaking point. Finally reaching the point of, “I can’t do it this way anymore!! It’s time to implement a change.” And, then doing it!

With it being the powerful lineup of Mars, Saturn and Uranus involved in this T-Square, there’s a huge amount of energy stimulating potential breakthrough (Uranus), stamina for determination of will (Mars) and increased capacity to commit to making concrete change real (Saturn).  Saturn wants us to take responsibility for ourselves, our choices, and live more deeply from our integrity. Mars in Leo says, “YES! Doing so could actually increase my access to my life force energy, to joy, spontaneity, creativity and authentic self expression.” And, lightning bolt Uranus exclaims, “And, the shifts in consciousness that are possible right now are the kind where there’s no going back. You experience a breakthrough and it sticks.”

This New Moon time is opportune seed our intentions, our actions in this energy.

Here’s a look at the New Moon chart (snapshot of the sky) at the time the New Moon is exact (notice the T-Square of Mars opposite Saturn squared by Uranus…and the Sun and Moon conjunct at 18 degrees Cancer):

June 10, 2021: GEMINI NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE


The NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE at 19 degrees GEMINI occurred at 3:53am PT this morning, closing the portal which opened on May 26 with the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse at 5 degrees Sagittarius.
 
Ohhh to be on the other side of this Eclipse Portal now – this was one for the books!! I must say I do feel some relief.
 
And, just in time for the emergence from this particularly intense portal, my partner and I landed back in Minneapolis late last night. This morning, I dropped him off at his office in Uptown where he let me know he was eagerly anticipating the joy of reconnecting with his Chiropractic/Acupuncture/Somatic Experiencing peeps after 9 months away.☺️
 
After saying our goodbyes, I immediately felt the open space and joy that comes with having a morning fully and completely on my own (which has been rare over the last 9 months, as Dan and I have really been doing almost everything together). I decided to go out into the 100 degree heat and what feels like 100% humidity (but my weather app reads only 40%…omg!) to find some early summer peonies to commune with.
 
After that sweet, steamy bliss, a little lending library down the street called my name, and this book of poetry caught my eye — My House – by the infamous Nikki Giovanni (with even her handwriting inside).
 
I opened the book to the most personally fitting, synchronistic poem for this Gemini New Moon, emergence from the portal morning – A Certain Peace. (See poem below)
 
I find it also fabulously synchronistic that Nikki Giovanni is a Gemini Sun, born on June 7, 1943. She also has Gemini Rising and both Saturn and Uranus in Gemini in her birth chart.
 
Gemini is the sign that rules synchronicity…in Norse mythology it’s called the Web of Wyrd, which represents the interconnectedness of past, present and future and all the possibilities they brought and might bring.
May 26–June 10, 2021: ECLIPSE PORTAL


Greetings from the ECLIPSE PORTAL (May 26-June 10)!
 
You could also call it an Eclipse TUNNEL, depending on how you are feeling!
 

This time between eclipses can certainly be experienced as an intensification and an acceleration. The intensification often functions to bring clarity and action. And, the acceleration might be experienced as though time, awareness and/or growth are speeding up, happening faster than usual. In leaps and bounds.

Eclipse Portals can sometimes feel like one chapter is ending a new one is beginning in a particular realm of our life.

The FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE in SAGITTARIUS on May 26th was conjunct the South Node of the Moon, which represents a release point in astrology. The SOUTH NODE is the Tail of the Dragon (Ketu in Vedic Astrology). Imagine a dragon’s tail sweeping away what is ready to be cleared. When an Eclipse is conjunct the South Node, it signals a ripe time to release what you are sensing is ready to be let go.

The NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE coming up on June 10th in GEMINI is conjunct the North Node of the Moon. The NORTH NODE is the Head of the Dragon (Rahu in Vedic Astrology). It is future-facing and represents our longing, our desire, what we are hungering to move towards.
 

A couple of personal Eclipse Portal examples: My partner, Dan, and I moved from Minneapolis to California during the Cancer/Capricorn Eclipse Portal in July 2019. That is an example of a big chapter change, a giant release and a clear movement towards a deep longing. Not every Eclipse Portal will summon this kind of leap, but some certainly will.

During this current Eclipse Portal we are in now, I have quickly come into clarity about how I have over-extended myself (classic Sagittarian shadow pattern) and awareness of how I viscerally desire more spacious time to integrate all that I am learning and experiencing (Gemini, Gemini, Gemini!). In order for this to happen, it became crystal clear in the last two days that something’s gotta give! There’s no way around it. So, I took action and decided to pause the ‘Moon’th Ahead Astrology classes I’ve been offering ‘moon’thly since January, at least for the summertime.

Even though I have enjoyed this class immensely, its release has given me an immediate sense of space opening up and with that an influx of newfound energy to synthesize and integrate the Gemini education I’ve been immersed in.

So, in the spirit of Gemini (and knowing we are currently in GEMINI SEASON and have the GEMINI NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE coming up on June 10th) – I want to share with you some of the recent educational pieces that have been and continue to be super impactful in my process of unlearning and learning. Here’s the link to read more, From the Eclipse Portal.

Image: From @alchemise_

May 11, 2021: NEW MOON in TAURUS


The TAURUS NEW MOON is exact at 12pm Pacific Time today, May 11, 2021. The New Moon occurs at 21 degrees of earthy, sensate Taurus in synergistic sextile aspect with 22 degree Neptune in watery, mystical Pisces. May we sink into the deep, infinite holding of Nature’s presence….that point of connection before and beyond words.
 
Thank you, Abacus Corvus Artwork, for your continual magic.
April 26, 2021: FULL MOON in SCORPIO + PLUTO RETROGRADE


This FULL MOON in SCORPIO makes its exact opposition to the SUN in TAURUS at 8:32pm PDT Monday, April 26th, at 7 degrees Scorpio.

Scorpio is the sign ruled by the planet Pluto, Guardian of the Underworld, Initiator of Reckoning and Root-Level Transformation. In its high potential, Scorpio/Pluto relentlessly seek truth and the empowering insight that comes from radically honest inquiry, coming to terms with what is true and the integration of those truths.

Scorpionic energy is motivated to delve into especially intense, uncomfortable, painful, taboo, even horrifying territory (Pluto’s Underworld) and to do the deep inner work of reckoning with what is found there so that healing and transformation may occur.

The day after the Full Moon, Scorpio’s planetary ruler, Pluto, which is currently at 26 degrees Capricorn, goes Retrograde (April 27 until October 6). During its Retrograde motion, for these 5+ months, Pluto will move backward from 26 to 24 degrees of Capricorn. During this time, we are implored to consciously revisit and reckon with the realities/truths that have been unearthed and exposed since Feb 2020 to the present.

We are revisiting back to Feb 2020 because that is the first time Pluto hit 24 degrees Capricorn in this current Pluto in Capricorn cycle (2008-2024).

Pluto’s orbit is approximately 248 years. The LAST time Pluto transited through the sign of Capricorn was 1762–1777, which included the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Therefore, the United States is currently experiencing its “Pluto Return,” as Pluto is returning to where it was when the U.S. was born. This transit signals a profound time of reckoning for the United States as a country.

Because Pluto moves so slowly, its energy goes to the root, stimulating a process of uprooting what has been buried most deeply….fully exposing what has been hidden. Pluto transits are often the most powerful we ever experience, as individuals and as a society, as Pluto initiates utter transformation (no stone left unturned). Death/Rebirth.

Lastly, Capricorn, the sign Pluto is currently in (2008-2024), is the sign of the zodiac associated with the structures and systems of society.  The foundations upon which a society is built. Pluto in Capricorn urges our root-level reckoning to include the systemic dimension of reality, of which we are all apart.

The Full Moon in Scorpio opens the doorway to this Pluto Retrograde time, calling for each of us to courageously enter Underworld territory and embark upon deeper reckoning and integration of root-level truths, perhaps more deeply than we have yet thus far.

 
If you wish, you may read more from my April 26, 2021 newsletter.
April 14, 2021: VENUS ENTERS TAURUS
VENUS has now left the Fire sign of Aries and entered into the Earth sign of TAURUS (April 14-May 8).
 
While Venus is moving through Taurus, we are invited to slow down and ground ourselves in nature…to allow for more restful communion with each other and the natural world…to notice and savor the beauty around us, to allow space and time for deeper breaths and the release of tension on our exhales. These Venus in Taurus moments are doorways into deeper awareness of our own bodies, our own instincts and values…doorways into a deeper felt sense of connection/kinship and rejuvenation of creative energy. 
 
My partner, Dan, and I spent this day of Venus’s ingress into Taurus leisurely walking the Tomales Point Trail in Point Reyes National Seashore surrounded by bright orange poppies, yellow bush lupines, wild purple irises, a multitude of other spring flowers, a symphony of birdsong, majestic Tule Elk and the Pacific Ocean on one side and Tomales Bay on the other. When we arrived to the point, we had the sheer Taurean ecstasy of watching at least 10 whales surfacing and languidly swimming around as they migrate up the coast! We were speechless…which is another Taurean invitation: to allow more space for experiences to simply need no words, even when shared with another, as sometimes experiences can truly speak for themselves, fully felt in the body.
 
From, Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day:”
"...I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon..."
March 28, 2021: FULL MOON in LIBRA
FULL MOON in LIBRA (with lots of ARIES energy mixed in) exact at 8 degrees Libra at 11:48am PDT Sunday, March 28, 2021.

(Every ‘moon’th when the Sun and Moon are exactly opposite each other in the Zodiac = the Full Moon.)

This Full Moon has a strong ARIES stellium involved: VENUS and CHIRON are at the exact same degree as the SUN, 8 degrees Aries, and CERES is not that far away at 13 degrees Aries.

This particular Full Moon, which is in a sign already oriented to centering others and relationships (Libra), invites us to be even more deeply attuned to our connections, our beloveds (Venus), with our empathy (Chiron) fully engaged, both for ourselves (Aries) and for others (Libra), while practicing self-care and nourishment (Ceres) that we may show up more fully our best selves with our loved ones (and beyond).

This excerpt from How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community by Mia Birdsong really speaks to me of the healthy, high ground integration of the Aries/Libra axis of energy, which is being stimulated in full, clarifying light by this Libra Full Moon:

 

“I can better support the people in my life if my own well-being is tended to. I am a better parent, partner and friend when I engage in regular emotional hygiene and I’m not leaking all over the people around me. I can be more present for my community when I’m well rested and caring for my body. When I get sloppy about sleep, exercise, nutrition, relaxation, and any number of things that support my physical and emotional well-being, I’m not as kind, patient, or available to my loved ones. That means I have to show up for myself first.”
 
Photo: Ganapathy Kumar
 
If you wish, you may read more from my March 28, 2021 newsletter.
March 21, 2021: VENUS into ARIES

VENUS has now entered the fire sign of ARIES (Mar 21-April 14), along with the Sun (Mar 20-April 19), Ceres (Feb 20-May 8) and Chiron (2018-2027).

VENUS is all about our connection needs and how we relate. Venus in Aries challenges us to root more deeply into our individual needs/desires and to courageously bring them forward more honestly and directly into our relationships. However, it doesn’t end there. The passage below from Mia Birdsong’s book, How We Show Up speaks to this Venus in Aries high potential very well. But, first, a couple of words about Chiron and Ceres, as the Birdsong passage also integrates these planetary energies.

CHIRON represents the development of empathy/compassion through tending to our own wounding/pain, by engaging in a deep inner healing process. Chiron in Aries invites us back to our origins, perhaps into greater awareness and tending of any wounding/distortion we may carry that is ancestral, passed down through our lineage, and tending with the intention of healing into greater clarity, warrior wisdom and empowerment.

CERES represents self-care and self-nurturance, and also how we offer care/nurturance to others. Ceres in Aries invites us to advocate for and prioritize our own self-care which allows us to show up for others in a better way. Win-Win!

Mia Birdsong writes:

“I’ve come to understand that the things I want to do to be my best self and live my best life are also necessary for me to be in workable relationships with others. That means self-care, self-reflection, healing and evolving. It means tapping into tremendous compassion for others and ourselves as we journey. It means committing to our own evolution, and supporting the evolution of our loved ones as they support us. This work we have to do is also about reorienting ourselves around what it means to be an individual. Our individuality is entwined with our connectedness; so the work of healing and growth happens both alone and in relation to others. We are the only ones who can decide we will heal and grow, but it’s a collective process.”

February 27, 2021: FULL MOON in VIRGO
VIRGO FULL MOON (exact at 12:17am PST 2/27/21 @ 8 degrees Virgo…directly opposite Venus @ 8 degrees Pisces…trine Uranus and square the karmic Nodes)
 
“Practice”
 
from “Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
 
“What are the intergenerational practices that generated dorsal fins in some dolphins and whales? What experience-based wisdom resulted in the ever-expanding spines and blubber of bowhead whales or the adaptation of sideways swimming river dolphins? What do the blue whales know that lets them fast all day and sing across the planet?
 
I believe in the possibility of dorsal, or stabilizing practices in our own lives. I am committed to the development of backbone and core muscle in the crooked life of at least one person with scoliosis (me). We can cultivate practices for finding each other in a shifting world. We can each create an intentional approach to what we take in and put out. What are the intergenerational and evolutionary ways that we become what we practice? How can we navigate oppressive environments with core practices that build community, resistance and more loving ways of living?
 
Yes, I do have dorsal-fin envy. On the coast of North Carolina you can sometimes see the fins of Lagenorhynchus actus (actus means sharp) cutting through water with clarity and grace. Who wouldn’t want that?
 
The function of dorsal fins for aquatic animals is stability. In water that is always moving, having a dorsal fin provides balance, autonomy and support for the swift turns you might have to make in this oceanic life. Yes. I need a dorsal fin to navigate all of this transformation.
 
How did dolphins get dorsal fins anyway? Unlike fish, they don’t have bones that support a dorsal fin. The mammals they evolved through and from before returning to the ocean didn’t have dorsal fins. They aren’t a vestige of limbs like tail flukes and side fins may be. The prevailing explanation is that dolphins evolved the dense tissue that became dorsal fins because they needed to in order to live in the wild movement of the ocean. In other words, dolphins evolved dorsal fins from practice across generations. By accepting that the ocean would always move, and becoming accordingly. An embodied emphasis towards balance. That’s what I’m talking about.
 
In a context that swells and tosses me around, where I might have to pivot without much warming, what are the evolutionary practices that stabilize me and allow me to cut a path through?
 
…What are your dorsal practices? What evolutionary repetitions have you cultivated to move through oceans? What are the ones you need to cultivate for the waves moving you now?
 
I am so grateful for the loving community of divine swimmers who have transformed my tissue by doing their work. I am grateful especially for my dispersed and displaced kindred, for teaching me to find stability in practice when, for our communities, housing and financial stability are often out of reach and capitalism tears our roots up again and again. Out here in the ocean we have our breathing and our practice. We have each other if we choose each other. Lagenorhynchus actus, also known as Atlantic white-sided dolphins, love to hang out with fin whales and humpbacks.
 
How did you do it? It’s almost like you made something out of nothing, body where there was absence, but you didn’t, you made life out of every day (Virgo). You made it out of infinite love (Pisces). Thank you for having my back. It still reaches for you. I love you for your breath, your dense, your stubborn growth impossible. Your evolution happening right now.”
 
Thank you, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, for your oceanic wisdom and Great Work.
 
*The astrological signs in parentheses above are my addition.
February 17, 2021: SATURN in AQUARIUS SQUARE URANUS in TAURUS

SATURN in AQUARIUS SQUARE URANUS in TAURUS
 

February 17, 2021 (at 7 degrees)
June 14, 2021 (at 13 degrees)
December 24, 2021 (at 11 degrees)
 
Today is the first of the three exact square (90 degree angle) aspects between Saturn and Uranus. As you might imagine, a “square” aspect has qualities of friction, discord, tension and sparks. It is a tense clashing of energies. Squares are dynamic and can be challenging and deeply uncomfortable, but they point to growth and change over stagnancy.
 
SATURN represents the drive for stability, order and control. Saturn values structure and tradition.
 

As one of my grad school professors at CIIS (and seasoned astrologer), Richard Tarnas teaches, “Saturn represents the noble side of tradition (such as wise structures and prudent restraint), as well as the oppressive side of tradition.”

I recommend watching the presentation he gave through CIIS Public Programs on February 5, 2021, if you are interested: Reflections and Strategies for Our Current World Transits.

 
URANUS represents the drive for innovative, liberatory change, for creative reform. And, Uranus is at home in disruption (often shocking), dismantling and chaos.
 
The signs at work are TAURUS (Earth element) and AQUARIUS (Air element).
 
TAURUS, in its high ground, is concerned with stewardship, appreciation and connection with the natural world (and the understanding that we humans ARE part of the natural world, not separate or superior). Taurus is also motivated by creature comforts, to have basic survival needs met in order to exhale and feel at ease. In its shadow, Taurus can bend towards hoarding, stinginess and greed (in relation to resources, power, etc – whatever one thinks will give themselves a better chance of survival).
 
AQUARIUS, in its high potential, is concerned with the development and function of critical thinking and analytical skills. Aquarius is also motivated to effect change in the collective, rather than simply individual. So Aquarian energy is often oriented to groups, organizations and movements. In its shadow, Aquarius can get very cerebral and dissociated/disembodied (out of touch). It can bend towards radicalization, which we are seeing so much of now with the rise of belief and group organization rooted in conspiracy theories.
 

Since the insurrection at the US Capitol, I have been immersed in learning about the rise in radicalization (particularly QAnon) in the United States. A friend recommended the 8-episode podcast Rabbit Hole to me and it was utterly eye-opening, and my partner, Dan, and I have been making our way through the illuminating episodes of the Conspirituality Podcast.

Episode #17 of the Conspirituality podcast, The Politics of QAnon Spirituality, with yoga teacher, Seane Corn, and cult researcher and historian, Jared Yates Sexton, is particularly fascinating as it addresses the fact that QAnon is spreading rampantly in the yoga/wellness worlds. And, Jared discusses “the longstanding conspiracies that have influenced America since its very founding as well as the chronic problem of American exceptionalism.”  It is well worth the listen.

 

There is also a newly released 3-part docu-series on Vice titled, The Search for Q. It is excellent and gave us a deeper (disturbing) understanding of QAnon’s origins, growing reach and agenda.

#criticalthinkingiskey #highpotentialaquarius #staygrounded #highpotentialtaurus

To read more (from my February 17, 2021 newsletter), please click here.

February 1, 2021: VENUS enters AQUARIUS

VENUS enters AQUARIUS today at 6:05am PST!

The essence of the Aquarian process is individuation. Individuating from our conditioning. Sifting through the layers of how we’ve been programmed to think, feel and behave by dominant culture.

Venus represents the function of forming relationships and connections – both human and more-than-human. From Feb 1-25, 2021 transiting Venus is motivated by Aquarian energy, stimulating us to critically examine how we’ve been conditioned to think about relationship, how we’ve been conditioned to be in relationship. How much of this conditioning actually matches who we authentically are and how much creates incongruence, inauthenticity, a box that is too small?

Feeling this Venus in Aquarius energy so strongly, I went back and re-listened to the episode on this very topic of deconditioning around relationships and sex with Dr. Kim TallBear on the All My Relations podcast. I so highly recommend giving that episode (#5) a listen during this Venus in Aquarius time. It is stimulating in exactly a Venus in Aquarius way!


And, as you may know, it’s not just Venus that is in Aquarius right now but also the Sun, Mercury (Retrograde Jan 30-Feb 20), Jupiter, Saturn and the asteroids Lilith, Pallas Athene and Neith! A very, very Aquarian time.

And, know there is more Aquarian energy to come: the New Moon in Aquarius on Feb 11, 2021!

January 28, 2021: FULL MOON in LEO

This photo came floating into this LEO FULL MOON day from 7 years ago…here we are, feeling a sweet kind of contentment, the warmth of the morning Sun on our faces.

And, this quote…

“Today, for some reason, I see how short our lives actually are & how I forget to look in your eyes & stop time entirely & say, ‘You have made this life for me.'”
-StoryPeople by Brian Andreas

LEO is at home in the 5th house of the wheel of the zodiac, which is the realm of falling in love…with friends, lovers, children, pets, summer sun, trees, birdsong, stars, ocean waves, flowers, squirrels, falling leaves, book shops, cupcakes, music, dancing, dew drops… Most deeply the 5th house/LEO is about falling in love with Life…

Have you seen the new animated film, “Soul?” Wow…it brings this 5th house/LEO logic alive. The spark of desire to LIVE this earthly life, to engage wholeheartedly in all the spontaneous moments of beauty, pleasure, contentment, bliss, creativity, connection…to shine authentically and feel joy in others’ shine…

May the bright light of this Full Moon phase illuminate our spark for living and all the ways spontaneous moments of pleasure and sweetness show up on this earthly plane. And, may we let our loved ones, human and more-than-human, know…“You have made this life for me.”

December 29, 2020 FULL MOON in CANCER

Happy Full Moon Phase of this ‘Moon’th! The Full Moon is exact on December 29th at 7:28pm PST at 8 degrees Cancer and will remain in the Full Moon Phase for several more days. Each of the 8 moon phases is about 3.5 days in length. So, we move from 2020 into 2021 with the Moon in the phase of the height of its LIGHT!

The above card is from the NEXT WORLD TAROT deck by Cristy C. Road

Cancer is the first water sign of the zodiac, ruled by the Moon, inviting us to feel everything. Primal, raw feeling. From the Cancerian lens, it’s not even necessary to understand all the feelings coursing through us, rather the primary importance is to allow ourselves to FEEL it all. And to especially allow ourselves to soften and feel the most tender, vulnerable feelings. To allow our precious hearts to be more deeply felt and shared. High, holy Cancerian potential is a life, an embodied way of being where emotions can flow like rivers, clearing stagnancy and nourishing the natural movement of LIFE.

December 14, 2020: NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE in SAGITTARIUS

The NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE at 23 degrees SAGITTARIUS takes place Monday, December 14, 2020 at 8:16am PST. This eclipse occurs near the South Node of the Moon, which is representative of “karmic past” energy, showing up as shadow expressions of whatever sign it is in.

The sign is Sagittarius, which in its shadows perpetuates an addiction to certainty, clinging to beliefs, refusing to question or examine outside of that belief system or set way of doing things, especially if that way of doing things honors the “god” one (individual/society) worships.

Sagittarius is the sign associated with religion and is driven to make a “god,” a religion, out of something, which in itself is not a shadow. It only becomes shadow if it takes on a fundamentalist, “my way or the highway” mentality. And/or when the worship of said “god” causes harm.

In a capitalist society where money is “god” and material success and the growth industrial complex reign supreme, we worship by accumulating more, more, more. By extracting more, more, more.

The nature of Sagittarius is to say, “Yes!” which again, in itself is not a shadow. The shadow emerges when it becomes greed, entitlement, chronic over-extension. (Lack of boundaries: “yes, yes, yes, more, more more.”) Not being able to recognize when enough is enough.

And, the cost with such a worship is always the exploitation of Life…some in human form and some in more-than-human form.

With the South Node traveling through Sagittarius from May 2020-Jan 2022, the shadows of Sagittarius are amplified so that we as individuals and as a society can work to evolve the ways we live and express the Sagittarian archetypal energies in ourselves and in our collective. The South Node is a draining point. If we continue to embody shadowy Sagittarian ways of worship, our energy, our life force as a collective (human and more-than-human) will be drained.
 

During this New Moon time (intensified by the Total Solar Eclipse), it bodes fruitful to reflect deeply upon ways we recognize this Sagittarian shadow in our own personal lives and in the systems in which we are steeped and the ways in which we are complicit.

An eclipse covers the light for a period of time. We are invited to dive deep into the darkness and reflect at a level perhaps yet untouched by our conscious psyches. Engaging with new perspectives is one way to deepen our level of reflection.

 
I share this excerpt from “Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, from the section in the book, “End Capitalism” (p. 105-106):
 
“The striped dolphin (stenella coeruleoalba) got sum to say.*
(*This is an Outkast reference.)
 
She’s sick and tired. Of being sick and tired.**
(**Quoth the divine Fannie Lou Hamer.)
 
She’s been dealing with cycles of viruses that kill her species by the thousands and that are recurring in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean. A social, deep-water dolphin, the striped dolphin is vulnerable to cetacean disease outbreaks. If pilot whales have it, striped dolphins will get it. Researchers don’t know the exact cause of the virus yet, but it killed one thousand dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea from 1990-1992 and came back in 2007 and again in 2019. One factor that I’m sure doesn’t help is the pollution of the striped dolphin’s habitat.
 
For example, right now in Greece, oil companies are scrambling to drill in marine-mammal protected areas, namely the deepest area of the Mediterranean Sea where striped dolphins live. A conservative (but not conservationist) Greek government that sees ocean drilling as the solution to all of Greece’s economic problems is welcoming even the most reckless oil drillers to their shores. Of course the politicians are not talking about the major potential costs of even a small oil spill in their region, not only for the marine mammals who live there, but also for the government itself and Greece’s own tourist industry. I am writing this in solidarity with the Greek activists who are currently using music and community education to raise awareness and stop off-shore drilling speculation.
 
Because I know what it feels like to be sick of systemic oppression and its cycles of extraction. The virus impacting these dolphins presses on their lungs, their brains. They struggle to breathe, they swim in strange circles. They end up far off course in a place that can’t sustain them. Do you know something about this?
 
I too have been moving in circles, confused. I too have been struggling to breathe. I too have wondered how did I get so far from what my body and spirit need. And, I thought I was done writing about striped dolphins, but so many of us are dizzy and labored, bewildered and estranged. So what would I say if I was a striped dolphin?
 
I love you. And even on your sickest, saddest day you deserve an ocean as blue as your name. You deserve a safety as deep as your need. You deserve food, community, school, and home…the dizziness you feel is justified. We are living in a world off course. And the pressure in your lungs is urgency. We have to learn the language of this air. We are sick of these tired cycles of economic vulnerability, resource grabs, and waste and harm spiraling down. We are ready to breathe differently. And evolve.”    
November 30, 2020: FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE in GEMINI

GEMINI-SAGITTARIUS ECLIPSE SEASON began earlier this year with one Full Moon Lunar Eclipse at 15 degrees Sagittarius on June 5, 2020 in the midst of the Cancer-Capricorn series of eclipses coming to a close. A Full Moon Lunar Eclipse signals a time of culmination, release, deep realizations and a heightening of potential oppositions/crisis (individually and collectively).

*Note: To gain insight about the individual/personal activation and potential of a past or future eclipse, you can look at your birth chart to locate the house in which the degree/sign of the eclipse occurs, as well as any planets close to the same degree by aspect. If you would like assistance with this, I do offer customized mini-readings that are 30 mins in length where we can delve into any aspect(s)/theme(s) you wish to explore. You can find that option here.

The next 2 eclipses in this Gemini-Sagittarius cycle are coming up very soon:

TONIGHT, another Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (this time at 8 degrees Gemini) occurs at 1:29am PST (Monday, November 30th) and a New Moon Solar Eclipse on Monday,  December 14th at 8:16am PST at 23 degrees Sagittarius. 

The Gemini-Sagittarius eclipse series is still pretty early in its cycle and will continue to unfold throughout 2021:

May 26, 2021 at 5 degrees Sagittarius
June 10, 2021 at 19 degrees Gemini
December 4, 2021 at 12 degrees Sagittarius

So what is the Gemini-Sagittarius axis all about?

Gemini and Sagittarius make up a whole. They are polar opposites on the wheel of the zodiac and therefore operate like Yin and Yang, complementing each other and knowing that each is needed for a full expression of wholeness and completeness.

GEMINI is of the AIR element. Gemini needs movement and is guided by an endless curiosity and capacity to perceive nuance. Healthy Gemini values questions more than answers. Always asking, researching, exploring new material. Gemini needs the stimulation of new perspectives,  information and experience in order to thrive. Stagnancy is the enemy. A willingness and actual delight in having one’s mind changed by new information is high, glorious Gemini.

SAGITTARIUS is of the FIRE element. Sag needs a dynamic, ever-expanding existence filled with variety, adventure and meaningful questing that it may live rooted in its visionary, big picture, possibility-oriented spirit. There is a deep drive within Sag to live from a worldview/set of truths that one can really believe in. Philosophy and religion are at the heart of Sagittarius. Finding a way to bring it all and US ALL together (inclusivity) in ever-evolving, uplifting ways is Sag’s high potential path.

I want to mention here that eclipses occur when Full and New Moons happen close to a LUNAR NODE. The Lunar Nodes = the South Node of the Moon and the North Node of the Moon.  In Evolutionary Astrology, the SOUTH NODE of the Moon represents the Karmic or Ancestral Past, particularly wounding and imbalance from the past that is showing up in this life, ripe for resolution and healing. 

The NORTH NODE of the Moon is the key to that resolution and healing. The sign and house of the North Node (which will always be directly opposite the South Node’s sign and house) give us the recipe required to loosen and resolve the “Karmic Knot” and move more and more into evolutionary territory that the soul longs for.

This current eclipse cycle we are in through the end of 2021 has the South Node in Sagittarius and the North Node in Gemini.

So, it bodes well for us to be keenly aware of the ways Sagittarian energy can potentially go out of balance, into the shadows, and create dysfunction and harm.

SOME SAGITTARIAN SHADOWS to be cognizant of and actively work to understand and resolve at this time, both within ourselves and within the collective:

–Clinging to beliefs
–Lack of questioning
–Addiction to certainty
–Dogmatism / Fundamentalism
–Entitlement / Arrogance
–Chronic Over-extension / Lack of Boundaries

HIGH POTENTIAL GEMINI as the key to resolving Sagittarian shadows:

–Questioning all deeply held beliefs (especially if they cause exclusion or division)
–Unbridled curiosity
–Seeking out unfamiliar, new-to-you perspectives, information and experience
–Willingness (humility) to grow, to have our minds/behavior changed with the absorption of new perspectives, information and experience
–Using the “Perceiver of Nuance” function inherent within Gemini to notice and track our own body sensations so we can recognize when we are beginning to experience over-extension/lack of boundaries (exhaustion, depletion, frayed nerves…) and course-correct!

Through the deep individual and collective work during this Gemini-Sagittarian eclipse cycle (June 2020-Dec 2021) we have the evolutionary opportunity to move into each our own more inclusive worldviews and ways of being in community which honor difference and newness as generative, creative, life-giving and (r)evolutionary.

 
You may read the full newsletter in which this post was made here.
November 3, 2020: BIG PICTURE Astro Update on 2020 US Presidential Election Day
 
Big picture = the U.S. is in its PLUTO RETURN, which is a monumental time of hard core, gut-wrenching reckoning with particularly hard, horrifying, disorienting, ugly truths, where skeletons come out of the closet and demons rise up from the Underworld for all to see, process and transform. An utter death/rebirth, destruction/re-creation metamorphosis must occur.
 
In this case, this reckoning and metamorphosis is in relation to the United States of America (whose natal Pluto is at 27 degrees Capricorn) and all that has unfolded since this country’s origins, including all that this country’s origins are based upon, such as genocide of Indigenous peoples, land-theft, enslavement of peoples of African descent, the institution of white supremacy/dominance/advantage, capitalism, patriarchy…
 
We could think about the USA Pluto Return occurring the whole time that transiting Pluto is moving through the sign of Capricorn, which began in 2008 (coinciding with Barack Obama’s election as president) and lasts until 2024.
 
*Note: Pluto moves very slowly and so its transits are of the most intense. Pluto takes 248 years to make a complete orbit. So, a Pluto Return happens once every 248 years.
 
Another way we could look at the timing of the Pluto Return transit is by degrees. When working with Pluto transits, I like to use a 3 degree orb to represent the most concentrated window of time for that particular planetary stimulation. If we use a 3 degree orb, we’d have the most concentrated window of the USA Pluto Return transit beginning in Feb 2020 and ending in November 2024.
 
I think it is useful to think about the USA Pluto Return with both sets of dates in mind, as this Plutonian process has certainly intensified in 2020.
 
And, I’m so grateful for Rachel Ricketts, whose post below names TRUTH! (Follow her on IG @iamrachelricketts)
 
One last note on Pluto. Pluto is about coming into a healthy sense of power (as an individual…as a country). I’m on

Andréa Ranae Johnson‘s email list (follow her on IG @andrearanaej) and received an email from her today. Here’s the part I want to share with you (and is the high ground of this Plutonian power piece):
 
“The decisions we’ve made around this election absolutely have consequences, just like the decisions we make every single day.
And while this week contains a big moment in history, one moment doesn’t necessarily determine our future.
 
We determine that.
 
So, no matter what happens, we still have power. You still have power. And the work does not stop based on the outcome of an election. But it does begin with us tapping into and using the power that we do have.”

 

October 31, 2020: FULL BLUE MOON CONJUNCT URANUS EXACT

Saturday, October 31st at 7:49am PDT – FULL BLUE MOON IN TAURUS (Conjunct Uranus EXACT at 8 degrees Taurus):

URANUS has been such a major player in 2020 with its energy touching so many of the New/Full Moons…and now again. This planet of REVOLUTION and INNOVATION is demanding a grand DISRUPTION of the status quo, as the status quo is destructive, exploitative and unjust on so many levels (racist, white supremacist, capitalist, hetero-normative, patriarchal…).

And, as adrienne maree brown writes in truth-telling, Scorpionic fashion, “Remember supremacy is a projection rooted in a hatred of self. Remember racism is a form of insecurity.”

Uranus shakes us, rattles our souls, “Wake up! There is a better way! Let’s come together in all of our vibrancy and difference and get wildly creative.”

Bottom line = Uranus activates the potential for breakthroughs in consciousness which can lead to individual and societal trajectory-altering awareness and change.

adrienne maree brown’s words below resonate so poignantly with the energy of this Uranian Full Moon and all the innovative work that lies before us in creating a future that is better, not just for some, but for ALL.

From her piece, Additional Recommendations for Us Right Now from a Future:

“Task: Be revolutionary.

Need: The changes we are responsible for shaping are profound. When we can see the end of our species on the horizon, we must operate at a scale that extends our life beyond the horizon.

Mantra: We root the work we do and the ways we do it in love, in being an extension of love in the world.

Context: Even if we don’t have a clear sense of the exact solutions to fix the future, we should have a clear sense of how we want to feel in ourselves, in our relationships with each other, in community, and in relationship to the planet. Those feelings aren’t for the far-off future, they are guidance to what we must be seeding and practicing now, right now. 

Practice: If we believe that we are miraculous, we must treat ourselves and each other that way. 

Practice: If we believe in community, then we must get curious about the ways we need to grow and communicate in order to truly be a part of community. Not just one community, but the multitude of communities we intersect with.”

This post is part of one of my newsletters. If you’d like to view the newsletter, please click here.

October 16, 2020: LIBRAN NEW MOON

NEW MOON at 23 degrees LIBRA at 12:31pm PDT today, October 16, 2020 – This Libra New Moon is opposed by Action-Oriented Warrior MARS (in retrograde/reflection and regroup period until Nov 13) and Godexx of Discord ERIS, both in courage-building ARIES + squared by Opportunity for Resiliency JUPITER, Maturation-Time SATURN and Guardian of the Underworld/Initiator into Utter Transformation PLUTO – all three planets in CAPRICORN.

This is an intense, power-packed New Moon…a continuation of the energies of 2020! LIBRAN energy has an innate sensitivity to and desire for fairness, equity, balance, justice and peace. And, Libra knows this work cannot be done alone, it must be done in relationship, in community. Retrograde Mars opposing this Moon sparks energy for deeper reflection and regrouping so that effective action may be taken in the direction of these high Libran potentials. I came across this new song by Ani DiFranco. So spot on for this New Moon!

September 1, 2020: PISCEAN FULL MOON
Tonight’s FULL MOON is exact at 10 degrees PISCES at 10:22pm PDT. This Full Moon is once again stimulated by Uranus, the Great Awakener. This time by exact trine (with the Sun) and exact sextile (with the Moon). Transiting Uranus is currently at 10 degrees Taurus.
 
Both the trine and the sextile aspects point to enhanced creative potential. A trine is considered a harmonious, flowing stimulation, where the energies involved enrich one another and work to each other’s advantage potentially leading to action/manifestation. A sextile is considered an aspect of excitation, where the energies involved encourage and inspire one another, generative of great creativity.
 
So, the vast, boundless, imaginative, creator energy of this PISCEAN FULL MOON infused in enriching and inspiring ways with URANUS’ innovative, outside of the box, root-level change-oriented, activist energy invites us to ponder, dream and meditate upon this question:
 
What kind of world do you want to live in?
 
This question was posed by racial justice/healing teacher, Milagros Phillips, in her webinar yesterday titled, “Race, Trauma and Practiced Resilience.” She said, “If you can’t see it, if you can’t visualize it, if you can’t speak it, you can’t create it.”
 
One participant in the webinar shared, “I want to live in a world that feels safe for everyone. Where everyone’s love, creativity and intelligence can come out!”
 
As I’ve been letting that person’s vision sink into me…like, really feeling it in my bones, I am noticing elation, joy, playfulness, excitement, curiosity and love growing bigger and bigger in my body/mind/heart/energy field. Just by allowing my attention to marinate in that vision.
 
This Pisces Full Moon offers the infinite, cosmic space for us to let our imaginations run boundless and free, in the realm of pure potentiality: What kind of world do we want to live in?
 
And then with the earthy Taurus (Uranus), Virgo (Sun & Mercury) and Capricorn (Jupiter, Saturn & Pluto) energy that is present for us right here and now, rooting that vision into the very center of our beings.
 
Milagros Phillips also spoke of the electromagnetic field of the heart… “We are THAT connected,” she said. Pisces understands this reality and invites us into that realm.
July 29, 2020: AQUARIAN FULL MOON square URANUS (Exact August 3, 2020)

The FULL MOON in AQUARIUS arrives on Monday, August 3, 2020, exact at 8:59am Pacific Time at 11 degrees Aquarius.

Aquarius is ruled by the planet URANUS, which has the energy of earthquakes and lightning bolts!

Disruption. Honest Confrontation. Protest. Resistance. Revolution. Rebellion. Radical Change. 

Astronomically, Uranus is the only planet to spin on its side! So, if you imagine how a planet’s equator would normally be running horizontally, Uranus has dramatically tilted so its equator is nearly vertical! Shaking the planetary norm up to the core!

At the time of the upcoming Full Moon, Uranus in the sky will be making a dynamic 90-degree angle (a square aspect) to the Leo Sun and Aquarian Moon. Needless to say, this Full Moon is powerfully intensified and electrically charged by its own ruling planet!

Aquarian/Uranian energy functions in its high potential to critically examine and question dominant culture (status quo) and the ways we have been socialized/conditioned/influenced to think, feel and behave by and within this culture.

Definition: Dominant culture in a society is the group who wields more power than other groups.

In the United States, the dominant culture is synonymous with oppressive white supremacy culture, which is the cultural conditioning that white bodies and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs and actions of white bodies are superior to all other bodies and superior to the ideas, thoughts, beliefs and actions of all other bodies (Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)).

To more deeply unpack “culture,” check out the excerpt below (from Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)):

What is culture?
“Culture refers to the knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.

Culture is the knowledge shared by a group of people.

Culture is communication, communication is culture.

A culture is a way of life of a group of people–the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.”

 

URANUS/AQUARIUS shakes us by the shoulders and exclaims:

WAKE UP!!

EXAMINE YOUR CULTURAL CONDITIONING – THE WATER YOU ARE SWIMMING IN!

QUESTION EVERYTHING, ESPECIALLY AUTHORITY.

THINK CRITICALLY.

LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED.

 

This Full Moon supports us in activating and emboldening the Aquarian/Uranian energy naturally within each of us that we may become ever more vigilant, committed DISRUPTORS of dominant cultural conditioning (systems of oppression).

May shock waves ripple out into whatever unconsciousness or denial exists (internally and externally) so that critical awareness of the ways we have been duped by dominant culture, worked like puppets on a string to embody and perpetuate white-body supremacy, is exposed and obvious as if the Full Moon were shining right down upon it.

As part of the Aquarian/Uranian interrogation of dominant cultural conditioning, I recommend checking out the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture (by Tema Okun). The introduction to the characteristics is as follows:

“Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics listed below are damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being pro-actively named or chosen by the group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacy thinking. They are damaging to both people of color and to white people.”

July 20, 2020: CANCER NEW MOON opposite SATURN
The NEW MOON is exact today at 10:33am PDT at 28 degrees CANCER opposite SATURN (exact at 28 degrees Capricorn). We will be in the New Moon Phase for the next 3.5 days, then on into the Waxing Crescent Phase for about 3.5 days, and so on…
 
The New Moon time in the cycle is for laying the ground for the next month (which then leads to the next month…it’s all cumulative). The New Moon time is optimal for planting new seeds. Allowing our hearts to guide us into the next right thing with feet rooted in the reality of life on earth right here and now.
 
There is a seriousness to this New Moon (this next month) with Saturn’s strong presence. A seriousness that stimulates deeper, ongoing reflection and assessment of the past, of history, that more truth and integrity may be embodied and brought forth in our individual lives and in society in the present and future.
July 4, 2020: CAPRICORN FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE

In the birth chart of the USA, based on the date of July 4, 1776, the Sun is at 13 degrees Cancer. (see 1st chart below)

The FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE happening tonight (see 2nd chart below), July 4, 2020, is exact at 13 degrees CAPRICORN, directly opposing the Sun (core identity/values) of the USA (upon which the USA was founded and operates).

Core values of capitalism, white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism and patriarchy are at the heart of the birth and growth of the USA. This country was founded upon the genocide of Indigenous people and the abduction and enslavement of African people. This truth is a glaring wound in this country’s founding and history. An abhorrent abuse of power from the very beginning and still so flagrantly operating in systems today – education, health care, criminal justice, ownership of property, policy/law-making, media, military, etc… (systems and structures in society are the domain of Capricorn.)

I was taught at every turn to believe that the USA was founded upon “freedom and equality for all,” but this is pure fallacy. “We the People,” speaks only of white people – all others considered less than…and Black people actually written into law as less than human (The 3/5 Compromise), a value that thrives on systemically and viscerally in this nation present day.

The sign of Libra is about JUSTICE and EQUALITY and the process of working together (rather than rugged individualism or me-first thinking/action). The USA has Saturn at 14 degrees of Libra in its birth chart. Saturn is Capricorn’s planetary ruler. Today’s 13 degree Full Moon in Capricorn is stimulating the USA’s Saturn almost exact by square (agitating, creating tension). In Evolutionary Astrology, the Moon represents the Heart…the capacity for empathy and depth of humanity – stimulating the need for JUSTICE, for EQUALITY.

Lastly, this Full Moon Eclipse in Capricorn is the last of the Capricorn/Cancer eclipses that have been happening since July 2018. The stakes are high. It is a fierce, highly charged time of reckoning with the core values of this country and the systems which revere and uphold those values. A High Capricorn Heart (Moon) is grounded at its deepest root in integrity and a sense of profound responsibility to the greater community, to the whole of humanity. Will the majority of hearts get there? We must come together and make it so.

June 30, 2020: Warrior Mars in Aries for 6 Months!

With this influx of raw, fiery MARS/ARIES energy over the next 6 months, speaking as one who was born into and steeped in the “Minnesota Nice” flavor of white-body supremacy, what a ripe time to burn through layers of that conditioning, such as the propensity towards “niceness,” politeness, passivity, dissociation and silence…in the face of injustice.

“Your niceness is inadequate.” –Resmaa Menakem (from his On Being interview)

MARS/ARIES energy is visceral and fierce. It invites a greater physical, embodied capacity to stand the heat. To grow one’s amplitude to hold greater discomfort, to move towards that intensity in order to disrupt fear-based, contracted, harming patterns.

MARS represents the function within each of us that longs to be courageous, to be brave. And, one of the most direct ways to build bravery is by truly facing what we fear. As a close friend of mine and Grandmother Against Kroll** puts it, “Do it afraid!”

Do it anyway!

**Grandmothers Against Kroll is a small group of Elder protesters calling for the resignation of Minneapolis Police Union head, Bob Kroll. They meet once a week at the fifth precinct with their signs and voices, engaging police officers in discussion as they come and go. YES!!! Mars in Aries.

The below excerpt is from the book “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo:

May we recognize our agency and use it with intention.  Asserting ourselves with ever more forthrightness, clarity and passion. Rising up in empowered voice and action.

AND, part of that warrior wisdom is understanding, particularly as white bodies, what adrienne maree brown talks about in her blog post “a word for white people, in two parts”:

“redistribute resources. not as charity, which is just another way to assuage the conscience of privilege. redistribute money, leadership positions, decision-making power, land, time in meetings, visionary space, relationships with philanthropy, speaking opportunities, press attention, health care benefits – if you can measure it, you can redistribute the resource.”

Those of us in white bodies, MARS in ARIES is a sharp call to come to awareness of our white-bodied advantage, privilege, position and power and use it in all the ways we possibly can in service to justice and the fight for human equality, which includes sharing/redistributing our power and wealth of resources. And, not just for right now, while Mars is moving through Aries, but in a sustained way for the rest of our lives, with our eyes, hearts and integrity centered upon systemic, structural change.

May 20, 2020: GEMINI GEMINI GEMINI

T H E  S U N moved into the mental, changeable air sign of G E M I N I today. The transiting North Node (evolutionary potential for the collective) just shifted into Gemini earlier this month and will be in Gemini until Jan 2022. Mercury and Venus are both in Gemini right now (Venus will be there until August). And, this Friday’s N E W  M O O N is exact at 10:38am Pacific at 2 degrees Gemini.

A BOUNTY OF GEMINI STIMULATION!

High potential Gemini energy is all about the capacity to have a wide, open, curious mind. Non-defensive, desirous of new information, eager to engage in robust exchanges of thoughts and ideas, hungry to be stretched through learning.

An excerpt from Ashley Fairbanks’ recent post on Facebook: “We have to remember that white supremacy purposefully doesn’t teach us about each other’s history and cultures in order to keep us divided.”

May we welcome these Gemini winds of change and actively seek out information, real lived stories, experiences, perspectives that are not familiar to us. May we move beyond our comfort zones, again and again and again. And, may we be willing to be changed by what we learn.

To read Ashley Fairbanks’ full post.

May 5, 2020: LUNAR NODES CHANGE SIGN

L U N A R  N O D E S now in S A G I T T A R I U S + G E M I N I

The collective karmic/evolutionary axis, represented by the Lunar Nodes, shifts today from the signs of Capricorn/Cancer to Sagittarius/Gemini. The Lunar Nodes shift signs every 18 months.

The South Node of the Moon (Sagittarius) represents the shadows or distortions of Sagittarian energy that we must confront and consciously work to resolve. The North Node of the Moon (Gemini) represents the energies and experiences that will naturally bring healing and resolution to the shadows of the South Node.

Sagittarius, at its worst, is the HUNGRY GHOST…representing over-consumption and endless expansion….GREED and self-interest. More, more, more for me. Bigger is better. Making it so there is NOT enough for all.

In the Sagittarian shadow exists the frequency of separation, of othering – me/you, us/them – a divisiveness, which can become like a fundamentalist religion (Sagittarius rules the realm of religion and in its shadow lies all forms of dogma, fundamentalism and cults).

This morning, I listened to an episode on the podcast, Cape Up, with Jonathan Capehart, where he interviews Jonathan Metzl, author of Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland. Metzl discusses how some white people would rather literally die of not having access to medical care than vote for health care policies that would support themselves along with people of color and immigrants. This is an aspect of Sagittarian energy in its ugliest shadow – making a religion out of division…us/them…and being willing to die for those beliefs.

This shifting of the Lunar Nodes is asking us to come face to face with any and all rigidity in our belief systems, both individually and collectively. We must confront ways in which we create an “other” and live out a “divide and dominate” mentality, which is built into white identity in the U.S. We see it in the structure of society, policies, laws, media, health care…it is everywhere.

With the South Node in Sagittarius, we must look at our consumption and our addiction to more, our belief in more. How much is enough? What about sufficiency (having an adequate amount of something)?

With the North Node now in Gemini, the HEALING MEDICINE is clear:

We must open our doors of perception and let fresh winds blow through. Curiosity wants to grow in size. Gemini invites us to open our eyes and ears to read, listen, learn from other points of view…to take in new information outside of our comfort zones and begin to engage with and discuss this newness with others…opening to the unfamiliar, to discovery, to having our minds changed in an instant moving us in a direction of more openness, inclusivity and valuing of difference.

Rather than previously held beliefs and expectations being the foundation of our choice-making and day to day experience, high potential Gemini invites our raw, direct, present moment experience to be at the forefront, allowing the freshness and felt-sense of NOW to inform the unfolding of our lives.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. –Rumi

Here’s the link to the podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/…/cape-up-with-jonathan…/e/66913663

April 22, 2020: NEW MOON in TAURUS + EARTH DAY

E A R T H  D A Y + the N E W  M O O N in the primal Earth sign of T A U R U S – exact tonight at 7:35pm PST. This New Moon is at 3 degrees Taurus, which is conjunct the “Great Awakener, Innovator, Harbinger of Change” planet U R A N U S (6 degrees Taurus) and square the “Wise, Far-Seeing Elder” S A T U R N (1 degree Aquarius).

At a high potential level, Uranus wants to shake things up, upset the apple cart, shock the system, so that higher awareness, radical change, innovation and evolution can happen. In its high potential, Saturn wants to create solid foundations, structures and systems, rooted in reality, integrity and Far-Seeing Elder wisdom that are sustainable over time. And, Taurus is all about the wellbeing of Earth and all creatures who inhabit this planet. Taurus (Nature) connects us to the ancient, ancestral, animal, plant, fungi wisdom we know in our bones. This New Moon is a rich and fruitful time to connect at this level.

Can you sense how these energies are poised to work together during this tremendously unprecedented time we are in currently? Can you sense the growth potential? What deep down embodied messages are you receiving right now? Uranus tends to bring flashes of insight.
In what ways are you communing with Earth and creatures, including your own creature body?

May we be devotees to Taurus/Earth wisdom not just during Taurus season or a New Moon, but always. May we honor Earth’s capacity to shock us into higher awareness and evolution (may it be so) and bring us nose to nose with reality (Saturn) that we may activate our capacity to innovate (Uranus) and create systems of sustainability and respect for all creatures of this Earth (Saturn).

April 20, 2020: BALSAMIC MOON PHASE

We are now in the B A L S A M I C  M O O N  P H A S E, also called the W A N I N G  C R E S C E N T  M O O N  P H A S E, which happens every month for about 3.5 days just before the New Moon.

This last phase of the Moon cycle is a time that deeply supports tuning into our natural impulses especially around surrender and letting go. For example, when exhausted, rather than pushing through and forcing yourself forward, perhaps taking a moment to pause, whether that be a few deeper breaths in stillness…or a nap.

Allowing for more rest and sleep during this Balsamic Moon time is deeply supported. As is time to connect inwardly, to reflect, ruminate, receive, meditate, pray…connecting with Source as Source is for you (for me, I connect with Source through communion with Nature as well as the wisdom of my own body/soul – as I, too, am Nature).

Sometimes it’s only in very tiny ways that we can allow for this during the Balsamic Moon Phase. However we can, to whatever degree, is beneficial at the soul level and in preparation for the new monthly cycle which begins at each New Moon.

Our next NEW MOON is in TAURUS (@3 degrees) and is exact on EARTH DAY, Weds, April 22, at 7:25pm Pacific Time. How perfect!!

More on that soon.

March 9, 2020: FULL MOON in VIRGO + MERCURY DIRECT

F U L L M O O N in V I R G O exact at 10:47am PDT on Monday (19 degrees Virgo). Earthy, grounded, discerning energy within ourselves is now more readily available to tap into. And, this Moon is opposite N E P T U N E at 18 degrees P I S C E S. Neptune’s high-vibe, ethereal, elevated frequencies are available to attune to simultaneously.

I’m sharing this 528 Hz recording I’ve had playing softly over the last several days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiT3lCydEFQ

From mindvibrations.com: “The 528 Hz frequency is the most significant of the ancient Solfeggio Frequencies. Known as the “love” frequency, it has a deep-rooted relationship with nature, and is present in everything from Chlorophyll to human DNA…”

At a time when collective anxiety is particularly amped up, I find the most skillful thing I can do is ground into the self-regulating practices/tools I have learned over my adult life
(V I R G O), those which align my nervous system/frequency with steady in breath and out breath, soft belly, relaxed jaw, neck, shoulders, tailbone…softer gaze and wider peripheral vision.

I find this particular Hz really invites this kind of settling in my system. When it’s playing, I feel like it is creating a larger container for me to soften and expand into (N E P T U N E in P I S C E S), rather than me, myself, being the whole container.

Lastly, M E R C U R Y goes D I R E C T ! ! ! ! (Cheering!!!!) At 8:48pm PDT on Monday. I’m definitely ready for direct motion once again!

February 16, 2020: MARS enters CAPRICORN + MERCURY RETROGRADE

Mars moved into the sign of Capricorn at 3:33AM PST and Mercury went retrograde this afternoon at 4:54PM PST. These two shifts present an opportune time to activate our will to action (Mars) and dig into what has been on the back burner, especially creative projects (Pisces).

I have a big creative project that has been awaiting me, yet over the last few weeks I have not felt able to settle into it. I decided not to fight it and just wait until Mars moved into grounded, focused Capricorn. 🙂 With this shift in energies, I feel much much closer to diving in. AND, there’s a persistent knowing in the back of my mind that before I do so, I need a bit more mind space cleared in a very tangible, concrete, practical way = All of the birth charts I have done over the last 5 years need to be put into alphabetical order! Woah. This has definitely been on the back burner.

Well, Capricorn energy helps us do what feels like a mountain!

So, this morning, I am sitting down in the middle of it all and organizing stacks and stacks of birth charts from A to Z. The spaciousness this organization is already creating in my mind is exactly the ticket before delving into the creative Piscean world that holds the next dimension of my Great Work (Capricorn).

Mercury is retrograde until March 9.
Mars is in Capricorn until March 30.

Time to tend to what has been waiting! xoxo

___________________________________

(A few hours later…)

Whew! After I completed the cleansing and equalizing work of organizing this morning, there was then the mental/creation energy to make this video! And, this video now opens the door to dive into the bigger project of creating an online course focused on the major initiatory astrological transits that we all experience during the life cycle (Saturn Returns, Pluto Square, Uranian Opposition, etc).

Here is a short video on the Pluto Square transit that happens between the ages of 36-39. We could think of the Pluto Square as the rite of passage that leads us into midlife. It holds extraordinary healing, empowering potential if we are willing to face the painful places within and do our deep inner work.

February 14, 2020: As VENUS in ARIES unfolds...under an AQUARIAN SUN...in a deeply CAPRICORNIAN time.

I cannot stop listening to Dr. Kim TallBear’s mind. Professor of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. Born in what is now called Minnesota.

Since transiting VENUS (planet of relationship, intimacy, connection, creativity) entered into fiery ARIES (life force energy, primal desire, knowing our own wants/needs, being assertive, taking action, forging a trail, being courageous and confronting), one week ago to be exact – I have listened to hours and hours of Dr. TallBear’s lectures and discussions online, with titles such as “Settler Sexuality,” “Reviving Kinship and Sexual Abundance” and “Decolonial Sex and Relations for a More Sustainable World.” I have also been immersed in her blog, “The Critical Polyamorist.”

This week of marination in Dr. TallBear’s work is feeling like Aquarian/Uranian lightning bolts of awareness and realization…very deep conditioned consciousness being agitated…disrupted…like the root of something very old and rigid and never mine…perhaps never intrinsically anyone’s…being shaken loose, shaken up and MAY IT BE ROOTED OUT for clearer seeing, being and action.

To quote Dr. TallBear on this old, rigid root:

“Settler sexuality—which gives us this hetero- and increasingly homonormative compulsory monogamy society and relationship escalator intimately tied to settler-colonial ownership of property and Indigenous dispossession––IS a structure.”

This deeply Capricornian time we are in (specifically Pluto/Saturn in Capricorn) is so much about oppressive power structures being revealed for what they are, the truth of their origins and intentions coming out and ultimately working toward Plutonian death/rebirth transformation into life-giving systems and ways of relating.

If any of this sparks anything in you, I recommend checking out Dr. TallBear’s blog and/or one of her her talks and diving in!

February 7, 2020: VENUS enters ARIES

February 7, 2020 – 

With Venus just having moved into the sign of Aries today (until March 4, 2020)…and the Moon in Leo almost full…what a ripe and rich time to explore authentic desire and expression. And, with the Sun moving through Aquarius, let us examine our conditioning and the structures/belief systems in place that may limit or inhibit our authentic desire, embodiment and expression.

I have been on cloud 9 listening to the Multiamory podcast today, episode #181 on “Settler Sexuality,” an interview with Dr. Kim TallBear, Professor of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.

January 10, 2020: FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE in CANCER + URANUS GOES DIRECT
January 10, 2020 – LUNAR ECLIPSE @ 20 degrees Cancer at 11:21AM PST, marking the close of the Eclipse Portal we have been deep in since the Solar Eclipse in at 4 degrees Capricorn on Dec 25, 2019 + URANUS GOES DIRECT TODAY!
 
Uranus has been retrograde in Taurus since August 11, 2019. Such a radical shift in energy with the now forward motion of the Great Awakener, Change-Maker, NONCONFORMIST, Revolutionary.
 
Uranus first and foremost wants authentic embodiment and expression, to break through barriers that keep us hidden, small and conforming in ways that squelch our life force and do not match up with who we truly are. It is time to COME OUT. To be known, by ourselves and others, more fully.
 
Over these last 5 months, since Uranus has been retrograde, has something been simmering inside of you, a building pressure of knowing…similar to a volcanic pressure inside? A growing clarity of something that must shift in your expression of yourself so you may be A MORE HONEST REPRESENTATION of who you truly are and what you value?
 
Uranus is particularly attuned to CHANGE IN THE COLLECTIVE and our individual part in it. Is there a way you could come forward in the movement for change that you’ve been holding back on or afraid to embody? NOW IS THE TIME!
 
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” –AUDRE LORDE
December 25, 2019 – January 10, 2020: ECLIPSE PORTAL

From December 25, 2019 – January 10, 2020, we are in between eclipses. We are in an eclipse tunnel or portal further activating the Capricorn energies (along with the other cardinal signs: Cancer, Libra and Aries).

Eclipse portals are often experienced as times of increased intensity. Life happenings may seem to speed up or happen faster than usual. Time may seem to bend. Shadow material, repressed energy, memories may rise up from the depths of consciousness to be integrated during this time. We may be able to accomplish feats that had previously felt overwhelming.

It’s important to get plenty of rest and reflection time during an eclipse portal. So much is happening beneath the level of consciousness.

The solar eclipse (New Moon) on December 25th was at 4 degrees Capricorn. The lunar eclipse (Full Moon) on January 10th is at 20 degrees Cancer.

If you’d like to read more about the astrological energy of 2020, please see my January 2020 Newsletter.

January 2020 Newsletter: CAPRICORN MANDATE

An abundance of planets are currently in the earth sign of Capricorn – Jupiter, Mercury, Sun, Ceres, Saturn, Pluto (and the South Node of the Moon) – ushering us out of one decade and into a new one. This energy is highly encouraging of us to commit with discipline and focus to the investment of our time and effort only into projects, paths and visions that are firmly rooted in our INTEGRITY.

That which is not must be released, or we will begin to feel like we are trying to fill a bucket, full of holes, with water as the water is flowing out faster than we can pour it in. Without integrity, our energy leaks out and drains and eventually depletes.

If you’d like to read more about the astrological energy of 2020, including the ECLIPSE PORTAL we are currently in (Dec 25-Jan 10) and much more, please see my January 2020 Newsletter.

December 25, 2019: NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE IN CAPRICORN

🌑NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE in CAPRICORN

Exact @ 9:13pm Pacific Time – Dec 25, 2019

This New Moon Solar Eclipse (4 degrees Capricorn) is fused with the optimistic, resilient, visionary energy of Jupiter (5 degrees Capricorn) and in harmonious trine aspect with Uranus (2 degrees Taurus), Deity of Earthquakes and Lightning ⚡️ Bolts, whose flashes of breakthrough insight and energy help us awaken (as if out of a stupor) to see more clearly, to question and disrupt problematic patterns of conditioning (cultural, societal, familial, religious, etc).

Perhaps to suddenly become aware of conditioning or imprinting we are living in and living out that we hadn’t ever fully recognized before.

With the Capricorn/Cancer axis being stimulated, this investigative process may bring some of us all the way back to the beginning, including infancy or possibly even our time in the womb.

At a very personal level, at this time, I am examining with more honesty, perseverance and tenderness than ever before how I was conditioned very early on to depress my life force energy, my 🔥, strong emotions, sensitivity and empathy…to suppress my true instincts, needs and knowing…to attune to others needs instead.

With hindsight being 20/20, it’s clear that the Plutonian, “deepen your shadow work, your honesty with self and others,” death/rebirth energy so strongly present in the last eclipse portal, July 2-16, 2019, opened a deep, dark doorway into a layer of my life experience which I hadn’t fully revisited up to this point.

Embarking into this Underworld has me diving back into therapy! (gratefully so) I’ve enlisted the support of a Somatic Experiencing therapist who integrates Cranialsacral touch work. This feels like a deeply nurturing and potent combination to integrate and heal nonverbal in-utero and early life experiences.

With arms open wide in gratitude for the support of Jupiter’s presence in Capricorn in this current eclipse portal, stimulating enthusiasm, resiliency, commitment to growth and an expanding sense of possibility in a very grounded, lasting way, as we move forward into a new decade. ❤️🔥🌟🌑☀️⚡️New Moon blessings to All!

December 21, 2019: WINTER SOLSTICE

Winter SolsticeThe Sun enters into Capricorn at 8:19pm Pacific TimeDecember 21, 2019We are of this earth…life and death are old friends

December 11, 2019: GEMINI FULL MOON

The Sun in Sagittarius and the soon to be FULL MOON in Gemini (exact on 12/11 at 9:12pm PT) invite walks down new trails with new horizons for the eyes to see sparking new understandings and realizations.

Venus and Saturn are also fused together at 18 degrees Capricorn at this time with Pluto very nearby. This conjunction gives weight and intensity to this Sag/Gemini expansiveness. There’s a pull into our depths right now with potential for more honest, revealing inner-exploration and conversation with serious reality checking within ourselves in relation to our relationships.

The following question wants to accompany us on our walks down new trails: How am I showing up in my relationships? How we show up wants to deepen and expand.

December 2, 2019: JUPITER enters CAPRICORN

JUPITER ENTERS CAPRICORN
Some significant astrological events are unfolding that I want to share with you, starting with today Jupiter entered Capricorn this morning at 10:19am PT. It’s quite an energy shift when a planet changes sign, especially a slower moving planet. Jupiter takes 12 years to make its full orbit around the Sun, so it changes sign about every year, give or take.

The last time Jupiter was in Capricorn was Dec 2007-January 2009. Thinking back to that time period, what was unfolding in your life? Where were you? What were you up to?

If you have your birth chart handy and are familiar with it, it can be insightful to see where the sign of Capricorn lies in your chart. This is the area Jupiter was stimulating back then and is stimulating now through December 2020. 

SATURN & PLUTO CONJUNCT IN CAPRICORN
Not to mention the fact that both Saturn (Ruler of Linear Time, Convention, Structures and the Maturation Process, the Taskmaster, Authority Figure, Wise Elder) and Pluto (Ruler of Death/Rebirth Processes…Cycles of Creation/Destruction/Regeneration, the Ultimate Transformer, Shaman, Phoenix, Guardian of the Underworld) are also currently in Capricorn and will be coming together for an exact conjunction on January 12, 2020 at 22 degrees Capricorn. Can you feel the intensity just thinking about it!?

JUPITER & PLUTO CONJUNCT IN CAPRICORN
Annnnd, Jupiter (the Great Amplifier, Visionary, Seeker of Infinite Possibilities, Ruler of Resiliency, Expansion and Faith) and Pluto will come together in Capricorn three times in 2020 on April 4, June 30 and November 12.

Whew! It is always powerful, catalytic energy when Pluto is involved, which in Evolutionary Astrology translates as rich growth potential to open ourselves to individually and collectively. We certainly have before us ripe opportunities for significant change on both sides of the coin in 2020 – deconstructing/dying and new creation/birth.

MORE ON JUPITER MOVING INTO CAPRICORN
Like that giant, rooted tree pictured above, the sign of Capricorn is of the Earth element and is ruled by the planet Saturn. It wants to make things tangible and real through focused intention, discipline, hard work and integrity. Capricorn is associated with mastery, with excellence, wanting to dedicate itself to something of substance, built upon a foundation that will flourish over time.

When Jupiter, the Boundless Visionary, enters Capricorn, it’s time to come down to earth with our big dreams and ideas. Capricorn ushers in a practical, grounding energy which impacts Jupiter’s default leaning towards limitless expansion, risk-taking and sometimes the preference to stay in the visioning stages.

Capricorn looks Jupiter in the eyes and says, “Jupiter, it’s time to choose one of your aspirations and make it real. There are only so many hours in the day, and who knows how many moments to a life, SO with all of your broad-reaching sense of possibility, it’s time to focus in and:

1. Define a goal that is grounded in greater purpose and integrity.
2. Commit to it with wholehearted discipline.
3. Climb that mountain to the top – or it may be a journey to the depths – no matter what, one step at a time with optimism in your heart like the sun shining through the branches of that giant, rooted tree.”

And, if that weren’t enough astrological info in one email, I must add just one more thing because it feels important.

ECLIPSE SEASON:
We have an upcoming eclipse on December 25, 2019 in guess which sign?!

Yup, you’ve got it, Capricorn!

This current 2-year Cancer/Capricorn eclipse cycle we are in began in July 2018, bringing Cancerian/Capricornian themes to the forefront. Cancer and Capricorn are opposite signs in the zodiac, therefore they make a whole, like yin and yang.

Just a wee bit about the energies of this duo:

Cancer is ruled by the Moon and in its high ground is concerned with matters of heart, home, sense of place, family (both given and chosen), nourishment needs and how to nurture growth and healing within and with others. Cancer is also a highly imaginative, creative energy.

Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, is, in its high ground, concerned with matters of responsibility and commitment, both of which benefit greatly if aligned with integrity. Capricorn needs purpose; purpose larger than one’s own self. Capricorn rules the realm of Great Work – the gifts we bring forth and offer to others.

These Cancer/Capricorn themes (and more) are activated to varying degrees in all of our lives through the last Capricorn eclipse on July 4, 2020 at 13 degrees Capricorn, which will bring this current 2-year eclipse cycle to completion.

September 28, 2019 NEW MOON IN LIBRA

The New Moon in LIBRA is exact at 11:26am Pacific, today, Saturday, Sept 28 (at 5 degrees Libra). Chiron is in opposition to this New Moon at 3 degrees Aries.

This relational, justice-oriented, Chironic moon cycle is an opportunity to see the past more clearly and consciously address old, repetitive, destructive patterns of relating with other human beings that have been passed down through the generations.

Libra, in its high potential expression, deeply cares about equality and the correction of injustice. There is a new audio program that I am currently listening to again and again, “The 1619 Project:”

The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.

You can start listening here.

July 16, 2019: PERSONAL NOTES FROM THE ECLIPSE TUNNEL

Greetings at this FULL MOON Lunar Eclipse!

We have been in this current eclipse tunnel (portal) since the July 2nd New Moon Solar Eclipse. That is the day Dan and I arrived to our new home base in Montara, California (tiny, coastal town 30 mins south of San Francisco).  Today, at 2:38pm Pacific time (4:38 Central) the astronomical moment of the 24 degrees Capricorn Lunar Eclipse is exact. However, the astrological potential of this event will continue to unfold in our lives over the next 6 months until the next eclipse duo happening Dec 25, 2019 at 4 degrees Capricorn and Jan 10, 2020 at 20 degrees Cancer. The Dec 2019/Jan 2020 eclipses continue to unfold Cancer/Capricorn themes, but aligned with expansive Jupiter, the Greater Benefic, which has a verrrry different energy than the current eclipse portal we’ve been in, which has been powerfully Saturnian and Plutonian in nature.

Saturn and Pluto together are karmic, deep, penetrating, unrelenting, serious and potentially very uncomfortable. And, their work within us and around us is in the service of instilling greater integrity, greater sense of responsibility for our lives/our choices/our earth/our communities, radical truthfulness (even if it is unnerving), awareness of the destructive tendencies within ourselves and certain structures of society and ultimately, Pluto/Saturn call for the next developmental leap in how we embody our power (empowerment vs. disempowerment/victim-consciousness).

Now, to get personal:

Being a Cancer Sun/Aries Moon, and therefore Pluto and Saturn interacting very personally with my sense of self/identity/values (Sun) and my deepest heart/emotions/inner life (Moon), I have felt this eclipse portal in a profoundly intense and at times breathtaking way. For the first time in my life, I experienced a panic attack about a week ago. Amidst the incredible natural beauty of the California coast, which I thought would solve all of my deepest, existential woes, 🙂 I found myself filled with anxiety, doubt, fear and completely hyperventilating, sure I’d made a gross mistake in uprooting my life in MN and making this move.

Saturn and Pluto were in my face, up my nose and with a great sternness communicated to me:

“You chose to uproot and make this big move. Yes, you. You’ve pined for California for years. You wanted to be back here more than anything. Now, it is time for you to fully understand this longing and this choice, even if parts of the truth humble you to your knees (the parts that were most likely driving from the deep Plutonian sub/unconscious realm). Are you willing to have a DEEPER look at that? (If not, good luck.) It is time for you to come to terms with the first half of your life and become intimately aware of who you are now, at mid-life, 42…and what you most deeply value.

One of my dear astro soul sisters gifted me a horse rib bone the morning of my departure from Minneapolis. And, when she placed it in my hands, she said, “because you’ve still got some shadow work to do.”

Ummm, yes.

Thank you for seeing me.

And, thank you Pluto/Saturn Eclipse Tunnel, I am now looking inward in a much more penetrating, relentless, honest way. Working on getting all my cards on the table.

Lastly, a moment for Jupiter, who awaits us in the next eclipse cycle.

In the frenzy of my panic, Dan was there (we were in the car, parked by one of our favorite ocean-gazing spots).

Dan has Jupiter conjunct his Gemini Sun. You could think of this fusion as the Expansive Optimist and Resilient Visionary as central to his core being (Sun). In those panicked moments, his voice and breath-bringing perspective joined with the intensity of Pluto/Saturn and asked:

“Could it be that a deeper personal empowerment wants to happen through this big move? Could it be that you are fearing your own expansion? What if you’re in a birth canal right now? How much do you want this Life? Can you summon up trust and faith in yourself, in the cycles of Life, in that which is yet to be born?”

The questions continue to unfold from inside and out…answers emerging in their own time from the depths. Carving out space for silence, reflection, rest and nourishment is proving deeply beneficial to the intensity of these days. I’ve been marinating in this 432 Hz recording, “Birth” by Alexandros Sidiropoulos. It deeply emits oceanic source, nourishment, soothing of frayed nerves, Cancerian North Node frequencies.

In the week since the panic struck, these Leonard Cohen lines have been visiting me often:

“Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in…”

Sometimes another human being is absolutely needed to help us reconnect, regulate and re-ground in bigger perspective. Mother Nature is a powerful healer, regenerator, life-giver and sustainer…I stand in awe and feel Her as Source for me in many ways…but human beings are LOVE. And, LOVE is why we’re here, right?

“Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love”

May we be this for each other.

I welcome your personal notes on this eclipse time, if you wish to share.

We are all in this together.

With love, warmth and tenderness under the partial Full Moon light,

Jessa