Sep

24

You know it’s Mercury retrograde

Filed Under Astrology trends | 3 Comments

cotton candyWhen your brain feels like cotton candy. When the hair salon calls wondering why you’re not there for your appointment today. When, smiling on the freeway, you sail past your exit. And your friends never got your email because you didn’t actually send it. This is the sleep time of Mercury’s cycle. The dog leash is in the refrigerator. You omit essential ingredients from a recipe you’ve made a hundred times before. The cable goes out. The internet goes out. Enjoy this Rip Van Winkle time. Soon enough (September 29) Mercury will be direct and your fine mind will be whirring again. Until then, find a good chair, settle in, and stare blissfully into space, like an idiot or a mystic.

Share |

Sep

15

Uranus and Saturn, or Outburst and Contrition

Filed Under Astrology trends | 13 Comments

unsportsmanlike_serena_090913_mnToday brings the third of five oppositions between Uranus and Saturn. What have we learned from the planets this week? That humans can really annoy each other. Of course we’re supposed to act like this isn’t true. But then sometimes–perhaps when the planets are aligned just so, or more likely, when certain neurochemicals flood our cell receptors–disgust shoots out (Uranus-style) and the the fuddy-duddy forces of decorum get to wring their hands (Saturn-style) at the decline of society. Joe Wilson calls the President a liar and is sanctioned. Serena Williams threatens a line judge and is punished. Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech to complain that Beyonce didn’t get it–and even Beyonce turns against him. Obama calls Kanye a jackass.

I like to think the planets want more from us, however, than embarrassment and forced apologies. The secret to all oppositions is that for that precise moment when two are opposed, they are looking in a mirror. The eruptions of the outraged Saturns are mirror images of the raw Uranian outbursts. When the two come round to realizing there is no difference between them, an opposition becomes a conjunction. Seeing the Uranus/Saturn opposition as a conjunction allows us to divine its truer purpose: to so utterly change our structures that we humans genuinely progress.

If we use Uranus/Saturn properly, we just might figure out how to pull ourselves back from the 2012 brink that the Mayan calendar implies is the end of our world. I did find inspiration for that this week too–in a story not as widely reported. Saturn (the Grim Reaper) took a Genuine Innovator (Uranus), someone who actually did change the world, although I never heard of him before.

Norman Borlaug died at 95. Many credit him with saving over a billion lives; by developing wheat with a higher yield, he single-handedly helped to avert a global famine. Borlaug often said that his real interest wasn’t wheat, it was improving people’s lives. Now that he’s passed from this world, it’s up to us to continue holding his humanitarian aspiration. When I’m asked to take my part in visioning a brighter future, I’ll take my cue from Borlaug, who in his Nobel prize acceptance speech outlined a simple formula for what a better world be: one where everyone has enough to eat, opportunities to learn, well-paying employment, comfortable housing, nice clothing, along with effective and compassionate medical care. It’s simple–but revolutionary. May we call on Uranus and Saturn to help us get there.

Share |

Sep

1

Mars Pluto Opposition

Filed Under Astrology trends | 4 Comments

wildfires-rage-in-californiaA senator kicks an angry protestor out of a town meeting. LA burns– an “angry fire” devouring dry brush with a vengeance. A model’s mutilated body is found in a dumpster. An anti-texting PSA, depicting a graphic head-on collision, goes viral. Around the world it travels: with its blood, screaming, and death. Good news: an abducted girl is found–after being held captive for eighteen years by a sex offender and likely serial killer. These are a few of the late August news stories, as the Mars/Pluto opposition, exact on August 26/27, is in orb.

Mars represents force; Pluto is power. When these two meet, there’s heat. Wills collide. And shadow stuff–violence, destruction, anger, obsession, sexual depravity–erupts into the headlines. But for most of the planet, Mars/Pluto is much less dramatic. A wife gives her husband the silent treatment. Two mothers get into a spat and forbid their children from playing together. A customer yells at an underpaid clerk. An irritated taxi driver narrowly avoids an accident. These don’t make the news. Nor do the countless positive and invigorating results of Mars and Pluto’s meeting. But take heart. Passion was renewed in various corners of the world. Babies were conceived. Someone stared down a bully and stood up for herself. Someone else woke up with renewed vigor and committed to a difficult project. How has your Mars been doing this past week? Get acquainted. Be aware that Mars goes retrograde in December. So face yourself now, find the better warrior of your nature, and get moving.

Share |