Apr

25

Grounded

Filed Under Astrology trends | 3 Comments

smokePluto’s retrograde station is explosive; Mercury’s is fraught with miscommunications and snafus. Between both events this month (Pluto’s on April 6 and Mercury’s on April 17), Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull erupted. There was the lord of the underworld appearing in a volcano at the top of the world. There was messenger Mercury (in earth sign Taurus) sending plumes of grit into Europe’s skyways, grounding planes and stranding passengers. Astrologers might smile at the symbolism, but we shouldn’t stop there. Planets don’t cause events, they’re omens. And truth be told, astrologers aren’t scientists; they’re diviners, just like entrail readers thousands of years ago. It’s our job to say what these things mean.

Of course meaning is elastic and looks different from different angles. But I’ll take one stab at it: I believe Pluto drew further attention to the strong earth changes we’ve already been seeing and portends there may be more. How should we prepare? Mercury’s retrograde always asks us to slow down. But this month there’s an added note: we must get grounded. Stop the busy-ness and tune into the world beneath our feet. Let’s deepen our conversation with the earth. Such intuition might send us in the weeks ahead to just the right spot at the necessary moment. Despite the frustrations, inconvenience, and loss of revenue, no plane tumbled from the sky. We got a chance to think of what really matters. We were also encouraged to listen inwardly–for the hard or soft explosions of our own passions. Is there an inner fire that wants to erupt?

At least that’s how I took it. Despite the deadlines claiming me, I slowed down and spent several empty hours outside of my routines. I let myself do nothing! Just as the stranded passengers in Europe were forced to do. My conscious quiet brought a great surprise. Several new ideas rushed in–some were the answers to questions I’ve been asking for weeks. What if the whole world had slowed down and listened deeply! Mercury and Pluto might have really been pleased.

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Apr

12

Pluto still a force

Filed Under Astrology trends | 2 Comments

Brazil Flooding I’d begun to think I was living in an alternate universe where things were so grand, its reporters had nothing to talk about but a very-good-golfer’s sex addiction. But last week Pluto stationed retrograde and suddenly we have so many difficult things to talk about, words hardly do them justice. En route to commemorating the tragic Katyn massacre, the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, and many of that country’s highest military and civic leaders died in a plane crash. In Kyrgyzstan, a violent uprising ousted a president and many protestors were killed. Two dozen miners died in a massive explosion at a West Virginia coal mine. It’s the country’s worst mining disaster in 25 years. Over 200 are feared dead after the heaviest rains in Rio de Janeiro’s history brought massive landslides. That’s Carlos Eduardo Silva dos Santos in the picture above, trapped under a wall.

“Look for explosions in the news when Pluto stations,” my astrology teacher used to say. Pluto rules Big Forces and he reminded us of that last week. Even as Obama and Medvedev signed their historic disarmament treaty, the Lord of the Underworld reminded us of just how powerless we are. We live in a world full of overwhelming forces. And they aren’t always on our side. In one of last week’s more complicated stories, a US mother sent her adopted 7-year-old son on a plane alone back to Russia because she feared he’d hurt her daughter and burn their house down. After reading the facts of the story, it’s not easy to blame or excuse her. Rather, in a world full of difficult situations, it’s easy to feel like both the helpless mother and her lost little boy.

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