Apr

28

Celebrate Beltane

Filed Under Cross Quarter Holy Days | Leave a Comment

I’m pleased to have Mary Pat Lynch as my guest blogger for this wonderful cross-quarter holiday.

Beltane is one of the four great Fire Festivals in the fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. In the ancient Celtic calendar, Beltane is a hinge ushering in the light half of the year, a time of fertility and abundance. In the standard calendar, Beltane is May 1. Astronomically, Beltane is May 5, when the Sun reaches the middle of Taurus, at its 15th degree. Celebrations include bonfires lit to honor the solar god Belos, rites of cleansing and purification, and rites to bring fertility to the land, to animals, and to the people.

This year’s Beltane season promises to be powerful indeed. The Sun may be in peaceful Taurus but five planets continue to blaze in Aries. In the Beltane chart, Uranus the Awakener is first, followed by Venus conjunct Mercury, and Jupiter conjunct Mars. The bonfire is alight!

At this time, the veils between the worlds are thin, the land of Faery is close at hand, and magic abounds. White hawthorn blooms, whose branches are cut but not brought indoors, for this flower of May belongs to the Fae. Now everything gestated during the winter is born, desires are made manifest, the unconscious emerges into the light. Venus and Mercury together are expressive, Jupiter and Mars are active, Mars exactly trines the North Node energizing our life path.

The past weeks have brought the challenges of Aries––irritations, miscommunication, anger, headaches, accidents––with an almost overwhelming energy. This Sunday, as the lusty month of May arrives and Beltane begins, we are invited to flow that energy into exuberant celebrations of Spring. Throw open the doors and dance with fairies in the fields.

During this Beltane, find your joy. Connect with whatever brings you alive. Be juicy! Where is Aries in your birth chart? With so many planets in Aries now, something new and exciting wants to happen there. Saturn remains in Libra, opposite Aries, but remember one of his roles is to make things real. The Taurus New Moon is also part of this Beltane season, a time of planting seeds in fertile soil. Celebrate the fiery energy of Spring!

“It loved to happen” ––Marcus Aurelius

Mary Pat Lynch combines archetypal astrology with the Tarot, dreamwork, and shamanic practice, exploring many intuitive languages. Her blog traces the Moon’s transits and cycles through signs and seasons.

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Apr

15

The Moon to Regain Balance

Filed Under Full Moon | 1 Comment

Energy sensitives are well aware of the current line-up of planets in Aries. It’s easy to catch headaches these days! Aries is fire that burns hot in the head. It sends us charging forth–discovering, battling, creating, protecting–wherever our impulsive thoughts lead. With the Full Moon in Libra, the sign of balance, we get a not-so-secret instruction: pause and regain your balance now. Energetically, fire is balanced with water and earth. Take your warrior into a bath. Or let him picnic on the ground. Look up at the stars. Do not move until the movement comes gracefully from deep within.

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Apr

2

The Fix-It Retrograde

Filed Under Astrology trends | 4 Comments

What was the message—when the winged Messenger, Mercury—entered its-retrograde shadow just as NASA’s Messenger entered this planet’s orbit? And what should we make of the first close-ups of Mercury’s surface being released on the very day the planet stationed retrograde?

Of the gods, Mercury is the most clever and nimble, an artist of intricate puzzles. Perhaps he knows we’ve named his craters for artists, musicians and writers; he released his photos as Earth was entering a Pisces Moon (the sign of photography, art and symphonies). What was that bright spot on his very first photo? The Debussy crater. Does Mercury have a special relationship with this gifted composer? Of course! Rising with the Sun on the eastern horizon just after Debussy was born, Mercury is strong in his own sign in this chart.

Mercury’s retrograde is traditionally seen as a time of snafus and mechanical breakdowns, but NASA’s engineers checked the Messenger craft carefully before turning on its instruments: everything worked! I’ve had this argument with colleagues for years: I’ve noticed that a lot does work during the retrograde. And it seems that Mercury may have chosen this moment to give us both a new view of his surface—and of retrogrades. At least—to allow in his Mercurial way—that at the same time unexpected problems can occur so can unexpected miracles.

Mercury retrogrades occur three times a year, but at least one of those will be what I call a “fix-it” retrograde. Just as the name implies, this retrograde allows us to fix many critical problems we’ve collected in the preceding weeks. It’s as though the universe floats a “to do” list into our hands and we discover an easier momentum to tackle its projects. We take advantage of the “redo, rethink, rework, repair” promise of the time.

Our brains usually want to drift and dream during Mercury’s retrograde. That’s why they don’t pay attention to details, which is what creates many of our frustrating retrograde moments. Yet with Mercury in quick-paced Aries now (along with five other planets!), there’s just too much energy to pause in the usual retrograde way. What’s more, Saturn is opposite the cluster of Aries planets. If we don’t direct energy carefully, he will call us to account! So how can we best use this “fix it” retrograde to actually fix things?

Let’s take our cue from NASA’s Messenger. In order to enter Mercury’s orbit—so close to the stronger gravitational pull of the Sun and without any atmosphere to slow itself down—the space craft had to perform a clever slow burn, so it could be captured by Mercury’s gravity. Perhaps in the whirling universe of your own life, there’s a particular way you could slow down, in the proximity of your problems; let their gravity pull you into their orbit. Once there, check your plan, get focused, and turn on the juice.

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