Mercury is the planet of logical communication, getting the facts, learning information and asking questions.  Uranus is about genius types of thinking, sudden bolts and flashes of inspired ideas and receiving messages from the gods, the ethers, outer space and sources beyond our logical and practical human mind. 

The combination of these two planets can be truly inspired.  Use this energy to make a new beginning in educating yourself about alternative ways to communicate through advanced uses of  technology in order to apply it to daily life.  The internet and technology is a vast reservoir of knowledge and these two planets suggest it's time to birth new thoughts, ideas, teaching, learning and communication that goes beyond the normal, mundane and everyday basic routine.  It's a wonderful time to launch a project and to be inspired in how you get the message across whether you're a teacher, educator, writer, healer mentor, student, or disciple. 

The world is experiencing a technological revolution and those that will ultimately succeed are discovering new ways to think outside the box by taking risks towards embracing the new, innovative, progressive and unconventional.  This energy is the launching point towards future enlightenment, break throughs, break outs and awakenings.  Go against tradition and break the rules and you're bound to discover a new form of independent thinking that will make you stand out from the crowd or, at the very least, keep apace with the rapidly evolving and ever changing society.  We are in the midst of being transported to an alien world and must take risks so the new and unusual will eventually become part of our daily routine.  We are not there yet, but this energy helps to access it.  It's about clearing the way for new concepts to use your talent and plan for future earning potential.  Old structures, resources and values are altering to something original and unique.  

On a practical level the next few days may feel as if we're on mental overload and it's important not to talk, speak, move or act too quickly.  It's imperative to filter information and have ways to organize thoughts so they don't electrocute or short circuit the brain waves.  Be careful when driving, riding a bike or using any type of transportation.  The speediness and excitability of this mental energy can make you careless and cause accidents because you're not paying attention.  Update your communication systems in the office and at home.  

In addition, Pallas enters Aquarius further emphasizing the Aquarian themes addressed above.  Her sword cuts both ways and can adhere stubbornly to the rule of law or  inaugurate the emergence of a new, more viable principle.  She's a warrior Goddess and her first line of battle is using the mind to strategize, plan and forge a peace treaty through diplomacy.  She fights for group consciousness in Aquarius and has a mind like a steel trap.  This is a humanitarian fight and she's here to balance injustice and uphold the democratic principle and if necessary start a revolution for the sake of equality for all.  Observe strong women coming to the forefront in the political and humanitarian world as their voices need to be heard.  

Pluto stations retrograde at 25 degrees Capricorn the weekend of April 26.  Her retrograde will last through October 4, 2020.  Pluto isn't for sissies.  He's one of the big players and hard hitters.  The days surrounding the stations are the most potent and then the energy shifts and goes furtive and does the necessary work over the next few months to deal with Plutonian issues on a more internal level.  The immediate kinds of feelings being experiencing during this end of April would be jealousy, betrayal, addiction, obsession, control, manipulation, ruthlessness, corruption, loss, death and uncontrollable sexual urges.  That's because often on the stations the lower energy form often comes to surface.  The flip positive side would be power, passion, financial and emotional support, trust, intimacy and rebirth.  The more important thing to realize is that these few days bring an awareness of the Pluto energy and then the months of the retrograde become a more complex story of weaving the energy into the fabric of life in more evolutionary ways.  

Pluto is the mafia, the Godfather, the person that says "I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse".  Around the station this weekend you'll feel like there's murder in the air.  If someone does you favor you might be beholden to them in the future, down the line when they come to collect.  Pluto loves to entangle people in triangular relationships whether they be love, money or power.  It's all about who has the control.  Things will get under your skin and people, places, things and situations will come back to life in a vampiric way to either resuscitate an existing circumstance to consolidate power or examine it and bring a revelation that something is now dead or will do a slow death over the coming months.  It's a rough weekend because Pluto forces an emotional deepening of very intense psychological problems and situations.  For instance an important person may come back into your life only to tell you that the relationship is over or that that don't want to pursue the same sort of merger that you desire.  Conversely the opposite could occur where's there's a deepening commitment of a close bond which adds intimacy and trust - the positive side of Pluto.  

Pluto rules money and negotiations.  If you owe money to someone, or they to you, the debt collector is coming with his hands out and he may want interest on his investment. This is the perfect time period to receive the government stimulus checks and any business loans.  The next six months are perfect for renegotiating rents, mortgages, wills, trusts, and payments of any kind.  I've literally heard of many deaths on the station, not just due to Corona, but those who have been suffering life's vicissitudes often choose to depart the world on the Pluto station as it's time to make that passage to the other world.  

In the course of the next several months through early October, Pluto by house placement and planetary aspects says that it's time to take an accounting of things.  Retrograde implies a psychological deepening and Pluto deals with psychological complexes and staring the boogey man or hidden, buried terror straight in the face.  This Planet correlates to the 8 of cups, Judgement, 5 of wands and Death cards in the tarot deck as well as a few others.  We all must take a journey into the dark, mysterious underworld because if we give up control and take the plunge we will come in contact with the process of liberation.  The word transformation is often use with this planet, but that is after the process is dealt with.  The retrograde implies we have to sink into the emotional process and deal with the shit first before it can be turned into fertilizer.  This is a combination of the larval/pupal stages of the life of an insect such as a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly.  This is what we are all heading into.  

This will be a wonderful summer to come to terms with those deep personal emotional bonds that will grow stronger and stand the test of time and conversely those that must be destroyed and eliminated.  Pluto is black and white.  You will learn to trust fewer people and situations yet those that you do will become more powerful and important towards your security.  

Capricorn rules structure, traditions, business, corporations, authority and the status quo.  It's Pluto's job in the last degrees of this sign to destroy those parts of these things that no longer function in a prosperous way in order to make a new path and destiny.  The baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater.  We are in a period of mourning and loss.  The retrograde acknowledges this and ultimately you have about six months to reclaim your power and access one of those nine lives you have left.  It's a messy job but someone has to do it.  

The Taurus New Moon occurs early in the sign and it is a little different this year then what one would expect from this earthy, solid, conservative, security and pleasure oriented sign.  That's because the degree of this new moon is close to the planet Uranus.  So instead of delving deeper into traditional modes of expressing the pleasure principle and accruing financial wealth the planet Uranus says its time to shake things up a bit and do something opposite the traditional Taurus energy.  Rebellion is in the air these days and this new moon can trigger more rallies, marches and protests as people feel their freedom is being limited and restricted.  There is social upheaval and challenges to the established order.  

Money is one of the big talking points of this sign.  Everyone's income and earning potential has been turned upside down.  For many that has been an extreme income reversal in the loss of work, but there are others that surprisingly have had an uptick in finances because of the nature of their profession.  Those that have been lucky should use the humanitarian Uranian energy to share their good fortune with others.

Everyone has to be more innovative in discovering how to sustain or revive their earning potential.  It's time to plant the seeds to try to insure the future.  This new moon is much more psychological this year because we all must delve deep into our inner resources and discover what reserves of talent lie deep in the soul that have heretofore been untapped or neglected.  It's time to take the sap out of the tree and make something sweet with it.  

On a practical level if you've had cabin fever and have over indulged in Taurus pastimes of overeating, being a couch potato, watching too much TV, and laying in your pajamas all day, then reverse the trend by getting outside to experience the glory of Mother Nature.  Awaken the body and the physical senses.  Walk in the mountains, by the water, bask in the sun and spend time listening to the birds, watching the sky and observing life unfolding all around you.  Our lives may have been halted temporarily but nature lives on, and spring is in full bloom expressing her beauty and bounty, so observe and take a lesson from Mother Nature's notebook.  Get your body moving again!

Because there's a lot of volatility in the sky the next few days watch for sudden unexpected outburst and fits of temper.  Watch how the Earth might reflect that energy through storms, earthquakes and volcanos.  

Today the Sun enters Taurus. This is the second sign of Spring.  The Sun represents vitality, what makes us feel joyful to be alive and experience life on Earth.  It is the spirit and spark that represents the basic inner force motivating everything we do.  It is your personal form of art and creativity, your source of light, and sustains the hero and heroine's  journey and path in life towards individuation and romance.  Romantic love via sex, and affection with an intimate partner is very intoxicating, but romance has a much broader definition.  It's that feeling of excitement and mystery associated with lifting us out of the mundane bondage and routine of everyday living.  You can have a romance with any person, thing, place or situation in which you see the divine spark of life and creativity reflected back at you.  

Taurus represents Mother Nature and the earth in all its physical glory.  Taurus is natural beauty, innate talent, resources, and luxuriating in all the senses.  Taurus is a fixed earth sign and is physically oriented towards that which brings abundance and pleasure.  It likes to linger and luxuriate in that which it is enjoying at the present moment.  It deals in the world of  values.  On a purely practical level that means money, but on a more psychological level it's what we value deep within ourselves in terms of potential raw talent that we can use in order to earn money.  We must develop those talents to bring security and abundance into our lives.  
This is the time of year when we should go outside and bask in the glow and beauty of Mother Nature in full bloom, showing off her abundant physical bounty and beauty.  We in turn should get more in touch with inner resources and talents that bring beauty into our lives.  Be more determined to focus on your God given talents.  Dig deeper and develop them with tenacity so that you have a stronger foundation from which to grow.  Think of Taurus energy like one of those giant redwood trees; rooted deeply into the soil that sustains a firm foundation from which to grow larger, taller and branch out wider and ever reaching towards the sky.  No matter how tall that tree grows it is rooted into something basic, pure and simple that feeds and nurtures it from a solid source. 

Think of what feeds your body and makes it healthy, beautiful and strong in a physical way.  Our value systems are changing drastically these days in the time of the Corona pandemic.  Mother nature is sending us a message about the natural order of things. Remember negative Taurus energy is gluttony, greed, excess, over indulgence and over doing any of the seven deadly sins.   Each of us in turn on a personal level will be forced to take an inner accounting of our own personal values and whittle away the excess and get back to a purer, simpler and basic set of being.

I’d like to talk about the lunar nodes.   They are extremely important points in astrology that carry symbolism about past and future habit patterns.  They have a great deal to do with destiny.  They are points in the chart that are 180° apart from each other.  The North Node of the Moon is the point at which the Moon crosses the ecliptic heading north, and the South Node the point where the Moon crosses the ecliptic going south. 

The South Node is where you meet up with a feeling of “never enough”.  It’s a point, represented by sign and house placement, of great comfort and familiarity.  If you like the word karma, then this is often said to be a point we’ve experienced fully from a past life, so the energy is something that you’ve lived before and has a feeling of déjà vu.  It’s where you may want to maintain the “status quo” and because of that feeling, there can be an obsessive, addictive and seductive feel to it.  It’s that hunger of desiring that which at one time in life may have been good for you, but because of misuse or over use, no longer is.  One of my colleagues, Michael Lutin, always used the example that the South Node is like snorting cocaine.  Once you start you want more and more and more.  No matter how much you snort it’s never satisfying enough.  These are old habit patterns.  The South Node may be an energy that is good to tap into when you’re younger but as you get older you must start to use that energy to springboard into the North Node which is much more about growth, and life purpose. 

The North Node is an energy that you must learn to incorporate into the present life, yet it is unfamiliar and therefore is accompanied by a certain amount of doubt and fear because it has a feeling of being new and unchartered.  It is one of the great indicators of our life purpose.  It’s the faculty in ourselves which we most need to develop if we are to grow. The North Node nourishes by providing us with new experiences, new people, new contacts and new ideas which satisfy and leave us feeling whole and complete.  The North Node shifts us out of old habit patterns, experiences, relationships and situations that no longer serve our higher good.  It allows access to a new perspective and opportunity to welcome previously unrecognized possibilities into the light of consciousness. 

The South and North Nodes must work together.  They are not isolated.  The South Node doesn’t disappear as we get older but it should feed the North Node as we spring back and forth between the old and familiar towards the new and unchartered.  The more we access the energy of the North Node the more we grow, mature, achieve, accomplish and fulfill our destiny.  Interpreting them in the natal chart is very important. 

I want to talk about what the transiting nodes mean in a mundane way as they affect society and world events.  The nodes are always moving retrograde due to the astronomy of the cosmos and the movement of the Moon, Earth and Sun.  They remain in a zodiacal polarity for approximately 19 months and eclipses that occur every six months will always be in the signs represented by the nodes, therefore we have eclipses in the same signs, more or less, for approximately 19 months. 

Since November 2018 through the beginning of May 2020 the nodes are retrograding through the signs of Cancer and Capricorn.  The North Node in Cancer, the South Node in Capricorn.  As a society we are meant to loosen the grips of the old negative patterns of Capricorn and redevelop the attributes of Cancer.  This transit is winding down and we are getting a huge dose on a global level as to its meaning and purpose.  Covid-19 has brought the meaning of this nodal axis into sharp focus.  What are we meant to give up and let go?  That is represented by the South Node in Capricorn.  We are being forced to let go and release the negative constructs that have been built up in Capricorn.  The traditions that have held us together as a society via the business and corporate structures are melting away.  Those old Capricorn habits of doing “business as usual” will no longer work.  Letting go of the South Node structures of society as we know it instills lots of fear and panic because it is what we are used to, even if it no longer serves a healthy growth-oriented purpose.  Capricorn represents the patriarchy and the walls are tumbling down.  “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.  All the King’s horses and all the King’s Men couldn’t put Humpty together again!”

As walls are being torn down we are being forced to access a new version of what Cancer represents.  Cancer represents the Matriarchy and that is being reborn to balance out the Patriarchy.  Cancer is about home, family and that which nurtures us.  We are all being forced to spend more time at home with our family, with our feelings and learn how to bond in new ways.  The foundations of our home life and our countries must be rebuilt.  We have to lay a new foundation to our home, as well as our country.  Throughout the world each society has to find new ways to nourish and feed its people.  That’s works on a collective level as well as a personal level.  As we shelter in place all over the world the family bonds are being renewed and reformulated.  These are Yin signs and that energy has to do with security, introspection and safety.  They are more conservative than the Yang signs so we have to take new action (cardinal signs) to constrict and conserve our energy.  In Cancer we have to look more deeply into our soul and get in touch with the inner feminine energy of Motherhood, the matriarchy and the feeling principle.  This pandemic has forced a new understanding towards the basic, simpler foundations of life and how to redefine it.  New foundations laid now will build new future structures. It's all about basic instincts in Cancer.  

The nodal axis is now shifting into the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity beginning in May and that transit will last through mid-January 2022.  What we have to give up in Sagittarius is reliance on freedom and global movement through international travel.  We have to let go of the privileged feeling of unfettered boundaries and moving about the world wherever and whenever we want.  This is a mutable polarity so the next 19 months are about learning.  We have to release old worn out philosophies and teachings that have guided us in the past.  The meaning of life is shifting and so is higher education.  The old system of law will transform.  The travel industry will mutate. The Gemini North Node is what needs to be redefined.  Our local neighborhood will become more important.  Supporting local business and local government is the way to go.  We have to redevelop our neighborhoods and education system in Gemini.  The basics of everything we learn in logical ways must realign left brain thinking.  Facts will become more important and essential because Gemini deals with logic, facts and information.  We must get back to the ABC’s of life and learning and come down from the high horse grandiosity of Sagittarius.  Like Icarus we have flown to close to the Sun and our hubris has led us down a path of competition with the Gods.  That is no longer tolerable and we have to get away from forming opinions without having the facts to back up those opinions.  How the media reports and disseminates information will come under closer scrutiny.  We have to stop the excesses of stretching the truth in Sagittarius and get back to sane, logical fact-based thinking in Gemini.  Foreign and local governments must work in better harmony.  Much of this will come about through new regulations of importing and exporting as well as new international laws.  We are a sisterhood and brotherhood and it will be more important in the coming years to reach out our hands and form closer fraternal ties.   Our communication systems are in a massive evolutionary phase.  There is a never ending process of new learning on how to communicate via Zoom, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and our ever evolving smart phones.   
​
Of course all this will be more specifically aligned in your natal chart depending on what house the nodes transit.  That adds a more detailed interpretation as to the area of life where you as an individual will experience this energy most acutely and personally.  We are in an evolutionary period of world history and the transiting nodes will help us navigate this path. 

Mercury entered Aries on April 11 after over two months in Pisces.  Mercury is the messenger of the Gods.  He distributes information.  In ancient times the messenger would transmit news from the powers that be.  The messenger was valued for his speed and accurate transmission of the facts in order for the directives of the king, or whoever had the power, to be received and followed.  The messenger would use whatever mode of transportation was at its disposal whether horse, bike, foot or boat.  Swiftness, accuracy and conciseness are highly valued.  Mercury had to be tricky as well in order to stay alive because often he was carrying valuable information that many wanted silenced, so his life was often threatened and death could be staring him in the face at any moment.  Danger was lurking at every corner so Mercury is swift to find shortcuts and don disguises that would hide his identity and fool others.  Often the message was written, but in days before paper and ink the message was often relayed through speech, so a good memory was highly valued to accurately transmit the information. 

The Saturn/Pluto conjunction in January 2020 in tandem with the eclipses set the stage for the next six months to a year in terms of the bigger picture.  Conjunctions always represent the beginning of one way of life and the end of an old way of life.  Conjunctions represent birth as well as death.  Saturn in Capricorn represents the forms and structures of society that have formed our current traditions as we know it.  Pluto represents the death, destruction purging and eventual transformation of those traditions and structures.  We got a big glimpse of what Pluto would do in Capricorn back in 2008 on his Capricorn ingress when we entered a recession.  Now that Saturn in Capricorn has caught up with Pluto we have an intensification of those same issues in an even larger dose in the guise of Covid-19.  Saturn crystallizes and manifests what Pluto has already been transmuting.  The outer planets, Saturn through Pluto in combination, create the larger scale evolutionary and revolutionary powers that carry major ramifications and create new eras in life on planet earth.  The more personal planets, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter play an important job in triggering dates and playing out the day to day personal details required in dealing with the major themes represented by the outer planets.  

Here’s where trickster Mercury played such an important part in the spread of this pandemic and the hidden enemy kind of attack.    Mercury has played a key role since the beginning of the year in how information of Covid-19 was handed down and deciphered in a tricky way.  Planets are in dignity and debility, depending on what sign they are traveling.  Mercury is in debility in Pisces.  In ancient astrology dignity is all about where a planet has responsibility, strength and power based upon the geometric rulership schematic.   In modern astrology, there is more a tendency to make a psychological assumption that the planet has affinity for a certain sign because the planet and sign have similar qualities. 

Mercury entered its shadow on February 2 and turned retrograde on February 17 in Pisces. This kept us blind and in the dark about how insidious this virus was and how it was incubating, spreading and growing unbeknownst to us at a rapid pace like a hidden enemy we don’t see coming. We foolishly thought it was only on foreign shores. We were blind to the rampant and invisible spread.  It was moving about unseen like a fog or a mist that was hiding what was lurking beneath the haze.  Only when Mercury entered Aquarius did we realize the national magnitude and it suddenly became much clearer how bad things were on our doorstep.  That’s when leaders and the public started to take more serious government, political and global action to deal with social security. We were in the dark essentially for the entire month of February totally blinded and lost at sea floating through an unreal reality.  When Mercury entered its second shadow period on March 10, it passed over the same degrees of Pisces from February.  It became rapidly clear just how vast the unforeseen rate at which the virus was spreading and how much illness there really was. The veil was starting to life a clearer scope was in view, but because Mercury was still in Pisces, the sign of its debility, we were still getting fishy transmissions and an abundant amount of confusing and conflicting information.  The blame game was in full swing as Mercury in Pisces is highly skilled at deflecting responsibility, scapegoating others and speaking with the voice of martyr, victim or saint and sinner.  So while we were moving forward as Mercury slowly moved forward there were still contrary reports from so many officials in the government and medical community.  We didn’t know who to believe and in some cases there were out and out lies, deceptions and mistruths. There were amazing amounts of snags in transportation matters and it was difficult to know who was in charge and whose directives to follow. 

With Mercury having entered Aries on April 12th we have speed and clarity on our side to aid in getting more rapid testing, accuracy and honest transparency.  Mercury has neither dignity nor debility in Aries.  It has a more neutral strength in this sign.  Fortunately Aries is a sign that likes to do battle and is known for quick, decisive, forthright and clear action.  We now should be getting the news quickly, rapidly and have clearer directives.  Transportation snags and misinformation should start to straighten out and at least there will be a clearer road to follow into the future. 

This is only the beginning and there is so much astrology to discuss for the remainder of 2020 but that’s for several more postings in the near future. 

The Aries Sun does combat with the lord of the underworld the next couple of days.  This is an aspect having to do with power struggles.  The Sun in Aries wants to lead but Pluto in Capricorn desires to assert control over any thing or anyone that gets in the way of my authority.  You'll see this play out on the world stage where the federal government will try to assert control over individual leaders of states such as governors.  It's a conflict between who really has the power over whom.  

Pluto also is motivated to uncover what lies beneath the surface.  This could expose corruption and the use of strong arm tactics.  Secrets may come out in the open and with Mercury now in Aries communication is much less obfuscated.  

Learn to compromise with others in work projects in order to help as many as possible.  Trust those to lead in areas where you're weak and they're strong.  In work situations take an accounting of how to make the creative process deepen through intense collaboration with others.  

Venus is in Gemini now through July 29, 2020. There is a body double or doppelgänger somewhere in the ethers trying to stand in for you when the going gets rough. Watch for an invasion of the body snatchers take over especially during the Venus retrograde from May 13 through June 25. Your twin soul, or other half, is out there trying to reconnect with you. They have an important message to relay.
​
You’ve met up with them in one shape or another in 2012 and now they’re coming back because there’s something more to learn.

This aspect is around for a couple of days. This can be an explosive, erratic, rebellious and assaultive type of energy. For those who are accident prone be extra cautious and careful. Slow down! This is a wonderful aspect for fast, immediate and quick action that happens at a moment's notice with no time to prepare. If you have to make a quick and spontaneous decision in the flash of the pan then you must step up to the plate and take a risk without questioning or balancing the outcome of the decision.

This is a highly stimulating combination of planets. There's nothing subtle here. These two planets can cause breaks, separations and divorces if a situation has gotten to a breaking point and you just want to end it all. This is also a slam, bam thank you ma'am type of sexual energy so for any of you who are cloistered with a significant other there could be major fireworks in the bedroom. They can be rather kinky, so try something new and bizarre. If your partner is not stimulating your libido then they may be stimulating your wrath and ire so be prepared for volcanic outbursts.

If you're doing activities that require high energy this can give you an extra jolt of testosterone. Think of it like drinking 10 cups of coffee, 10 cans of Red Bull or snorting 10 lines of cocaine. This is a highly stimulating yang type of energy. It is hard to control and rein in so try to harness it as best as possible.

You'll notice loud noises and will be more attuned to emergency situations. During this sad time of so many deaths this duo can bring out your humanitarian side to fight for those in your community that need hope and charity. Use the fighting spirit to help others rather than knock them down.

In this age of social distancing there are certain traditional aspects considered to be rather challenging that many may now find beneficial.
Saturn is a planet that often denies, blocks, isolates and puts people and matters at a distance. If you’re born with Saturn opposite Venus you know what I mean. This aspect often requires hard work to gain intimacy with others. The relating principle doesn’t come easily. Because of the difficulty and struggle maintaining closeness in a relationship, many spend large amounts of time alone in their own company. They learn how to be in solitude and make peace with that reality.
In this day of social distancing I’ve heard from those with this aspect that while they are experiencing some cabin fever, they can adapt to being alone for great lengths of time much better than others. They have already found out how to use their time wisely from years of being alone and having to be more reflective and introspective.
This aspect can also cause bitterness and resentment in some, but only if the person has no sense of reflecting inwards. With time and maturity comes the realization that being alone isn’t necessarily a prison sentence. You get to know yourself better. Obviously there are downsides like finding it difficult to compromise and building up walls through mundane routines and habits. But there are downsides to being in relationships as well.
This would also be true if Saturn opposes the ruler of the 1st or 7th houses. It works on a very similar fashion since the ruler of the 1st represents my whole approach to life and the ruler of the 7th represents how I experience relationships and the outside world in general.