Tuesday, October 25.  Today is the Solar Eclipse at 2° Scorpio.  Aside from the Sun and Moon the other major planetary players in this eclipse are Venus, which is conjunct the eclipse degree, and Mars in Gemini, which rules the sign of Scorpio.  Mars will turn retrograde on October 30 and will remain so through January 12, 2023. 
 
Solar Eclipses often initiate action around fated new events although this one will have more a feeling of endings before finding a way out of confusion and darkness and making the new beginning.  All new beginnings start with a review, and this eclipse triggers several months of a much longer, deeper and introspective review in order to figure out how to best proceed with one’s future.  The intensity with which the eclipse affects your life depends on aspects to natal planets and important chart points using a 3° orb on either side of two degrees Scorpio (as well as the other fixed signs of Taurus, Leo and Aquarius.    The tighter the aspect, the better or worse the experience will be. 
 
This eclipse will have a feeling of dredging up the past.  Old situations, relationships and ways of doing business are dying.  Scorpio is a sign that must process sensitive feelings and emotions before they get to a boiling point.  There is an urge to transform energy in order to feel more alive and vital.  The eclipse has the potential to awaken things that are dead, psychologically buried or hidden from our view that must be brought into consciousness in order to transform situations to more evolved levels.  Because Scorpio is ruled by Mars turning retrograde in Gemini this would be an excellent time, almost for everybody, to go back into therapy, whatever that phrase means to you.  Re-engage in an inner conversation with yourself and others surrounding difficult subjects.  You have to fix your interior mental plumbing.  Mars retrograde is about taking care of unfinished business.
 
With Venus conjunct the eclipse degree we are awakening and resurrecting dead relationships either to deal them a final death knell or to resuscitate them and communicate on a deeper level with the other person.  This will either make for a reuniting and rebirth of the relationship or the final resolution of a matter fully and forever.  A nail may be put in the coffin literally and figuratively.  You will also see the combination of deaths and births on this eclipse more than usual.  There is always a phoenix rising from the ashes down the line.  That most likely won’t occur until after January 12. 
 
It’s important to communicate clearly, with more fervor and passion with loved ones and all deeply committed relationships whether lover, spouse, child, therapist, co-worker, boss or anyone one else with whom you feel a close and trusted bond.  Loyalty is the name of the game. 
 
In my life just in the last two weeks five relationships have come back to haunt me like ghosts from the past.  I have received communication from people with whom I have had little connection in recent years.  Issues I thought were dead and buried need my attention and have to be re-addressed, some more deeply than others.  Some of these people I thought I would never hear from again.  It’s a feeling of the dead rising from the grave.  I have heard from countless clients about the death of parents, about divorce and also about miraculous things like new love being born. 
 
The eclipse is an entry way in doing shadow work over the next several months.  Scorpio deals with deep, private, uncomfortable feelings that we often like to keep under cover.  Well, that is not possible right now.  It’s time to do detective work, investigate and reveal hidden motivations. 
 
Halloween should be very interesting this year with Mars turning retrograde within 24 hours of the holiday.  Treaters will be tricked, and tricksters will be treated.  Pay extra careful attention to car traffic with the youngsters.  There could be more eruptive types of energy around Halloween.  Loud and boisterous energy will abound in the local neighborhood. 
 
You will be questioning the psychological health of all your most important relationships.  Be wary of anger issues and difficult conversation with siblings around anything that is emotionally prickly.  This may involve dealing with the business of death and dying and the financial distribution of an estate.  It could be difficult conversations surrounding health issues with a parent or other family member and the inherent difficulty of dealing with quality of life for the elderly. 
 
Some may decide upon a new course of education and for writers this is a marvelous time for editing and refining work already in progress.
 
A good rule of thumb for the 6-week eclipse period from October 9 through November 23 is nothing is as bad as it seems and conversely nothing is as good as it seems.  There’s a heightened sensitivity to all matters and with Mars squaring Neptune for the rest of the year that won’t help with logic or clarity so stay flexible and open minded.  

Venus Star Point. The Sun/Venus conjunction at 29° Libra on October 22 marks the beginning of a 100-year cycle in Libra and the end of a 100-year cycle that started in Scorpio in approximately 1925-26. There will be another cazimi conjunction at 0° Scorpio four years from now, so there is a slight overlap as we move from one era to another. This cycle moves retrograde in the zodiac similar to the lunar nodes. It is about death and rebirth that will play out on the world stage and in your personal lives. In world news we see this shift in eras symbolically represented by the deaths of famous women such as Queen Elizabeth and Angela Lansbury both of whom symbolize a major transition from one era to the next. It’s not by accident that both were born in 1925. Each were megastars in their fields of endeavor and wielded major power.

In the media we will be more aware of how we treat "others" in society. Libra is the sign of the "other" or the partner. The sign wants to fight for equal partnership and equal representation. We are seeing major issues regarding women’s right resurfacing with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in America. There will be increased awareness of how we give equal voice to those with less representation in society. The discussion of the balance of power on the Supreme Court will continue to take center stage. There are the riots and protests in Iran after the killing of Mahsa Amini by police for not wearing her hijab properly. The war in Ukraine is very symbolic of honoring the rights of other peoples and nations and being treated fairly by our open enemies.
If you have planets around 0° Scorpio and 29° Libra you will feel this shift of endings and beginnings far more acutely than others. Your life will transform, transmute and evolve in unexpected ways as you are being asked to grow and embrace something new about the concept of love, and finding new balance and awareness of its presence or lack thereof in your life. The Venus star point ingressing into Libra is the birth of a new era in all Libran matter: love, peace, fairness, harmony, balance and equality as well as beauty. If it hits a planet or point exactly by conjunction square or opposition then that planet will be an instrument in how you accomplish those Libra goals. This will be true for any point at 0° of the fixed or 29° of the cardinal but it is the Scorpio/Libra points that are the most sensitive.

If you are old enough to remember the Saturn/Pluto conjunction between 27-28 degrees of Libra in late 1982 early 1983 you may be able to correlate events from that time in your life to what is happening now. For instance, my Ascendant is 28° 51’ Libra and in 1982/83, when only 23, I was hot and heavy into the first major love relationship of my life. It lasted 8 years and was instrumental in my formative years of discovering and learning about love and the relating principal. At the end of September 2022, though no longer in that relationship, the person with whom I was deeply in love with back in 1982/83 died suddenly and unexpectedly. It was very symbolic of a final death knell to that era of life as I embark on something new right now. It’s time to rediscover the further meaning of what kind of love I want in my environment as this point transits my Libra Ascendant at the age of 63. It will be interesting to see what unfolds in the next 8 years.

This is not just a one-off type of event and then goodbye. It is a tectonic shift that will evolve over the course of several years but now is the time when you will start to see the events manifesting in physical form. Observe what and who is dying, and the rebirth of new love and joy being created in your life right now and in the coming year, and how you grow to accept, value and embrace it. An eclipse at 29°Aries on April 20, 2023 will stimulate this point once again. If you do not have any planets at 0° fixed, 29° Cardinal then look at the house in the natal chart in which those degrees are placed for the areas of life that are being highlighted.
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For more information on the powerful Venus Star Point I recommend reading Arielle Guttman’s wonderful book VENUS STAR RISING. It explains everything in great detail and is extremely well researched and clearly delineated.

It is a well-known observation by astrologers that as eclipses approach the news in the world gets juicier.  Along with a rise in heightened activity, there is the inevitable death of famous people.  Not just ordinary famous people, but more often than not, famous luminaries that have been very prominent in their field.  Eclipses honor those that have left indelible legacies, careers and footprints and have built celebrated reputations by having achieved the pinnacle of success.  This makes the recent deaths of Queen Elizabeth II and Angela Lansbury more spiritually meaningful and connected to the zeitgeist.  Another astrological phenomenon contributing to the magnitude of fame and power of these recent deaths is the upcoming Venus/Sun cazimi at 29° Libra on October 22.  The Venus/Sun cazimi occurs at least twice a year, so that in itself is not unusual.  This one is extremely significant because it is ending a hundred-year cycle.  It’s noteworthy that this is the first to occur in Libra after having been in Scorpio since 1926. These cycles of Venus move backwards in the zodiac similarly to the lunar nodes.  This is going to have major ramifications in the world and for individuals with placements at 29° Libra or any of the cardinal signs. More on that in another article. 
 
This Libra conjunction that will now occur every eight years is only one of the arms of the famous star pentagram that Venus forms due to its retrograde motion.  Venus retrogrades in 5 different signs that repeat every eight years until each of those individual cycles runs its course after approximately 100 years. The cazimi happens when Venus reaches her superior or inferior conjunction. This particular arm is now shifting from Scorpio to Libra.  This is the initial ingress into Libra after being in Scorpio since 1926.  It will remain in Libra for over 100 years till 2133 (with one last Scorpio cazimi in 2026).  This signifies a major tectonic shift when one era dies and another begins.  It is no accident that these two Venusian legends would die at this time.  Queen Elizabeth was a Taurus and Angela was a Libra.  
 
They represent an archetypal shift of endings and new beginnings.  It’s evolutionary because, as stated above, these shifts occur approximately every 100 years.  These are long spans of times and the turning point from one era to the next is happening now.  What’s even more synchronistic is that Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 and Queen Elizabeth in 1926; both at the time of the Scorpio ingress and they have died within a month of the transition into Libra. 
 
Angela Lansbury died on October 11 just 5 days shy of her 97th birthday.  What a career, what a life, what a legacy!  She was a Queen in the field of entertainment. She died only a month after Queen Elizabeth II of England.  They were both royal, one by birth, the other by accomplishment and they both proved themselves up to the task of fulfilling their destiny.  It’s a fair comparison because each sat on the throne of power for a very, very long time.  Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years and Angela Lansbury had an active career for 80 years.  They both died at the ripe old age of 96 and were human institutions.  They had a comfortable, grandmotherly nature, obviously from their aged appearance but on a deeper, more substantial level was due to the fact that they have been around ever since most of us were born.  As far as the general public is concerned, they were always in the public eye.  They were stable, secure and you could count on them.  They were the crème de la crème, the tops of the tops and were literally Mother figures to several generations. 
 
ANGELA LANSBURY TRANSITS TO NATAL CHART:  Birth Info:  October 16, 1925, 12:45 am, London
Ms. Lansbury died on October 11 just as we entered eclipse season.  You would expect one of the following eclipses to hit her chart dynamically.  In this case it is the Lunar Eclipse of November 8th at 16° Taurus.  It is in her 10th whole sign house making an opposition to Saturn at 14° Scorpio.  Saturn is the planet that rules the end of time, the end of life, reaching your limit.  Here in the 4th whole sign house it is the “womb to the tomb” and the sign of Scorpio is a literal death or shall we say transition.  The Taurus 10th house placement is the celebration of her legacy, accomplishments, achievements and destiny. 
 
The transiting south node is at 14°31’ Scorpio in partile conjunction to Saturn.  The south node is letting go, releasing and again brings up further Scorpio/4th house symbolism.  Transiting Saturn has been crossing back and forth over the ascendant/descendant axis all year, a major point of action in the chart.  The 7th house is known as a public one and it is the house that sinks below the horizon in the diurnal motion and thus has a symbolic meaning of descending into the depths of the dark night.  Transiting Saturn has also been squaring natal Saturn the past year which must have been hard on her health, or at the very least slowing her down.
 
The upcoming Venus/Sun cazimi at 29° Libra conjuncts Mercury.  In mythology Mercury is summoned to shepherd all souls on their final journey home.  It is flanked by transiting Mercury just entering Libra, conjunct her Moon and sitting on the world axis, a point of connecting to the world stage in a noteworthy way.  Transiting Jupiter tightly opposes the Moon calling her body on a long journey.  The 9th/3rd house axis emphasis long journeys of some kind.  Death is the ultimate long journey of leaving the body.  Dying within days of her birthday ensures that her presence in the news will be guaranteed for a bit longer than usual as we honor her death quickly followed by celebrating her birthday.    
 
Transiting Neptune is sitting on her 8th house Uranus.  This is a generational transit and I suppose reading it in the context of her 8th house would represent death, and the removal of her presence from the collective.  Transiting Pluto has been squaring her Sun (vitality) for a couple of years and is currently tightly squaring Mercury. 
 
PROGRESSIONS
Her progressed Sun has recently (August 2022) ingressed into Aquarius.  Progressions of the Sun into a new sign are always important.  This is doubly so because the Sun rules the first house of the physical body, appearance and image.  This progression signifies a major evolution of her life force.  You could say it is an electrical shock to her spirit as it moves into a brand-new whole sign house (the 7th) and connects with the natal South Node in a partile conjunction.  In Hellenistic astrology the 7th house concerns relationships as well as death (because it’s the last house before sinking below the horizon).   The south node is a release, a letting go and clearing out in a way similar to the transiting nodes conjunct Saturn.   
 
The Progressed Moon at 1° Taurus has just entered the 10th whole sign house of public attention, status, reputation and recognition.  It’s interesting to note the transiting Moon also in Taurus on the day of her death. 
 
Progressed Mercury conjuncts Jupiter and opposes natal Pluto.  She’s born on a Pluto retrograde station, so this progression is emphasizing an already emphasized planet.  This combination being triggered indicates a long journey of a spiritual nature involving death. Mercury here acts as Hermes the Psychopomp, guiding souls to their final resting place. 
 
On closer examination, using the birth time as given, the Solar Eclipse at 2° Scorpio is conjunct her progressed Ascendant at 3° Scorpio.  If we rectify the chart to 12:40 am then the progressed Ascendant is 2°49’ Scorpio, more exact.  An eclipse to the progressed ascendant in Scorpio is a readiness, or preparation in some way for death or transformation to the physical body.  The progressed Moon is opposite this degree at 1.21 Taurus.  The rectified chart also gives us a progressed MC at 14°15’ Leo in partile square to Saturn, another strong indication of adjusting the birth time.  In summation, when rectifying the chart just five minutes earlier the progressed Ascendant lines up quite closely to squaring Saturn while the progressed MC lines up exactly with the Solar Eclipse of 10/25/22 the one in which she is exiting physical form.   
 
NATAL CHART ANALYSIS:  October 16, 1925, 12:45 am, London, England.  Whole Sign Houses. 
Ms. Lansbury was the supreme example of what is called in the entertainment industry the triple threat.  She could act, sing and dance.  Her career spanned eight professionally active decades and at the time of her death, she was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.  She was the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Tony Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, and an honorary Academy Award.  She has been nominated for three Academy Awards, eighteen Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. 
 
She has a Libra stellium involving the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Mar in the third whole sign house.  This is the house of communication, local travel, education and siblings.  In Hellenistic astrology it is also the house of Goddess and Queen because the Moon has her joy in this house.  She is born with a third house Moon, so she benefits greatly by having Luna dignified by house placement.  She has two brothers with whom she is very close.  One became the producer of her hit series MURDER, SHE WROTE while the other became a successful stage and film producer as well.  When they moved to the USA, and she quickly became a successful actress in Hollywood she supported her mother and brothers.  Those third house placements make her an excellent communicator and endlessly curious about life.  With dispositor Venus in Sagittarius in the 5th she brings those talents to the house of creative self-expression, acting, fun, pleasure and theater.  Venus has her joy in the 5th house so she, like the Moon, is dignified by house.  The Sagittarius part of the equation finds acting success in a foreign country.  Another indication of foreign connections is a Libra stellium in the third (local travel) shooting out energy into the Aries 9th house of foreign countries and travel. 
 
A Leo ascendant is perfect for an actor because they enjoy being in the limelight.  It emphasizes the third house Sun making it even stronger because Leo is the ascendant ruler.  She really wants to shine her star power through the Libra third house placements carried into the 5th via Venus.  Though the Sun is in fall, it is somewhat mitigated by having its dispositor Venus powerfully placed in the 5th.  Neptune is tightly conjunct a Leo Ascendant.  This bestows the ability to adapt her personality and appearance like a chameleon.  She has a natural ability to play many varied and different characters. Having Neptune rising is great for helping to get lost into other worlds, particularly the imagination.  She is quoted as saying, “I became a self-professed complete movie maniac, visiting the cinema regularly and imagining myself as certain characters.”  Neptune has a close affiliation with movies and glamour.  It also makes her blind to certain things.  For instance, she married first husband Richard Cromwell in 1945.  He was 16 years her senior.  She didn’t realize at the time that he was gay.  They divorced in 1946. 
 
She’s also born on a New Moon which gives the native the ability to make new starts and beginnings.  It supplies a very action-oriented flavor to the Libran ability to partner, appreciate beauty and communicate with others.  I have always found new moon babies to be dynamic and full of lots of energy and curious to get things started.  It adds an extra dose of cardinality to an already cardinal stellium.  Katharine Hepburn is another example of an actor born on a new moon.  
 
Mars in the third co-present with the other planets suggests an ability to be an iron fist in the velvet glove when she must fight or assert herself especially when communicating with others.  She’s not retiring or shy.  I imagine she’s an excellent debater.  Mars is in debility so she may have a hard time asserting herself without a long hard deliberation in her own mind about what she wants to say and how to say it fairly.  She can lose spur of the moment action because of too much deliberation when Mars would prefer to just jump right in.  Mars is the focal planet of a cardinal t-square involving Pluto and Jupiter.  Mars/Pluto combinations can be ruthless but Jupiter would soften it to be more about asserting her will through awareness of the other. 
 
A Scorpio Saturn in the 4th house has her experience the early death of her father in 1934 when she was 9.  Shortly after the grandfather died, the blitz came to London and Angela’s mother move herself and her children to the United States.  The Saturn forces an early sense of responsibility and maturity having to deal with challenging fourth house matters such as deaths of paternal figures, loss of money and moving away from one’s homeland to a foreign country.  She became the breadwinner of her family at a very young age. 
 
A Taurus MC puts ruler Venus in the house of its joy.  The career is focused on acting, creativity, the arts, pleasure, joy, fun and being childlike.  There is a reason it’s called the house of good fortune and it’s where Venus rejoices.  It’s very important to note that Venus is the benefic of sect so she is strengthened and has even further power.  Mars is the malefic of sect so it helps mitigate some of his more negative Libra traits. 
 
She is born on the retrograde station of Pluto so this planet in her 12th house has greater influence than one might think at first glance.  Being born on a station gives that planet extra emphasis and power and with Pluto that can be nuclear.  She connects on a very deep level to the collective unconscious.  Though she has all the charm and sweetness indicative of the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Mars in Libra, underneath she is a woman of great regenerative power and passion.  She rebirthed her career three times in film, stage and television and achieved amazing influence, stature and money in all.  The saving grace in keeping that Pluto tipped on the right side of power is the tight opposition of Jupiter which provides luck, grace, awareness, understanding, meaning, and support especially through her 6th house work.  Jupiter brings out Pluto’s more positive attributes of passion, influence, persuasion, trust, regenerative abilities and the light-oriented aspects of power to do great good for the collective rather than great harm. 
 
FURTHER BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
She moved to the United States from England in 1940 with her mother, Irish actress Moyna Macgill, and two brothers to study acting in New York.  She proceeded to Hollywood and was quickly signed to a contract at MGM where George Cukor shrewdly cast the 17-year-old as the scene stealing, conniving cockney maid in GASLIGHT starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.  She was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar.  She followed this up the next year with another nomination for her heartbreaking performance in THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.  With two nominations in quick succession for two completely diverse characters she was proving her talent. What followed for the next 7 years at MGM were a series of supporting roles in varying degrees of quality.  She did get to use her musical talents in films like THE HARVEY GIRLS (although her singing was dubbed) where she tortured poor Judy Garland and TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY where she sang in her own voice.  She played Elizabeth Taylor’s older sister in NATIONAL VELVET.  She had glamorous roles in THE THREE MUSKETEERS and Cecil B. DeMille’s epic SAMSON AND DELILAH but by the early 1950s Hollywood lost interest because they couldn’t figure out what to do with her.  She was always playing older than her age, sometimes by more than 20 years.  From the very beginning there was always a maturity about her, and while beautiful, was not the classic glamour queen.  She was primarily a character actress. 
 
In the 1950s she continued working in film, if unremarkably, did some television and stage work.  She also became a mother having married Peter Shaw in 1947, a marriage that lasted 54 years.  Her film career picked up in the early 1960s with wonderful performances in films of quality such as ALL FALL DOWN, THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.  In the latter she memorably portrayed one of the most malevolent mothers ever to appear on screen.  She received her third Oscar nomination.  Good supporting roles continued in films throughout the 1960s. 
 
Then something quite miraculous happened.  Through a series of synchronistic and well-timed circumstances she somehow, amidst lots of competition, was cast in the musical MAME with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and based upon Patrick Dennis book Auntie Mame.  It already had two previous incarnations as a very successful straight play and film.   It was a smash hit on Broadway, and she was the toast of the town for two years receiving her first Tony Award.  This role transformed her into a glamorous and vibrant musical comedy star which is something she had always dreamed of becoming.  This newfound success gave her a second career as a great star actress of Broadway with successes in the coming decades such as DEAR WORLD. GYPSY, SWEENEY TODD and many others.  She also had great success as a Disney musical star in BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.
 
The third major career transformation occurred when she signed for the television series MURDER SHE WROTE in 1983 and the rest is history.  It ran for 12 years and garnered a slew of Emmy nominations.  It is perhaps the one thing for which she is most famous, having been responsible in making her even more popular and successful than ever.  Greater power came her way and its huge success exposed her to a new generation, enhanced her reputation with the older generation, and gave her wider audience recognition, something that the stage and film could never do in such a massive way.   It also earned her a fortune and she used this success to catapult herself into many other projects until the day she died.  She is that rare performer that never stopped growing and became more popular and active as she aged.  Thank you for being a Queen and a Goddess! 

​Saturday, October 8.  “Fasten Your Seatbelts it's Going to be a Bumpy Night” is a famous line delivered with gusto by the inimitable Bette Davis from the 1950 classic film ALL ABOUT EVE.  It’s an apt quote for the upcoming astrology as this weekend’s Full Moon at 17° Aries ushers in the eclipse season along with today’s massively important direct station of Pluto at 26°06’ of Capricorn.  The Full Moon is ruled by Mars in Gemini slowing down getting ready for a very long retrograde through January 12 and the upcoming Solar Eclipse at 2° Scorpio is also ruled by Mars thereby doubly emphasizes the warrior planet’s current and future influence over the next six months.  Many of us are already aware to some extent of the quagmire that will absorb us through the rest of the year into early 2023.   
 
The Pluto station this weekend, emotionally heightened by an Aries Full Moon, unleashes intense energy from the underworld.  Passion and Power are key words.  The sword of power can swing two ways. There’s an eruptive quality to the weekend as important matters, both good and bad, come to light. You may be dealing with issues surrounding compulsions, addictions, obsessions, manipulations, money, control, triangularized relationships and trust.  The blessing of this full moon is that Jupiter and Venus play major roles by lending their benefic touch to what comes to light.  This is a gateway full moon so Jupiter/Venus can offer meaning, explanations, love and compassion to understand the forces at work that will dominate the weekend.  Enjoy any fun and good news the weekend brings because things will only heat up as the month progresses.  The looming intensity of the next six months may be a different matter altogether. 
 
Plutonian power forges evolutionary change but it can be used appropriately and inappropriately, consciously and unconsciously and we often don’t have much control over how things play out, although sometimes we do.  The complex combination of the power dynamics makes a difference in the degree of intensity in how these evolutionary changes are experienced.   We all are about to gain consciousness on our karmic patterns as they’re brought to the surface.  Certain underlying habitual patterns can be changed and altered, others we learn to accept and live with, while still others will be ripped apart from us in ways beyond our control.  The level of pain and suffering when Pluto is involved is extremely dependent on how each individual deals with deep rooted issues of death, transformation, destruction and eventual rebirth that comes after a period of annihilation.  I know these are extreme words but we are living in extreme and polarizing times and Pluto in its current position in the zodiac and in the natal chart of the USA is about to separate the men from the boys and the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.  People, places, things, concepts, ideas, countries, institutions, structures and almost anything else that forms the basis of our material world is being uprooted, purged and reshaped. 
 
The dark and often frightening underworld of our psychological complexes as well as the physical and material underworld of our life structures are being rocked in evolutionary ways that will change things forever in the upcoming months and years.  Pluto is at the last degrees of Capricorn before entering a brand new sign, Aquarius, on March 23, 2023.  The energetic difference between Capricorn and Aquarius is like being caught between two worlds; the future of the living and the past of the dead.  The questions being asked are what of the past will remain and in what form vs. what will die and be annihilated.   Will you have the power and will to survive the continued evolutionary onslaught?  Pluto leaving Capricorn signals a final blow of death and destruction of those structures and institutions that no longer can stand the test of time.  This is true in our personal lives as well as on the world stage.  The shift of energy is reminiscent of the Titanic on her last voyage.  The seemingly invincible institutions and structures that have been the bedrock of our world and have been upheld for hundreds and hundreds of years continue to be questioned as many sink into the dark, deep ocean after having been hit by an iceberg.  Not all of them, just those that are rotting and decaying from the inside out and can no longer survive in their current form.
 
Mars retrograde demands re-thinking things and taking action by returning and reviewing the past to collect more information and facts about what needs to stay and what needs to go. We must re-think action before steering on a new course in 2023.  Mars is digging deep into the depths of our unconscious.  Mars rejoices in the 6th house for that is a place of servitude, hard work and effort.  In Hellenistic astrology it is the house of bad fortune.  In the diurnal motion it is the first house to sink below the Earth’s surface.  It has to excavate with the diligence of a ditch digger into the muck and mire and do the dirty work necessary before it can get to the gold that lies deeply beneath mother earth’s surface in the 5th house of good fortune.  It takes courage and bravery to go into the depths of the earth.  Many a hero in ancient mythology takes a journey into the underworld to fight dragons and demons in order to return to the light wiser, greater and stronger.  Descending into the depths is dark, dank, without light and it is where undesirable things are banished, buried and hidden.  It takes a God like Mars to have the guts to face the unforeseen monsters both real and imaginary and slay the demons and return rebirthed and glorified after winning the battle.  
 
The USA is experiencing its Pluto return from 2021 through 2023 along with its ingress into Aquarius the sign of politics, democracy, technology and freedom.  A Pluto return occurs approximately every 248 years.  In 1776 we had the birth of our nation after the Revolutionary War.  On the Pluto return we are being rebirthed.  For the last decade while Pluto has been in Capricorn reaping the USA has been reaping its karma of the past 248 years.   Everything bubbling up in a volcanic eruption since 2008 has revealed the ramifications of the most unsavory actions from our past.  It’s time to become mature about that which we have buried and left unprocessed   Staring the bogey man in the face is never easy.  Read the headlines.  We can see there are gravely deep powers at force spewing to the surface forging tectonic shifts.  Let’s see just what form the revolution takes.  Let’s see what Pluto destroys when it ingresses into Aquarius before it heals and rebirths. 
 
For two and half years Saturn has shown us the cracks in the sign of Aquarius.   Pluto will be the final death knell, flushing and evacuation of our Capricorn institutions before an eventual regenerative healing into the future Aquarian new age.  We have seen the amazing light into the future with incredible technological advances but along with that we have to deal with the misuse and abuse of power.  Pluto entering Aquarius in its initial stages over the next few years will be a further analysis and destruction of technology, political principals and continued global humanitarian crises.  Eventually there will be a reconstruction when a new template is created as the phoenix eventually rise from the ashes.     
 

​Wednesday, June 22.  The Sun entered Cancer yesterday and Venus enters Gemini today.  The Sun is so important because it’s the spirit of life and vitality that centers us to engage in life in ways that make us experience the joy of being alive on planet Earth.  Venus is the emissary of the Sun and it’s her job to go forth and use money to experience value and pleasure through daily interactions with others.  Venus is also about demonstrating love and affection through a give and take of energy via interpersonal relationships. 
 
This is an adjacent sign combination.  Cancer emphasizes experiencing our longer summer days by finding joy through personal familial bonds and feelings.  We want to experience more time with family during this time of year and more than likely spend less time working.  We work in order to have more time to have with family and friends and this is the time of year we can be in a bathysphere exploring those connections.  Barbeques, parties, and lots of home entertainment as well as hanging out by the pool or shore. 
 
Venus in Gemini wants and desires to communicate, connect, travel and be personally very social.  This can take the form of more frequent yet shorter times spent with friends, cousins, brothers and sisters.  Each day can bring a variety of experiences with different groups of friends.  You can mix and match or keep certain communities separate from others as long as you spread the wealth.  Venus in this sign likes to catch up on the gossip and the dirt.  Generally this is harmless unless of course Mercury is in a nefarious position.  This year Mercury is also in Gemini so there will be a tendency to chatter and converse fourfold.  Enjoy this very social combination this week especially in the Gay and Queer communities in NYC as Gay Pride is in full swing. 
 
I would be more aware of negative kinds of gossip when Mercury squares Neptune closely around July 1, 2 and 3 leading up to 4th of July plans.  That may also indicate confusion around plans and some possible lying to avoid certain situations.   
 

We have a busy weekend ahead of us with three major astrological influences occurring simultaneously that must be fused and synthesized, even if they provide us with contradictory messages.  On Friday,  June 3 Mercury turns direct at 26° Taurus and will now retrace its steps forward up to 5° Gemini where she started her retrograde on May 10.  Those with planets between 28° of the fixed signs and 5° of the mutables will notice that certain topics that have been in review since late April will now start to clear up and move forward after a long period of challenge. 

On Saturday, June 4 Saturn turns retrograde at 25° Aquarius and starts a 5 month retreat back to 18° Aquarius.  Saturn will urge a review and restructuring in those areas of life that need further fixing, building and fortifying one last time in order to bring that area of life into full functioning in the material world. 
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The combination of these two planets will have an effect on each other.  While Mercury wants to start to pick up speed this weekend, Saturn is moving extremely slowly for the next month as he acclimates to his retrograde.  Therefore, Saturn will have a very strong effect this weekend in whatever you’re doing.  It will keep things in a continued slow down process.  There shouldn’t be a total stall, but the energy will promote continued caution regarding the recent month’s events as exacerbated by the Mercury retrograde in conjunction with May’s eclipses.  So while eclipse energy is winding down, the combination of Mercury turning direct together with retrograde Saturn will continue to make the first half of June feel slightly slower as if the eclipses are still highly sensitized. 

For instance,  my Mom became ill and was hospitalized in late April.  She has been in rehab for four weeks and will be released to come home over this weekend.  It will continue to be a slow process of rehabilitation to get her up and walking and independent.  A new set of problems will now present itself as the retrograde Saturn will signify a return home and 5 months of in-house rehab.  If she does the work required over the next five months then we shall see where she stands by late October on the next set of eclipses and the direct station of Saturn on October 23. 

This kind of energy will be happening to most everyone in some area of life.  For some, the slow down can bring forth great production through steady building, while for other there may be more oppressive types of forces at large.  Saturn retrograde will help you to fortify your life from within.  Work on your infrastructure until October 23.  

We are smack in the middle of eclipse season.  This one covers the sign polarity of Taurus/Scorpio.  Whatever houses have those two signs on the cusp will be areas of life where you will have a more powerful and disruptive energy than usual and where you may have more fated types of life events surrounding beginnings and endings.  In general, a Solar Eclipse plants seeds for new beginnings that will grow over the next 6 months and the lunar eclipse culminates recent events bringing them to some sort of conclusion or next stage. 

These eclipses have an extra special type of potency due to other concurrent planetary movements.  Let’s just outline the basic facts:  The Solar Eclipse occurred on April 30, 2022, at 10° Taurus 28’ within a 3° orb of conjunction to transiting Uranus.  The Lunar Eclipse will occur on May 16, 2022, at 25° Scorpio 18’ in very tight square to transiting Saturn.  Even though transiting Saturn and Uranus are no longer in a tight square they are still in square signs and this eclipse will reemphasize and exacerbate all the meaning of the Saturn/Uranus recent exact squares of 2/17/21, 6/14/21 and 12/24/21.  The ever-evolving story between the struggle to learn and incorporate lessons of balancing the old with the new will continue.  Your personal life lessons, as well as those in the collective zeitgeist, that started at the top of 2020 will ratchet up to the next evolutionary level.  Continue to observe unstable world events, social movements and revolutionary energy pile up since the perfections of those squares. 

The other major planetary influences during this eclipse season is a Mercury retrograde from May 10 through June 3 that starts at 5° Gemini and retrogrades back to 26° Taurus and Jupiter’s ingress into Aries on May 10.   

Nothing happens in a vacuum in life or in astrology.  It’s all about synthesis of conflicting energies and when you live long enough you come to understand that many things are happening all at once that need to be fused.  Life is about connecting the dots.  While a solar eclipse in tandem with Jupiter entering Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, suggests new beginnings, start-ups and leaping into action like a ram battering through a wall, Mercury retrograde adds more complexity to the situation.  Jupiter in Aries gives the confidence and vision in some area of life to move forward towards a new adventure and journey of understating and self-discovery that revitalizes our spirit.   The trickster says there’s a three week period of reviewing, re-analyzing, reconsidering and double checking our plans to make sure everything is in order.  Mercury says let’s not move that fast because in our haste we may overlook some important information that can trip us up if we’re not careful.  There is further research, information and fact finding before moving full speed ahead.  If we are not careful we will miss some heretofore hidden invaluable piece of the puzzle that must reach our ears in order to move forward with something that adds even greater substance, security and value to our lives.  A practical example of this would be that you’re all set to launch a new website - it’s designed, ready, looks good and you want to get your product out there and start making money.  All things being equal, my advice would be to have the web designer review the site with you and pick through it with a fine-toothed comb to make any last minute tweaks and modifications because you’ll catch something that will improve the website and benefit you in the long run. 

The awareness of a Scorpio lunar eclipse squaring Saturn forces us to face the deeper evolutionary power of the cycle of time and foreshadows death of some kind. This can show up physically, emotionally, mentally or psychologically.  There is an illumination that something must come to an end in a very final and concrete way.  The transition will eventually lead to a rebirth but not before some screaming, yelling, pain and suffering.  Some folks deal with this type of energy better than others.  Much of that depends on natal planetary configurations along with how current transits and progressions align with the natal chart. 

The Taurus/Scorpio polarity is about what makes life richer, deeper, more valuable and enriching.   It is the substance that lies beneath the surface, hidden talents, hidden powers.   It deals issues of intimacy, trust, exchanges of money, power, ownership, privacy, taboos and all things sexual.  What does sex mean to you?  What negotiations and exchanges do you make to acquire sexual and emotional intimacy?  Do you pay for sex like a John for a prostitute?  We all do in one form or another, but society finds some forms of exchange more socially acceptable than others.  What do you bring to the table vs. your partner?  How much are you willing to pay for emotional and sexual intimacy?  And when the tables turn and the sex, love and intimacy dies how much are you willing to give back in restitution and retribution?  What is that old life worth in order to extricate yourself from attachments that no longer hold the same value?   That is what divorce is all about whether you divorce yourself from a spouse, cherished friend, loved one, job or company.  You see it very clearly in marital splits when the settlement must be made in terms of cash, property, assets and possessions.  It also happens when there’s the death of a job, career or loved one. 

This eclipse season also has the potential to force people to deal with all types of addictions, jealousies and obsessions.   Those things that we hold on to for dear life because they are habitual and feel good even if they are killing us!
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Reconsider things very deeply and with more psychological awareness this eclipse season before making those new beginnings.  The snake is still in the process of shedding its skin. 
 

Tonight, into tomorrow Mars and Venus, the archetypal lovers, conjoin at 0° Aquarius. These two planets have been traveling closely together for the past month in the sign of Capricorn having had an exact conjunction on February 16.

The Capricorn pile up recently has seen a tremendous amount of break down, break up and purging of structures that have reached their limit in terms of productivity on a personal and collective level. Zero degrees Aquarius is the birth of something new and hopeful for the future. There are new horizons to explore full of innovation, unknown technological advancement and intellectual enlightenment.

From the Venusian perspective this conjunction has a great deal to do with money, values and relationships while Mars supplies courage, assertion, ambition for work productivity along with the energy and drive to get what you want. In simplistic terms Venus represents what we want in terms of earthly pleasure, goals and delight and Mars represents how we go about getting what we want on the Earth planet. This combination of energies is very much associated with creative work and projects as well as marriage, sex and partnerships of all kinds that require some sort of intimacy or collaboration. The love planets in Aquarius have a democratic touch and there is the desire in this sign for freedom, equality and personal liberty.

Our deeply held system of values is in the process of changing and evolving. Aquarius is forward thinking and always looks towards the future as it thrives to attain a more utopian reality if possible. Aquarius asks, what are the possibilities for a brighter future, and what new discoveries can be made to fee us from shackles, chains and bondage? The negative side of Aquarius is rigid, group mentality thinking. The kind of thinking that says if you don’t believe what I believe then I will eject you from the group and ostracize you until you bend to the group thinking. It’s a rigid and fixed sign and at its worst can divorce, separate, castrate and behead. At its best it enlightens and brings the promethean procreative energy that is divinely inspired from the Gods and Goddesses. Everything happens in a polarity, and you’ll see both types of energies playing out on the world stage as well as in your personal life. What side will you take, and what team will you play on? Will you follow the mass mentality, or will you follow your own voice regardless of the pressures put on you? For most of us it will be a mixed answer.

It’s extremely important when planets cross the 0° Aquarius point as trigger points for events. This is because Jupiter and Saturn conjoined at this point on 12/21/20; the time the Covid Vaccine was introduced. This point represents a great deal about our hope for the future as well as starting a new 20 year global and national economic cycle. Therefore, whenever other planets hit this sensitive degree, it will further enlighten and enhance what this story represents in your life as well as the world based on the seeds planted in late 2020.
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We will have to watch with great awareness what happens when Pluto crosses this degree for the first time on March 23, 2023. That can be an extremely problematic and eruptive time in the world. Pluto not only will be crossing this sensitive degree, but he’ll be leaving Capricorn. Whenever Pluto enters a new sign there are major evolutionary changes in the world based upon what that sign represents. That first year of the ingress announces what the major themes will be in a problematic and chaotic way. The political and technological world will be hit hard along with other Aquarian themes such as friendship, democracy, humanitarianism and how we as a people monitor our surveillance activities. Vladimir Putin has just invaded Ukraine and Pluto entering Aquarius can be very disruptive in transforming the current structures and creating a new world order. I’m not sure how this will all play out but don’t forget that Aquarius is the sign of revolutions motivated by making infrastructure shifts in political systems. Communism, Capitalism, Fascism and Plutocracy are the flip sides of the same coin.

It’s important to track these changes carefully in your own personal life. Reflect back to late December 2020 leading into early 2021 as Saturn/Jupiter set the stage at 0° Aquarius, pay attention right now and the coming days and week as Mar/Venus cross the degree and then most importantly when Pluto, lord of darkness and intense, eruptive, volcanic transformation reaches that degree in March 2023. You can also track the monthly movement of the Moon as she passes through the sign of Aquarius to see how that affects your mood.

For the present try to tap into the creative possibilities and enlightenment of the Venus/Mars conjunction. It’s a great time to launch new projects, make new connections and form new partnerships. Break out of old ruts and into something exciting, new and innovative.

Friday, January 28.  Friday belongs to Venus so it’s propitious to talk about this planet once again as it is stationing direct tomorrow at 11° Capricorn.  Just because the planet of love, marriage, partnership, money, values, pleasure, art, beauty, peace, harmony and social connection is moving forward tomorrow does not mean everything will suddenly be hunky dory in whatever area of life Venus has been doing a major overhaul and transformation.  This overhaul and transformation that has been occurring for everyone in varying degrees since mid-November of 2021 is still in a transformative process.  The final reckoning (whether good, bad or indifferent) won’t be until she crosses paths with Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, for the last time of this retrograde period on March 3.  That’s also around the time she’ll join forces with her astrological lover Mars to from a new partnership and beginning. 

​Therefore, you can expect another month of hard work and labor in making the necessary structural changes to the Venus in Capricorn areas of your life.  There remains a continuation in the process of terminating old contracts and beginning new ones.  That may also be a time when you receive a payoff of some kind. 

Remember you’re still confronting the past in order to learn from it and resolve issues.  Many are confronting exes of all kinds: ex-lovers, ex-financial issues, ex-friends, ex-partners, ex-creative projects, ex-pleasures.  I think you get the idea.  There are many people and situations dying both literally and psychologically.  The confrontation with the past is to learn lessons from it, reincorporate it and move forward.  Some of the confrontations and lessons are painful but all of them are there gain some wisdom and move on with life and living. 

March will be a forward movement but slowly and cautiously.  Venus may be finished with Pluto at that point but from March 3 through March 30 she will be besieged by Mars and Saturn, the two malefics who will do everything in their power to block Venus from achieving her goals.  Mars and Saturn will say to Venus, “You may have discovered a new way to express your Venusian ideals but are you ready to do the necessary hard work and labor in the material world to manifest the new image of love, money, values, art, relationship and pleasure?  You can’t be a lazy ass bitch and expect to be spoiled and pampered by others.  You must toughen up be willing to struggle, assert ambition with a plan and be able to fight hard and long for what you want and know when to compromise and when not to compromise.”  Venus wants what she wants when she wants it, but Mars and Saturn will not allow that.  They will force her to toe the line, but the tricky question is, will your Venus buckle under the pressure or shape up and grow a tougher outer layer of skin? 

An example of how to work with this process on more detailed level would be someone with the retrograde Venus in Capricorn in the third house.  The restructuring and transformational process may have to do with a relationship with a sibling.  It also may pertain to a writing project from the past that comes back into your life in order to pick up where you left off.  It can also have to do with teaching and education.  Perhaps the way you deal with local commuting due to the change in status of a relationship with a loved one like an ailing mother whom you love that requires you to visit more via the use of train, car or other local transportation. 

Astrology is a complex and yet simple tool to unravel meaning.  You just have to know what the meanings of the planets, signs and houses are.  

The Moon enters Gemini after a void that lasts from 11:08 am till 3:43 pm ET. The best times to accomplish things are either before or after the void. Once the Moon enters Gemini it will build towards the full moon culminating on Saturday, December 18 at 11:36 pm. For the next two days and through the weekend watch the information that comes to light. This information is tying up the recent eclipses and may reveal important facts that you've been waiting to receive. Answers may be just around the corner even if they're not necessarily the ones you want to hear. This is the time to hear what you need to hear in order to have the full story.

The eclipse energy formally comes to some sort of conclusion but like life itself there is much more going on in the cosmos, so while you may get some answers to an important issue that has been hounding you, the upcoming Venus retrograde as well as a final square between Saturn and Uranus continue to force us to solve other problems. After all part of the joy of living is old doors closing and new ones opening.
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Chiron is slowing down and about to turn direct on Sunday, December 19th, the same day as Venus turns retrograde. This adds to healing certain health issues and chronic problems. Covid levels have spiked up and if you're one of those that have caught it recently the station of Chiron turning direct should help in the healing process. For everyone there should be something in your life of a chronic sort whether psychological, physical, emotional or spiritual that can find forward momentum towards healing. It's time to do more than just put another band aid on an old festering wound. How about a new vision and tackling the problem with more courage and a warrior spirit?