FULL MOON TAURUS 11/4/17 Cost-Benefit Analysis or The Pleasure Principle

A Bacchanal by Sebastiano Ricci

I have two titles because, honestly, who’s going to read an astrology article with a title that reads like the heading of a financial statement. Bo-ring! However, this full moon is anything but dull. In fact it’s quite yummy. If you have the chance to enjoy good food, drink, music, art, sex, dancing, or shopping for luxury goods this weekend could not be better. AND it’s a good time to do a CBA…

But because we’re talking about a full moon in Taurus opposite the sun in Scorpio we are talking about assets and investments of the financial, energetic, and sexual kind primarily. We are talking about the circulation of resources. We are talking about giving up to gain. And because Taurus is the star of the show we’re also talking about the pleasure principle.

Luxe. Luxury. Luxuriate. Luxurious. Luxuriant. What do these words mean to you? Expensive? Of the highest quality? Waste? Excess? Abundance? Obscenity? Extravagance? Comfort?

The thing about Taurus and luxury is that it can go all of these ways at different times for different people. This full moon is one to bask in. It supports slowing down so you can feel every inch of your body, and just BE in it. Right now. In a “right now” that stretches out across the bed, the floor, the tub, the couch. A “right now” that stretches time. Free from any goal, expectation or story about what it means or should mean…

Wait wait wait! Who has time for this?! Must be nice to have no job, family, social obligations, personal goals, professional obligations, deadlines, and an endless supply of resources to do all of this unbound feeling with no productivity!

Which brings us back to the questions that Taurus asks: “what is it to be luxurious?” and “why do we need it?”  Because we DO need it.

Ironically, when we float into luxurious places of pleasure we sometimes chastise ourselves for wasting time and for squandering finite resources. But it takes these moments of sensuality to tune into to what is essential to our being. It takes these moments of being to tune into exactly what we need to be fed. No more. No less. Just what's needed. And when we take this time we often realize how little we need because we give ourselves the chance to actually experience what we have with appreciation; explore it in its totality. Every corner, every facet. This is how we come to know what we value. When we’re clear on our values—feel them in our bones—it’s easy to let go and open ourselves up to loss, which paradoxically is the only way to open ourselves up to gain.

Which brings us to this moon’s relationship with the current Scorpio sun. We can’t talk about the moon or Taurus without talking about feeding; which is what occurs at every full moon. The sun feeds the moon light.  Put another way, the conscious/ego/personality (sun) shines a light on the unconscious emotional body (moon). The Scorpio sun is shining an unsparing light on what you have. Now is the time to feel, taste, and place value on what you have, linger there, and own it. Even when we are at are most depleted we always possess SOMETHING. Even if it’s just the fact that we’re still alive. If you’re down to your last bit of something, now is the time to take full ownership of that something and move through the world as someone who is resource-full.

When we feel pleasure with our senses and are in full possession of what we have we are able to withstand the stories about having-not, and the illusions that there is not enough. These fear stories, and scarcity illusions keep us moving through the world in a state of hunger and lack when the luxurious truth is we have everything we need. The question is do we value it? Careful with that question. Sometimes Taurus mistakes hoarding for valuing. On its worst days Taurus can hold on so tight to what makes it comfortable and what’s pleasing that it stagnates. Comfort turns into inertia and it can’t get off the couch. That's not valuing, it's clinging and laziness. I always characterize laziness as fear's favorite costume. 

Venus, the ruler of this full moon exactly opposes Uranus at this time. Uranus also opposed the last Libra new moon. Expect a continuation of themes involving new ways to do relationship and new insights into what we value. Some of these may be extremely novel or unexpected. Uranus aims to shock us out of outmoded ways of dealing with each other and ourselves.

What’s right beneath your nose, in plain sight? What can you feel with your skin? That’s real. Taurus is not a sign of ideas, intuition, or emotion. If you can touch it, count it as yours, and don’t take it for granted…another reason we sometimes feel hungry when we’re not is that we don’t RECOGNIZE something as valuable and care for it appropriately.

If Taurus is what we have and hold, the sun across the way in Scorpio is what we need from others and the price of that. Letting go of some of what we have in an exchange is needed if we are to change and and grow. When we perpetually live with our eyes on some prize that's not yet in our grasp we can enter a state of perpetual need where we never feel like we have enough and therefore are overly afraid of loss.

Use this full moon to revel in and care for all you have so you can happily give yourself away in the name movement, change, growth and gain.

10/10/17 Jupiter ingress Scorpio. All Dark Corners Illuminated

(I know I’m supposed to write about the new moon in Libra, but I think this is way more important. AND I’ve written about Libra/Aries oppositions at least 3 times this year AND that’s what we have in store at this new moon: Libra opposite Uranus in Aries. Yes. We are still dancing to this song. You can check the other posts out here and here and here. They are still relevant!)

Imagine. You are lying in bed trying to get some sleep, but a rotten smell is becoming ever more pungent as the days progress. You kind of know that it’s coming from underneath the bed. You even have a vague inkling of what might be so stinky. The unpleasant odor you hoped was a figment of your imagination has ripened into a full-blown stench and you can’t ignore it anymore. 

Thing is, you haven’t looked under the bed in ages. You think, “maybe I can plug in the vacuum cleaner and stick the nozzle under there and just suck everything up. I won’t have to deal with anything gross…it’ll be fast.” But then, you remember that you also hid some valuables under there, and you don’t remember exactly where.

You come to the daunting conclusion that you’re going to have to get on your hands and knees with a high-powered flashlight and sift through all of the sticky, dust covered stuff and actually inspect it. Take a good hard look and identify treasure from trash if you want have a good night’s sleep again.

Either that or have that extra drink/cigarette/toke/snack/10 more minutes of internet/TV-zone out time; increase those behaviors as stench increases…

Jupiter ingressed Scorpio last week.

Jupiter is the flashlight, the treasure hunt and the knowledge that’s found on the expedition. Scorpio is everything we keep under the bed and whatever grows in the dark.

We get a year of Jupiter in Scorpio and that’s a BIG FAT FUCKING DEAL.

BIG- Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It expands everything it touches and illuminates our minds. It rules the signs of Sagittarius and Pisces. Jupiter is always trying to make our world bigger though international travel, higher education, philosophy, and the spiritual.  Jupiter is also the planet of largesse and leisure. Too much is never enough especially when it involves a good time or broadcasting their moral and ethical “truths” far and wide. Unchecked, all that, ahem, generosity can turn into laziness, sloth, and overly subjective judgment.

FAT- When Jupiter energy is balanced we have abundance, luck, and supported expansion. We’re living large in life’s voluptuous bounty. When Jupiter energy is not balanced we have excess, waste, and a scattered and squandered dispersal of resources and energy.

FUCKING- Scorpio is about fucking. Okay, I’ll elaborate. Scorpio is about the merging of bodies, emotions, psyches, and resources in the name of destroying the boundaries that keep things and people separate. But, IDEALLY it is destruction as the supreme act of creation. Usually all that merging and destruction churns up a lot of uncomfortable feelings. Scorpio rules all of the ways we deal (therapy, research, psychology, surgery), or do not deal (addiction/abuse in ALL its forms) with pain and intensity.

DEAL- All arrangements between 2 or more people involve the distribution of power and control. Scorpio is all about who has it, wants it, surrenders it, and how it moves. In the preceding sign of Libra we draw up all of our 50/50 contracts with the best of intentions. When we move on to Scorpio shit gets real, and it’s about the parts of the deal that can’t be quantified. Scorpio does everything in the dark and it is never balanced. When we get into bed with people (sexually, financially, artistically, professionally) it is never 50/50.  Someone always has at little more power, a little more  to lose…and it always shifts, and it’s totally fine. It’s not fine when the one in power abuses it.

I’m actually pretty excited about this shift. Jupiter did its best in Libra the past 12/13 months but was challenged by Uranus in Aries every step of the way. Jupiter’s tenure in Scorpio looks pretty supported the whole way through. For those of us who’ve been cleaning under the bed on a fairly regular basis, we’re going to get easy and totally not scary access to some hidden treasure with Jupiter’s help. Anyone who’s been trying to heal, research, refine, uncover truth, feel/understand deeply, and amass power in a responsible way might be in for a super sexy and intensely gratifying 12-month stretch.

Those of us who’ve swept so many things under the rug that you have to climb up and over it because it will no longer lay flat…um, life could get challenging. It’s going to be really hard to keep secrets. And let’s be clear, secrets are different from privacy. Scorpio looooooves its privacy, and everyone is entitled to theirs. But, a secret is different in that it is usually kept with the intention to deceive (this includes lies of omission). And why do people feel like they need to deceive? Usually to feel powerful…because they actually are powerless. This is Scorpio’s domain, its playground, its school. We are going to get a master class in power dynamics over the next 12 months on a global scale and in our most intimate relationships with other people and ourselves.

All dark corners will be illuminated. For better or worse.

Full Moon Aries 10/5/17 Achin' To Be

Masculin Feminin by Godard

Basically, how I see this week into next: Mars and Venus in endless conversation with Mercury rolling its eyes in the corner, playing referee, devil's advocate, and color commentator by turns.

Oppositions abound! What does this mean? Tension? Attraction? War? YES! Am I shouting?! Sorry. We have a full moon in Aries to contend with.

Aries explodes onto the scene then makes a sudden departure. No announcement. No fanfare. It is pure action. It is immediate and impulsive. The eternal infant of the zodiac it never outgrows its direct line to its desires. Aries always finds ways to be born. If there are obstacles to its desires or anything that might thwart their need for rebirth it will be seen as an opponent. Or, it might not be seen at all. If you have nothing to do with what Aries is trying to accomplish, it will simply forget that you’re there and start a war out of pure obliviousness.

No. I do not like the sound of that either given our current political climate.

Aries is where you may feel your aggression, desire, and impatience calling you up. It’s where your trigger finger is going to get itchy and where you’re going to feel ready to floor the gas pedal. If you’ve been making your way down a birth canal of sorts…you’re ready to come out.

This lunation happens all over a stellium (3-4 planets) I have in Aries. And I happen to be doing a full moon reading at a friend’s birthday party on the 5^th. This moon will figure prominently in her Libra solar return chart as it will for all those born the first 2 weeks of October. I may not have much to drink this evening. I may not need to.

All of you out there with planets or sensitive points in the mid-degrees (11-17) of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), KA-POW!! For better or worse, of course. It’s gonna get loud up in here.

 Here’s the Full Moon breakdown (Aries loves bullets):

·      Sun Libra-Moon Aries opposition (aka full moon) square Pluto in Capricorn: Passion, exposure, power struggles, transformation.

·      Mars Venus conjunction in Virgo square Saturn in Sagittarius: A strong urge to start new relationships or new phases in relationships and the urge to create using emotion and physical action— all being frustrated or delayed for their own good. Or you just have to put in a lot of hard work and patience, or display maturity to see any results in these areas.

·      Moon Aries-Mercury Libra opposition: sensitive communications around relationships, or insensitive conflicts surrounding what “I” want.

·      Neptune Pisces quincunx Mercury Libra: over-idealization leading to disappointment, disillusionment, deception, and lack of clarity with communications. Get your facts straight. Tell the truth. Discern what’s real from what you project on others. Extremely important with all the hot impulsiveness flying around.

·      Jupiter Libra-Uranus Aries opposition separating: The larger, big-picture version of the Aries full moon. It’s on its way out but this lunation pulls it back in to highlight the Venus-Mars conversation.

And now for something more lyrical in the style of Libra:

As we can see there is a lot of relating going on here. Venus-ruled Libra always wants to know “what’s going on with us?” Libra has a difficult time answering questions without knowing what it’s in relation to; and whatever it is relating to, the goal will always be the creation of harmony between this and that, you and me.

Harmony is a beautiful thing, except when it’s not.  Like anything, harmony and equanimity can be overdone. When a lovely exterior or one too many compromises are chosen at the expense of addressing uncomfortable, difficult or downright ugly feelings, all that pretty loses its charm.

I don’t love the way this Mars-ruled Aries moon looks (especially square a freshly stationed Pluto- direct motion). I don’t like the look of an emotionally reactive moon in the sign of “the infant” and war, square the planet of power and upheaval. It’s not pretty. I don’t think the Sun/Mercury in Libra is a match for it. Moon in Aries is too fast. But we'd be foolish to think that Libra won’t try to charm, intellectualize, and talk their way into a win. Libra is Venusian and beautiful and all that, but it is still cardinal, it takes action. What will we try to balance with our intelligence, conversation, and desire to make things fair? Will it be enough given the rampant inequity in the world? And if there are grave inequities in our personal lives, those will be felt as well.

I’m hoping by this point you see how the concurrent Mars-Venus in Virgo conjunction has such a strange and sonorous echo for this full moon. Instead of Mars and Venus being opposed, the rulers of Aries and Libra are conjoined in the sign of Virgo. This is sacred sex.  They want to be together and start a new relationship. We have that available to us as well (especially if you have planets in mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces) in the later degrees (18-23). Think back a couple of weeks to what your new moon Virgo intention was; here is your full moon Aries baby.

 ARIES RETOLD

So let’s extinguish the fire of Aries for a moment and reflect on other aspects of Aries at our disposal.

On the other side of that obliviousness is innocence and honesty. Aries usually means well and wants to be courageous. Because it’s so immersed in its own being, it forgets to look around. It doesn’t know how to complicate its pure directive with so many different motives, worldviews, and agendas. It simply aches to be.

Can we all find ways to be brave enough to be naked with our wants, but still try to do relationship with each other and the world? It’ll take guts to get through some of these difficult encounters and conversations. But that’s where Aries shines.

For all you Paul Westerberg fans:

Achin’ To Be

Well she's kind of like an artist
Sittin' on the floor
Never finishes, she abandons
Never shows a soul

And she's kind of like a movie
Everyone rushes to see
And no one understands it
Sittin' in their seats

She opens her mouth to speak and
What comes out's a mystery
Thought about, not understood
She's achin' to be

Well she dances alone in nightclubs
Every other day of the week
People look right through her
Baby doll, check your cheek

And she's kind of like a poet
Who finds it hard to speak
Poems come so slowly
Like the colors down a sheet

She opens her mouth to speak and
What comes out's a mystery
Thought about, not understood
She's achin' to be

I've been achin' for a while now, friend
I've been achin' hard for years

Well she's kind of like an artist
Who uses paints no more
You never show me what you're doing
Never show a soul

Well, I saw one of your pictures
There was nothin' that I could see
If no one's on your canvas
Well, I'm achin' to be

She closes her mouth to speak and
Closes her eyes to see
Thought about an' only loved
She's achin' to be
Just like me

Virgo New Moon. 9/20/17 Critical-Care (Perfection Paradox redux)

Medicine Woman Tarot Deck by Carol Bridges

Where do we draw the line between criticism and care? Or, how about fixing and care?

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard a Virgo-type lament, “how come I’m the only one who cares enough to get it right?!” “Good thing I care so much about_____, otherwise everything would fall apart.”  “I’m only on his/her/their case because I care about their welfare, and they need my help to fix their problem.”

Well, I’d have a shit-ton of nickels.

This new moon brings us not one, not two, but all 3 personal planets (Mars, Venus, Mercury, in addition to the sun-moon conjunction) in Virgo. That’s a lot of analysis, purification, service, work, and, yes, care. This new moon opposes Chiron in Pisces. During this lunation we can think of Chiron as a wound (physical, psychic, emotional) that hasn’t quite healed yet, or maybe a recent incident pulled a scab off and here it is exposed. This is sure to get Virgo’s attention.

Virgo needs to be of service and practical use in the world. It needs to create systems of high efficiency for the utmost quality, free from filler. Where it senses illness it aims to restore health…and no one is better at this. When Virgo goes off the rails, due to an imbalance (like the 5 planet pile-up we have in the works), we can be headed for nit picking, anxiety, and creating problems so that there is something to fix. This can be directed at others or ourselves.

SELF-CARE

Even though it has become a cure-all-catch –phrase, the idea of self-care is wonderful. What could be a more solid foundation for doing all this important work that’s needed out there…in the world? Hope we’re all, at some point getting out there. During this time it may be too easy to fall down the self-care rabbit hole of obsessing over every perceived flaw or problem we encounter: nursing the belief that we can’t move forward until all is perfect. And, perfect according to what and whom?  We are on the receiving end of a lot of conditioning about what is acceptable: “care for yourself until you feel like this, look like this. Work on your relationships, your sex life, your career, your children until it produces this, performs like that.”  Fix everything until it’s perfect. It is self-care after all, you deserve to indulge in all your fault-finding, and there are a million products and systems that you can subscribe to to help you, all for a low low price. (Can we say “capitalism” ?)

This is a side of narcissism and egotism that is often over looked, but is still egocentric nonetheless. Shyness and self-criticism can be just as egotistical and attention seeking.

Keywords for Virgo are criticism, critical, and crisis. In order to DO Virgo, we DO the words in this family that all involve preparing for a turning point by analyzing what works and what doesn’t. Therefore it’s very important to be clear about our standards; how we measure what’s “good or bad.”  We need to use the Virgoan discernment to understand if the yardsticks we’re using for measurement have anything to do with the actual quality and health of a situation, product, or person.  Have we adopted sets of arbitrary standards of quality from our early environments, authority figures, or popular culture? When we edit out “the bad parts” of something/someone according to rules that don’t really apply, we might be editing out crucial bits of humanity and authenticity as well. These are Virgo key words too. When we measure ourselves against ideals that we had no part in creating, and make efforts and sacrifices to obtain them we’re left with a hollow perfectionism. (Can we all say “patriarchy”?)

**

I have this client who has a Virgo-heavy chart (a handful of you do, so this could apply to any of you). They’ve been super-diligent for a major chunk of their lives in all-forms of self-study, therapy, and self-improvement. There has been this eternal quest to kill ALL the demons…to become so clean, and so extraordinary at all they do so they can finally achieve peace. They courageously set up challenges, and knock them down on this relentless pursuit to be pure. This person is approaching their golden years. I had to ask, “Is this what your life is about?” “At what point will you be perfect enough to allow yourself to just live your life?”

We all go to the grave in some state of “incomplete.” We will all go to the grave leaving something unfinished. How perfect do you have to be to do what’s important to you right now? We don’t have all the time in the world. Any Virgo worth their salt would tell you to prioritize and make decisions about what to cut.

I suggested that instead of dedicating the rest of their lives to working at deserving the right to feel good about themselves, they do the work to accept themselves as they are.

This is hardest of work of all. It’s the work that needs to be done if you ever want to have a shot at joining the rest of humanity and being of service…which will inadvertently heal you from any sense of separation.

Care for yourself this season by being kind to yourself…all of yourself. Bring that self to all you do for others. Let's think of self-care as listening to what we need, all the places that experience pain and shame and healing them by including them as we move forward into life.

Pisces Full Moon 9/6/17 Perfection Paradox/True Info

This lunation is loaded:

(I consider a full moon “in effect” 3 days before and after its peak)

Mercury Rx conjunct Mars on the eclipse point September 3,              Sun opposite Neptune September 5,

Mars ingress Virgo Sept 5, Mercury stations direct on the eclipse point Sept 5, Full moon Pisces conjunct Neptune Sept 6

                                 

If this lunation doesn’t hit you square in the soft and vulnerable parts, or drive you to drink (or watch too much TV or sleep too much, choose your favorite escape hatch), consider yourself more sturdy than most. If a game-changing piece of info isn’t unveiled I’d be surprised, but not outrageously so. You could miss it. Information coming to us now is hard to decipher—it could be deeply felt, but we might have an especially difficult time trying to identify it in any concrete way.

We have a full moon in Pisces conjunct Neptune (Pisces' ruler). This is as spaced out, blissed out, and fogged up as it gets. It’s also as sensitive, imaginative, and healing as they come. Pick your elixir or poison. Neptune/moon Pisces is about the erosion of barriers to feeling. Pisces dissolves what’s in the way so it can all get in. It’s overwhelming.

In the throes of Piscean overwhelm our most natural inclination might be to find the closest numbing solution and apply liberally. We can do that, or we can take advantage of what is meant to be a growth opportunity and feel as much as we can by listening. There’s some emotional gold in the information bubbling up now; clues about how to heal, where to soften, and what to let go of.

I know that’s some pretty soft talk for the middle of Virgo season. Virgo’s excited to get back into the office after a very sloppy summer. Virgo’s ready to fix everything this summer broke, reorganize what summer dismantled. This Pisces full moon says, “hey Virgo, I wanna have another swim, another drink, another nap. Let’s feel our way into fall. TECHNICALLY IT'S STILL SUMMER!” This oppostional energy might have you feeling at odds with yourself. Try to remember that Pisces and Virgo are two poles on the axis of perfection. They’re actually trying to achieve the same end. Pisces tries to achieve this by way of wholeness. When we talk about a “perfect” circle, we’re talking about perfection in terms of completion, totality, the all-encompassing. Virgo’s pursuit of perfection is about the essential. It’s constantly discerning what is integral from the dross. Virgo is the master editor. Virgo keeps it lean.

We are encouraged to work both ends of the spectrum at full moon time. But, what does “full moon time” mean? Quite simply, there are times that are loaded and times that are more neutral. This lunation is loaded. That’s it. Sorry to burst any mystic bubbles, but one of the reasons I counsel and teach is to demystify. I actually DO intend to poke some holes in some cherished enchantments. Ironically when we extinguish some fantasies---some illusions, we get some real magic. How’s that for a paradoxical Piscean paragraph? The Pisces symbol is two fish swimming in opposite directions. Pisces leaves the earthly plane to come home.

Some examples of how you can work this Pisces/Virgo paradox:

Be disciplined about letting go. Work hard at experiencing without judgment. Channel deep sensitivities and surreal imaginings into precise words, images, or sounds. It’s a wonderful time to be in the painting, writing, or dance studio, get behind the camera, see your Jungian dream analyst, be in a flotation tank, or sauna. You could also sleep, drink, or binge Netflix through this full moon, but we’re more susceptible to toxins right now (remember, no boundaries), expect a nasty hangover. And yes, binging on mental and emotional crap can give you a kind of “hangover.”

THE SPIKE IN THE COSMIC PUNCHBOWL

And now for something completely different. As we swim in a sea of illuminating yet murky emotional info, Mercury stations direct on the Leo eclipse point after it conjuncts Mars. This energy, along with Mars freshly in Virgo can be spiky, hypercritical, and quarrelsome. It will be around for the rest of the month. The Pisces moon actually softens the blow of this a bit.

The eclipse point is still hot and will be reactivated. When Mercury stations direct we can experience important info coming to light, info that could help us move forward. It’s happening in Leo, so it could be dramatic. It’s happening on the eclipse point, so it could be life altering. It’s conjunct Mars so it could be aggressive, or at the very least spur you to action.

Some of us will be dealing more with Pisces activity, others with eclipse-y/Virgo. Some of us will have the joy of interacting with both, making for a possibly schizophrenic time. But, here is where astrology becomes useful; see if during the course of the next two weeks you can identify what you’re working with. Are you fired up or floating away? Making active decisions about the way you engage with and name what life throws at you can help you to feel considerably more sane.

One thing that these two disparate modes of activity have in common is information crossing the threshold from unknown to known.  It might bubble up from the deep recesses of your heart, it could be a piece of gossip you overhear, and yeah, the time is ripe for skeletons to tumble out of closets. The truth, however it comes out, is nothing to fear. And, it’s a VERY important time to define for ourselves how we know what’s true (shout out to Aaron Dias for bringing this up in my last yoga class).

When something that’s been suppressed sees the light of day it gives us something to work with. I think that’s something we’re all hungry for; something that feels true within ourselves, the sense that we have access to the info necessary to make decisions, and trust the people we surround ourselves with to share information that effects us.  

A lot may come up and out right now. With the Piscean influence, some of it may be cryptic, hazy, or just plain confusing. With the Leo/Mars influence it might be overblown or defensive. Let’s see how much we can take in, and rest when we need to. We’re being called to take it all in so we can feel it…but, once felt, we don’t have to keep it. Think of it as emotional hygiene.

Total Solar Eclipse Leo 8/21/17 Cycles, Containers, Change, and Choice.

The eclipse is a big deal, and it’s not. WE are a big deal though. This eclipse is a rare and significant symbol of a time in a cycle. Read your history books, your economic and social studies books, read your geology and agriculture books or this article in NewYork Magazine. All things cycle through; the lunar cycle, the seasons, plant life, the menstrual cycle, sun up and sun down. We are at the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. Cycles and time frames are pretty reliable containers.

Our actions at different points in a cycle are what make the difference. Change happens to every living thing. Change defines cycles. You can’t stop it. When we try, things get ugly. Change has already happened and what’s been percolating has already reared its head. Any suffering and discord we experience now are at the hands of the hands that won't let go of the old…most likely out of fear. According to the poetry of the sky and my latest astro-crush Austin Coppock, what we are dealing with at this eclipse is a “crisis of leadership.” When we have 18 months of Aquarius and Leo on the nodal axis and a history-making total solar eclipse in Leo, it’s all about who’s running the show. I’ve heard a lot of astrologers refer to this time in a lot of different and very specific ways, but I think Austin put it most succinctly and diplomatically, without divining war, impeachment, or global totalitarianism. Quite simply, who’s in charge (Leo)? And, how are the beneficiaries of said leadership responding (Aquarius)?  

The way these times of great change unfold depends on all of the decisions, small and large that “we the people” make everyday. How well do we look after each other? How actively involved are we in the small, unglamorous, and anonymous (Leo hates these words btw) decision-making processes of how we’re governed and how we live? When we buy things and participate in groups what are we REALLY supporting? How much responsibility and therefore ownership, and therefore LEADERSHIP do we take over our own lives? And here’s the big one: how much do we still subscribe to old paradigms of competition, hierarchy, and “progress” for progress' sake? Because those times are already over. Anyone still scrambling for the spoils of “making it” to “the top”  to have more (power, recognition, resources) than someone else, or securing an elite or privileged position are living in some sorely outdated constructs. C’mon. So 1980! But the interesting/scary/precarious thing is that even though those constructs have been exposed as being broken they can still be edified by WHAT PEOPLE DO, and don’t do. How are we going to do leadership from here on out? That is completely up to us. All astrology tells us is what time it is and what the task at hand is. It tells us the shape of our containers.  But WE fill those containers with the content of our own making.

For example, my astrological container is strikingly similar to Donald Trump’s.  Along with every other astrologer in the world I’ve been watching the 28-29^th degree of Leo like a hawk, but with some vested interest. This is Trump’s rising point, it’s my rising point, and it’s where this powerful eclipse takes place. A new moon on one’s natal ascendant usually points to a major new chapter in one’s life; a new way of showing up in the world. The 29^th degree is often referred to as the anaretic degree, which can point to an exceptionally potent (for better or worse) expression of a sign. In this case, the sign is Leo. In this case we’re talking about a whole new expression of self that’s either ego driven or heart driven. DT and I are on the same cycle. For the past year we’ve probably been grappling with a lot of the same issues, and at about the same time we’ll have some similar karmic tipping point. When I use the word karma, I’m not talking about anything esoteric, just simple cause and effect. We both have made decisions, and acted upon them, and in the next 6 months we’ll see some repercussions and there will be change. (The corresponding full moon to this new moon is in 6 months--the culmination).

It’s solar eclipse time (basically new moon on steroids) so there will be big, irrevocable change that happens at an accelerated pace. Eclipses open a door to all of the latent karma that’s been building over time. It exposes it, then pushes out what needs to go and pulls in what needs to enter.  It's the fast track. Then those doors shut for good. Voila, whole new ball game. What happens to this man who is so different from me will be very similar. We live in this world together. We have very different lives because of what we were born into, but also because of choices during cycles.

Now, does this eclipse effect you even if you don’t have a strong Leo or Aquarius signature? Yes. Even if this special timing doesn’t hit your personal chart in a significant way, you live in this world at this point in time. You are in relationship with everything and everyone who is effected by this time. You are witness and participant during this time of leadership crisis even if you think you’re not. What happens to you, happens to me, happens to the world we live in. We are all part of the problem and the solution.

This moment in time is a call to be responsive to change without dictating it. Dictating comes from the ego and fear. Responsiveness is listening and acting consciously with courage (Leo key word). For a long time American culture especially has found a lot of value and pride (another Leo key word) in bending the environment and each other to our wills. It obviously doesn’t work. Neither does “going with the flow,” an idiom I’ve always had issue with, mostly when people use it to excuse a type of passivity or lack of consciousness which is just as harmful as forcing your will on life. In either situation there’s no listening or responding.

How much responsibility are we willing to assume for our own fate?  Will we continue to assign blame to others for what we’re unhappy with? Will we continue to ignore people we don’t “identify” with? These are the Leo-Aquarius questions. This is the focus for the next year. Look, we’re either all in this together or we’re not. We either use what makes each individual unique and special to usher in greater tolerance and understanding or we don’t. We create leadership that’s focused on serving all instead of ruling all…or we don’t. I ask these questions just as much of myself because what happens to me, happens to you. May this eclipse put you on the fast track to heart centered purpose and joy...Leo at its best.

See you on the other side. XC