The Astrology Blog – w/b 12 May 2014
All times stated are in BST.
Well, the Sun – Saturn opposition that was exact over this last weekend has definitely been making itself felt over here. As I said last week these two are never good companions, firstly as the Sun is the life force and Saturn is the opposite. We have lost a beloved friend to cancer at the tender age of 42, while another plans the funeral of her son in law. Another friend has a serious health crisis while yet another was wrongfully and shamefully arrested – now released. Saturn under duress is also authority gone wrong! What else? One of my cats has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. We also had the Venus opposite Mars and our youngest dog started her first season, which in itself would not be a problem until we had a massive dog appear in the garden, trailing a broken rope, desperate to get at her! If we weren’t all so tired and sad this would have been funny – what a showing of the love planets in opposition, thwarted passion! We also had the Mercury square Neptune last night – Mercury paperwork, Neptune confusion, and my brother in law landed at Gatwick to find a huge irresolvable mix up re his hire car booking and ended up on a long tiring coach journey instead.
I’ve lost count of the times when people have said to me something along the lines of, well you’re an astrologer, surely you could have seen all that coming? Oh if only it were that simple. But this seems like a good opportunity at least to say that astrology is not clairvoyance, it does not forewarn us in terms of all the details, but it does reflect back to us the good/bad, easy/difficult ups and downs of life. In that respect astrology does help us to make sense of events that might otherwise seem chaotic and random. We humans are meaning making machines and astrology is an unfailing frame of reference. For me it is so often a sanity source. In terms of running my life by it the answer is yes, up to a point. There are several things I would never schedule in under difficult skies, including travel or running courses.
So, what next? Life is moving on in more ways than one, hurray, but yet again we have a complex and multifaceted picture unfolding. Mercury is one of the movers and shakers as he is now strong by sign, having moved into his own sign of Gemini last week, and this week he makes a series of aspects. Here’s the sequence:
Monday Mercury trine Mars (17.03)
Thursday Mercury sextile Venus (22.55)
Friday Mercury sextile Uranus (00.23)
All of these aspects are considered to be harmonious but with Mars and Uranus involved, who both love action and stirring things up, even good aspects can bring drama or the unexpected. Don’t forget that Mercury himself is also the mischief maker. Overall, however, this proactive sequence is helpful as Mercury is the communicator and the answer finder. Love the Mercury in the sign of the Twins trine Mars for a list ticking start to the week. On the bigger screen one of his missions this week is to put you in touch with the right people, to throw up helpful information or to boost your social/love life.
Relationship issues are high up on the agenda as Mercury is connecting with the love planets, Venus and Mars. You may remember from last week that I commented on the fact that Mars is in the middle of an epic voyage through Libra and that he is currently “stationing” – slowing down in order to switch from retrograde to direct motion, which happens early next week. As above so below – look out for that turning point in an important relationship, or for a significant “other” in your life, especially a Libran! Struggling or tentative romance will sizzle or fizzle as the testing the water period draws to a close, but anything new is poised on the starting blocks for the firing gun.
Venus herself is the other main player as she works her way through the Grand Cross – the formation of four planets, two pairs being opposite each other and all in square to each other – Mars, Uranus, Jupiter and Pluto. Venus opposed Mars yesterday (Sunday) morning and will now travel on to contact the other three planets involved:
Wednesday Venus square Pluto (18.48)
Friday Venus conjunct Uranus (00.55)
Sunday Venus square Jupiter (16.32)
The Grand Cross has been around for months but is now breaking up as Jupiter is picking up speed and heading out of the picture. Major aspects and aspect patterns are said to be “in orb” when the planets are less than 8 degrees apart. On Thursday Jupiter will move beyond that 8 degree marker, so the Grand Cross will be reduced to a T Square – two planets still in opposition, Mars and Uranus, both remaining in square to the third planet Pluto.
So, whatever has been a long struggle – your “cross to bear” – or whatever project has taken a long time to get up and running will now start to change shape. Venus’ issues will be important – love, money, women, life’s pleasures – or the influence of a woman moving into the picture, and out again.
In the midst of all this busyness is the Full Moon in Scorpio, exact on Wednesday evening (20.17). In traditional astrology this is the Moon’s most difficult sign, her sign of “fall”, so this signals an intensifying of the emotional tides that rise high at the time of any Full Moon. Beware domestics. On the plus side Full Moons signal a cycle coming to fullness and bring things to light.
Scorpio is co-ruled by Pluto, god of the underworld, and it’s impossible not to think of the mass abduction of the poor schoolgirls in Nigeria. They were abducted on 14 April, on the Lunar Eclipse (the Moon rules women, eclipses signal shadow and power issues) by the Islamist group Boko Haram who are anti education and the emancipation of women. With the horror of possible sexual slavery and servitude the mythological parallel to the rape of Persephone is unmistakable. Persephone is abducted by Hades (Pluto) into the underworld. When her whereabouts are finally determined her frantic and grief stricken mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, appeals to Zeus (Jupiter) for her release. At first he refuses to cooperate so Demeter responds by cursing the land so that the crops wither and die. Eventually, in the face of this feminine power and recognizing a losing battle when he sees one, he agrees to help and sends Hermes (Mercury) to escort Persephone back into the world. The deal isn’t perfect as she’s already eaten the forbidden pomegranate seeds and is fated to return to the underworld for one season of each year.
Like Zeus, Nigeria has finally admitted that something has to be done. This week both Israeli and American foreign aid is on its way in the shape of counter terrorism and intelligence experts. The deal won’t be perfect, so much damage has already been done, but all that matters now is the possibility of returning the girls to the world and the arms of their families.