2006 September : Big Sky AstroBlog

Sep

27

Thirteen Entries for Your Autumnal Almanac

September 30: Venus Enters Libra - The planet of love meets the sign of relationships, with predictably amorous results. Love ‘em if you’ve got ‘em, folks. Also: Plant above-ground crops.

October 1: Mercury enters Scorpio - Mercury in Scorpio will hypnotize you with its wordssssss….or punish you with its invective! Also: Plant tomatoes, peas, and beans.

October 6: Harvest Moon 13.43 Aries - Reap what you’ve sown - but wear heavy gloves: there be sharp and broken things hidden in the fields… Also: A barren planting period.

October 13: Venus trine Neptune - “But love is blind and lovers cannot see / The pretty follies that themselves commit; / For if they could, Cupid himself would blush.” See, Shakespeare knew his aspects. Also: Plant root crops.

October 21: New Moon 28.40 Libra - a spectacular grouping of Sun, Moon, Venus, and Mars in Libra, all sextile Saturn: a sweet convergence of love, money, stability, and self-discipline. Also: Plant beans, peas, squash, sweet corn, and tomatoes.

October 22: Sun conjunct Mars - You can drive your Mars, or he can drive you. So plot your course, gas up your car, and get yourself behind that wheel. Also: Sow grains, hay and forage crops. Whatever the heck those are.

October 23: Sun enters Scorpio, Mars enters Scorpio - The beginning of an intensely passionate couple of days featuring impossibly brooding and swarthy Heathcliffian types and the smouldering, pouty vixens who love them. Keep your smelling salts handy. Also: Plant leafy vegetables.

October 24: Venus enters Scorpio, Venus conjunct Mars - Goodness. Is it getting warm in here? Also: Start seedbeds. (So that’s what the kids are calling it these days!)

October 25: Jupiter square Saturn- Santa Claus meets the Grim Reaper. Hilarity ensues. Also: Clear and plow, but don’t plant. (If you know what I mean.) (And I think you do.)

October 28: Mercury turns retrograde (12:16 pm PST at 25 Scorpio) - God help us all. Also: Plant tomatoes, peas, beans, and anything else that you don’t mind having to replant again later, when Mercury is direct.

… and turns direct November 17. And after a decent interval - say, a couple of weeks - you can repair your printer, your car, your washing machine, your lawn mower, your secret agent decoder ring, and everything else that mysteriously malfunctioned during the retrograde period. Also: Plant root crops and perennials.

October 29: Neptune turns direct. Daylight Savings Time ends. Remember when love was blind, way back on the 13th? Consider this lasik eye surgery day. Also: Kill poison ivy and clear land, but don’t plant.

November 5: Full Hunter’s Moon 12.58 Taurus. Hunting, gathering, shopping - same difference. Be canny about what you “hunt” this full moon - follow both instinct and common sense. Also: Rake leaves and make compost.

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September 27, 2006 | 4 Comments

Sep

24

Maybe it’s a byproduct of all that Virgopalooza/eclipse action from Friday - an eclipse within shouting distance of my natal Mars if you use a six-degree orb (which I wouldn’t, normally, although I’m rethinking that) - but the Aprilian Rage is very close to the surface these past few days. Ugly, black, noxious rage, easily ignited if subtly expressed.

By way of New Moon ritual I hurled myself on the altar of nonstop work, and by yesterday afternoon I was amazingly caught up. The hastily-scrawled post-it note reminders had been consigned to the trash bin. The heap of file folders on my desk was reduced to a mere few. Under the surface, I was working through some hurts and meanness and disappointment, too… and by yesterday afternoon my black mood had miraculously lifted. I enjoyed a glass of wine on the porch with my husband and some neighbors. All was well.

But this morning, innocently investigating a blogroll, I stumbled across a post so virulent and bigoted that I thought at first it must be a joke. When I realized it wasn’t, it literally turned my stomach. And I realized just how carefully I pick and choose the web circles I choose to run in - just as carefully as I choose the ones where I spend time in the real world, to as much as possible screen out people whose views I find abhorant.

I know some people thrive on Mars energy. They actually seem to enjoy arguing with people. They relish viewing, reading, or listening to views with which they vehemently disagree, and then railing about them. I am not one of those people. Frankly, that is just too much aggravation before breakfast.

Ugh - Mars. Transiting Mars is in Libra now, and maybe that’s one of its lesson: encounters with The Other. Confrontations with your opposite. And maybe, if you’re not careful, letting others carry and play out your rage for you. Maybe what I thought was a healthy way of working through some anger issues - work - was really a copout. Maybe there were some people I should have cleared the air with. And along comes a poisonous blog post to show you just how ugly Mars can look if you don’t deal with it properly. When you refuse to get behind the wheel of your own Mars, you can’t very well complain about the way other people drive theirs.

How are you doing with the Eclipse fallout? Tell us in comments - and include your natal house and planets impacted by the eclipse, if you know what they are!

September 24, 2006 | 13 Comments

Sep

21

thursday 13 vol. 9

Because it’s late, and it’s been a long day, and I’m unspeakably tired… just 13 simple thoughts to keep in mind for tomorrow’s Virgopalooza Solar Eclipse/Autumnal Equinox extravaganza:

1. Be patient.
2. Be kind.
3. Give people the benefit of the doubt.
4. Measure twice, cut once.
5. Take your time.
6. Be reasonable.
7. Get enough rest.
8. Nothing is as urgent as it seems.
9. It’s not a contest.
10. Give yourself a break.
11. Let it go.
12. Breathe.
13. Imperfection is sometimes exactly what is needed.

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September 21, 2006 | 7 Comments

Sep

21

Everybody bloggin’ the eclipse! Fresh off the wire this morning (it pays to wake up early):

Robin at Urania’s 9th House has posted a really fascinating take on the eclipse and domestic political issues. Don’t miss it.

And Neil has a nice take on the Virgo theme of simplicity (beautifully illustrated with some perfect photos, I might add):

Work should never be work. It should be a reflection of your soul’s reason for being. It should be a service you provide not only to yourself through satisfaction, but outwardly to others as a service to them. Most people are out of synch with their inner jobs, instead leading the life of someone else.

And I’m hoping for a special eclipse installment in Michele’s epic saga of her very Virgo remodel…

Edited to add: Lynn deftly untangles the New Moon/last degree Virgo/Autumnal Equinox symbolism. And Jeff got the head start on us all with this lovely meditation.

September 21, 2006 | 3 Comments

keep looking »

Sign of Leo

Moon sextiles Mercury at
4:20 pm on Jul.5, 2008

Moon opposes Neptune at
5:22 pm on Jul.5, 2008

Moon trines Pluto at
3:05 am on Jul.6, 2008

Moon goes void of course at
3:05 am on Jul.6, 2008

Moon enters Virgo at
4:04 am on Jul.6, 2008

Moon conjuncts Mars at
9:19 am on Jul.6, 2008