posted July 24, 2008 12:57 PM         

The eclipses are coming! The eclipses are coming! We start to build up and feel their energy over the next two weeks. The Solar New Moon eclipse on August 1-2, 2008 takes place on the South Node of Leo. South Nodes are the points of release for the Universe in our charts and our world. According to Bernadette Brady in her book, The Eagle and The Lark, “This eclipse series is known for breaking out of a negative situation where no hope can be seen to a more positive space containing many options. A worry that may have been affecting a person will suddenly clear. The solution is shown by the Cosmos and needs to be take up without too much delay. releasing problems that previously seemed unsolvable”

So THAT is what is coming towards us, a solution to our negative situation. The solution will be here (or start to show itself as a solution) in about two weeks. Then we‘ll get to work with it during the balance of August as the lunar eclipse rolls in behind the solar eclipse. We are paying attention students of the heavens, so we know the TWO weeks BEFORE the eclipse takes place are when the energy starts to build. So, deductive logic applied here, that means the situations are probably going to get a bit worse before they starts to get better ~ especially if we are about to break out of a negative situation on this eclipse.

When I looked at the aspects for the week ahead, I noticed our friend, dear Mercury is taking a pounding, emotionally from just about every one he is talking to or having interactions with. Mercury is in Cancer right now, cardinal water. Words have trouble forming when emotions are high. Water doesn’t carry sound well ~ so distortions in what we hear and say will take place. Water absorbs emotions, feelings, energies so we are going to be picking up everyone ELSE’s emotions, feelings and energies, in addition to our own rolling around in us. Water is the universal solvent so it absorbs and tries to carry or work with the other energies, air, earth and fire. Water dissolves into tears. Water breaks or releases pails of stuff that makes us all wet and soggy. Water is skittish and flows, unsettled when disturbed by a rock, you leaping into the pool or even some thing as subtle as the movement of wind across its surface. Water is SO very sensitive, thin skinned and quite reactive. Water flows! That is why it is so reactive!

So that means the entire world, as well as the Mercury ruled Gemini and Virgo houses and planets in every chart are going to be rocking and rolling with outsized emotions coming from the Cancer parts of our charts ~ family, feelings and those things that are so deep and unnamed that we don‘t have words for them. Cancer rules the pre-verbal stuff that makes us want to curl up in a ball, assume a fetal position, to wail and cry, looking for some nurture for our soul. Honestly, it is all for the good. We are each going to be clearing out very, very, very old stuff that happened to us when we were bitty, small people and caused us to make the choices we’ve made. We don’t have to make those choices any more but realizing that is NOT just an intellectual exercise. To produce real change, we have to feel it emotionally. We have to, as they say in AA, bottom out. Cancer is the 4th house of the natural wheel. It is the bottom of the chart and thus it holds things that are very hard to get a handle on or put into words.

When I read for folks with a lot of water in their chart, I use the analogy of them being a sponge absorbing stuff around them from everything in their environment, including the people. I suggest the water folks regularly wring them selves out so they don’t get stinky, smelly and moldy. This week, we are all water folks. We will all need to wring ourselves out or we will find ourselves feeling stinky, smelly and moldy. Probably we will need several wringing out times. Lots of emotional fluidity. Wring out your spongy, absorbing emotions self. Good ways to wring your spongy self out are: a good soul searing, streaky faced cry, a cold bath, a hot bath, music, massage, dance, spending time by water, yoga, meditation, time alone, lots of healthful fluids and other things that remind you of water or fluidity. Drugs, alcohol or other self medication stuff will be very, very tempting. Basically, seek out things that remind you of water and act like water for those watery things to absorb all the extra watery feelings in you. Like attracts like. Wring, wring, wring!

Mercury moves into LEO later in the week so he gets a bit fired up, hot under the collar and volatile. Think about it from an energy point of view. Mercury in water has trouble finding his voice and expressing things until the sand swirling around in the water settles down and he settles down. Mercury in Fixed Leo Fire ROARS, FLARES and TAKES FIRE to burn away what it perceives to be disrespect, lack of loyalty, or to soothe the hurt and sensitive emotions. So first up for Mercury is the watery emotional buildup and then there is a transition and a release into ROARing lion behavior! Can you see how it we might be rocking and rolling this week?

The Sun also changes signs this week as he moves into Leo ~ I gotta be me! I gotta be me! I gotta shine! I gotta grow in my own light! I gotta do what I wanna do! I gotta go where I wanna go! Part of our work during the summer of 2008 is to clear out the old stuff that is finished that accumulated in our lives since 1995 when Pluto entered Sagittarius. We are in the process of wrapping up that larger 13 year long chapter of our lives. We are, by finishing up Pluto in Sagittarius, getting ready to move into the next major chapter, when Pluto enters Capricorn, for good, in late November. So clear out the closets. Shred the papers. Get down into that moldy, scary basement full of spiders with Clorox, a bright spotlight and a fan. Throw away. Pitch. Release. Recycle. Let go. Clear spaces and places for the new chapter of your life to take place. Clear out the old to make way for the new.

As you are clearing out the old stuff in your life, or doing what you need to do to wrap things up that began back in 1995, reflect on how much your life has changed and evolved since 1995! As a society, we “got” the internet, websites, cell phones, emails, and the ability to link ourselves around the world in an instant since 1995 as Pluto moved through the sign of publishing and communication, transforming everything he touched. We are global now, ready or not. What went global and expansive in your life since 1995? What changed about how you thought, saw the world, read or knew?

If you are in a REAL mulling mood, especially if the basement is VERY bad and going to take a very long time, go back to the even earlier Pluto sign changes ~ 1939, 1958, 1972, and 1984 to see the other major, seismic and evolutionary structural changes that took place in your life and the lives of your loved ones between those dates. You are about to have another big change! That is why these times feel so fraught and freighted with profound, deep and unsettling emotions. You aren’t imagining it. You are feeling the very earth shift under your feet ~ a low, slow, deep rumble as Pluto prepares to end his journey in the sign of Sagittarius and moves into the next sign of Capricorn.

Monday, Moon in Pisces starts the week off on an emotional footing especially as she argues with Saturn and Mars in Virgo. The story that took place around July 11, 2008 takes on a new and different meaning. Mercury has a bit of an explosion as a stone (or something) drops into his watery feelings and sets him off to flowing, rippling and generating feelings with out words. Sun is in an argument with Pluto ~ emotions versus the vision. Difficult words. The problem comes when emotions are out of whack or out of sync with vision. Then we self sabotage. There is a good chance you will self sabotage today. Get your emotions in sync with your vision. Tell them to go sit in a time out chair. I know, it isn’t easy but that is the solution to the problem. You have to let go of the fear. You have to tell that nasty little voice in your head to be quiet for a minute so you can think! Hush!!!! Hush, HUSH!!! Like a little kid that is way past bedtime and in that hyper wired, super emotional place, the best solution IS bed. Unfortunately, it is probably YOU and you are at the office so you’ll have to comfort yourself with other things. Healthy things please! Pick something HEATHY (like going to sleep or leaving the office to take some time to think and perhaps cry) to partner with.

Tuesday Mercury and Mars are wrestling in the sky so there can be sharp words, especially in emotional situations, especially around work or structure or how people choose to take action around things. Believe it when they say it. They mean it. At the same time, remember what they say might or might not be true! Regardless, that is THEIR perception of THEIR reality! It is true for THEM. Now, over on YOUR side of the room, is it true for you? Is it YOUR reality? Is it true for you? Or is a change in order? Or a break? Or a sabbatical? It is true for them. What is true for you? Can you find a common space? Can you agree to disagree? If not, no need to “end” things or do some dramatic exit scene complete with door slamming and histrionics. You have different views of the world. That is completely fine. You have a right to have your OWN world view. They have a right to have their OWN world view. Take what you agree with and leave the rest. Take what is useful and ignore the rest. Well, right now, you are not going to be able to ignore the rest but hang up the phone and talk again in a couple of days. Sun enters Leo today so we all are supposed to be the kings and queens of our unique world. You came into shine in your unique way. So go shine, with someone who likes your version of sunshine. Ignore those folks who are telling you how you should shine to make them happy. That is part of the problem right now. Let them be. They get their world view. You get your world view. Both can be right for each of you even if they are NOT right for the other person.

Wednesday Mercury is confused, depressed and upset. That, that right there is the old thing you are trying to let go of. Push on it a bit. Poke it a bit. Nudge at it with your toe ~ make sure you have a shoe on as it will gush or leak at the least provocation. See what that thing is comprised of. Venus is a bit cross with Mars as he is pointing out her flaws. People don’t want to hear how they can change things today. Folks want to wallow a bit today. Folks want to feel sorry for themselves. Let them. Feel sorry for yourself too. It is a great day to pull up that list of what makes you feel sorry for yourself! Mull on it. Cry a bit. Wail! Gnash your teeth! Now, after you’ve done that and had a good time feeling sorry for yourself, make up a companion list about what the things you feel sorry about actually gave you. Because, when you were engaged in or with those things, they actually DID do something for you! They gave you some kind of satisfaction. Maybe not so much any more ~ but back then, BOY did they satisfy something in your being. That is the part that is changing. Be gentle with yourself.

Thursday, More with the Wallow!! Wallow a bit more. Watch closely as the Wallow may morph into Righteous Indignation (a close companion to Wallow!) as the Sun is now in Leo. So make a list of all the things you did for them ~ those services, time, talents, loves, desires, hopes, dreams and energies that you gave to them. What was the wish? Make a very long list! Look at it. Now, ask yourself why did you do it? The first answer is not the one you want to focus on. Go to the next answer and the next and the next. When you get to the answer that makes tears swell up in your eyes and your throat get tight, write THAT answer down in BIG letters. That is actually why you did it. Watch for the emotions. They tell you the source of your truth. Again, poke, prod and look at it. It is your truth. When you can name it, it makes it SO much easier. You aren’t going to die. Just look at it. Look at your truth. You got something from the situation too. However, your truth is related to that part that makes you cry or feel emotional. Just hang out with it. Companion it. Recognize it as a very, very, very deep wish. If you are friendly with your deepest wish (instead of banishing it to a corner where it starts to chew on your favorite red shoes), it comes true. That is how wishes work! Honest!

Friday is an over doing day. Over doing. Over emotional. Over spending. Over the top. Over, over, over. Mercury has an inconjunct aspect to Pluto so expect an ah-ha moment. Venus has an inconjunct aspect to Jupiter so expect understanding about why you relate in the way you relate. It is all tied to that old, old, story. Once you are conscious, you can’t go back. Once you see it, you are forever changed. Carl Jung says, “What is not met in the psyche will come to us as fate”. Or perhaps Piero Ferrucci is better for today: “The factors that contributed to my growth were many - finding someone who understood me, exploring the unconscious, awakening my latent love . . . but one star is brightest among all: the Self. I found the source of livingness inside me, something I didn't even know existed."

Saturn’s day we move forward as Mercury leaves Cancer and enters the sign of Leo. The Sun rises. His passion becomes clear. He bursts out of the water of Cancer into the sunlight of Leo. We have to act in our deeper truth ~ what ever it is. We have to stand in our deeper vision of what we believe to be true for us. That is the eternal quest and purpose for our current existence. We have to be what we incarnated to be or become! When we are NOT true to ourselves, to our deeper selves, all the ills, problems and perils of the universe come flowing at us in the form of Fate. It flows at us as Fate because we are unwilling or unable to meet it in our psyche! Meet it! Embrace it! Love it! Start today! It is part of you! It is part of your being. The universe is trying to get you to reclaim it. Wrap your arms around it like a long lost friend and invite it in for tea and biscuits.

Sunday we have gifts of brilliance today so make sure to note the ideas, thoughts or people that appear in your life. Venus dives into the South node late in the day so something very old and very profound can leave you, including something you love or loved dearly. Release it. Bless it. Thank it. Know you are releasing it to move onto your next chapter. All part of the cycle of love, life and incarnation. Remember to breath. Call someone you love and tell them. Write the letter you’ve been meaning to write to say thank you. Repair the broken relationship. You can also pull something profound INTO your life today. First, perhaps, a new relationship with yourself and a new way of loving who you are. It can also come in as a new love, new companion, or new beloved dream that you want to pursue. Give yourself permission to welcome it into your life. It marks the beginning of a new cycle of love for you.

Mundane: Phil Gramm had to step down as National General Co-Chair of John McCain’s Presidential Campaign after calling us, his fellow American citizens, a Nation of Whiners. Of course, Phil created and defended the Enron Loophole legislation that allows speculation on gas prices ~ part of why we pay $4 per gallon. Phil lobbied for a Swiss bank involved with the mortgage crisis while thousands of Americans’ lost their homes. Phil helped defeat Clintons’ proposal for Universal Health care ~ allowing corporations to further squeeze and profit off our illness and medical needs. Phil wrote McCain‘s economic policy for his proposed upcoming Presidency which says leave everything just as it is ~ we Republicans like that the corporations are making unregulated profits even as the rest of us working Americans struggle to pay our bills! So what brings Phil down? He called the rest of us whiners and complainers!

Truth be told, Phil only gave voice to what the dear little Republicans, with their Corporate Bosses and business lobbyists, want for the rest of us ~ too broke, tired and beaten down from working multiple jobs to pay attention to the continued looting of America. Frankly, I loved it. It was definitely Phil’s Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake!” moment.

That is the thing about greed. It grows. Greed is never satisfied. Every embezzler or thief gets caught either because they are sloppy or their greed grows WAY out of proportion and is noticed by someone who can do something about it. How much money do they actually NEED? Can they even spend it all? No, of course not. It is about the accumulation, the excess, the overdoing. And, as we all enter Pluto in Capricorn together, the greedy ones and the rest of us, we all get to work with Pluto in Capricorn energy. We last visited Pluto in Capricorn in the 1700s, between 1762 and 1778. In the months (and years) ahead, we will see increasing signs of the coming revolution(s). The French and American Revolutions took place when Pluto was last in Capricorn. The revolutions took place to correct excesses and imbalances. As we all know, history repeats itself. Get a system too out of balance and, eventually, the pendulum swings the other way.

Barack Obama has very dangerous aspects in his chart this week. The last time these aspects took place was late May 2008 when Hillary Clinton said the Bobby Kennedy assassination in June was a reason to quit the race. The media roared. As Obama’s drawn numerous personal, public and media analogies to both Kennedys, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln AND we are having a redo of 1968 when two of those four killings happened, please say extra prayers for his personal safety this week, regardless of whether you support his candidacy or not. I don’t want those two little girls attending a funeral!

The emotional Moon in Pisces sets off the recent Mars/ Saturn union in Virgo so the stock market should respond with emotion to the news it receives early in the week. Further worried actions will be taken Wednesday and Thursday as Mars in Virgo rules that Moon in Aries. People are feeling their security is under attack and NOT happy about it. Continued volatility can be expected.

Update: Thanks to almost 500 of you for checking out the brand new pod casts on my site. I’ve worked with Heather Roan-Robbins and Mark Wolz for a few years now. We speak every week on the Cosmic Weather at East West Bookstore here in New York City. It seemed like a great idea to spread the astrological wealth to a wider range of people who can’t stop by the book store for a cup of tea and astrology! Enjoy!

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