Spring 2013 Eclipse Season, & Sun through Taurus (4/19/13 - 5/20/13)

There’s a heated poker game going on between the universe & its many consciousnesses (that’s us - the wee mortal humans).  The universe, as it does every so often, is upping the ante.  In cosmic time, such things can take months or millennia, or several timeframes at once.  Regardless, the questions in such cosmic moments are:

Do you have the resources to ante up?

If not, are you willing to fake it &/or borrow until you do?

If you are not willing to ante/fake/borrow, are you willing to fold, give up this particular game, & move to another table for a more appropriate game - perhaps you’re actually more of a Blackjack or Go Fish type?

If you do have the resources to ante up, do you have the courage & clarity to do so?

What’s your winning strategy - once you’re in the proper game, & do chip in?

To frame this metaphor more bluntly, it’s time to commit on a deeper level to the truest next maneuver in your life, & to let go of anything you’re not willing to commit fully to.  Your motto for the next month could be any of the following: Do it or lose it.  Use it or lose it.  Commit or release.  Hoka hey.

And now for the astrological breakdown:

The Sun enters Taurus on April 19th, in the 9th house, conjunct Mars, Venus & Pallas, all moving into opposition with Saturn in Scorpio, & moving into a sextile with Neptune in Pisces.  Simultaneously, Mercury & Uranus are nearing conjunction (4/20).  Hence, the energetic imperative of the Taurus solar month (4/19/13 - 5/20/13) is release - specifically mental release - that enables truer commitment.

Neptune’s influence encourages compassion & forgiveness.  His/her (Neptune’s gender is obscure) placement in the 6th house cautions against judgment & expecting perfection from oneself or others, & stimulates generosity of action.  Do something selfless for someone this month, but ONLY from a place of love & non-attachment.  Acting in someone’s behalf with any shred of guilt, or any attachment to how your gift/service will be received or utilized will only backfire.  Check in with your values & your heart before you act on someone’s behalf.

Generally, the Sun’s transit through Taurus is a good time to commit to something you want to see through in the long haul.  You determine what such things are by getting clear about your values, & then committing to those activities that align with your values & also help you to obtain & enjoy what you value (the good things in life, as defined by you).  This year, make sure these actions, experiences & possessions are also in alignment with your philosophies. 

You may find these questions helpful throughout the Taurus solar month (4/19/13 - 5/20/13):

What do you value now?

What do you believe & believe in?

Are your values & beliefs in alignment?  If not, how can you bring them into alignment?

Are your values in alignment with your actions & decisions?  If not, how can you bring them into alignment?

Do you value what you own?  If not, why do you own it (i.e. What’s your fear?)

How might letting go of what you do not value (relationships, possessions, skills, jobs, etc) create more space for what you truly value?

Do you trust that the vacancy created by letting go will be filled?  If not, why?

What risk is it time to take? (Hint: this is a risk on yourself, though it may show up in an outer-world action)

How might issues of self-esteem or faith be getting in the way of your taking this risk?

What new, revolutionary insights are coming to light for you at this time?

How can you integrate these ideas into your consciousness & into your actions?

How & to whom might you be of service this month?

Does that service align with your values, beliefs, & joy?

If not, what is your attachment with this person or their outcome?

How can you let that go, thus allowing them to face their own karma & take responsibility for their own evolution?

This imperative of release & commitment is further strengthened by the lunar eclipse (full moon on steroids) in Scorpio on 4/25.  The Moon is then aligned with Saturn in Scorpio, while the Sun continues its alignment with Mars, all directly on the chart’s vertical axis.  Neptune in Pisces adds some emotional momentum through a trine/sextile with the Moon/Sun, strengthening a need to let go, release what’s not yours, & forgive.  Watch out, however, for overwhelm & escapism.  The tightrope to walk here is to let go appropriately.  See below for questions to help you define what that is.  With this configuration, we are offered emotional insight into what our true commitments are & are not, but we have to be willing to DIG.  Scorpio has no interest in surfaces.

These commitments may feel big & even overwhelming, but they should ultimately have that feeling of RIGHTNESS.  The sense to look for is, “Well, it may not be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”  If it’s familiar, if it’s easily & quickly accomplished, it is unlikely to be right at this time.  With the Sun conjunct Mars in Taurus on the Midheaven, it’s time to roll up the sleeves & get to work out in the world.  With the Moon conjunct Saturn on the Nadir, opposite that Sun/Mars/MC, it’s time to be honest with & responsible to what we truly feel in our heart of hearts.  Those solar actions will be strengthened when they come from the heart, & will only backfire if they stem from a sense of duty, guilt, fear, &/or judgment.

Questions to help you evolve through the Scorpio lunar eclipse (4/25):

How have you allowed your roots (parents, family, tribe, ethnicity, nation, personal history) to shape you?

How can you redefine yourself within the constructs of those roots so that they empower you?

How can you bring your career &/or place in society into truer alignment with your values?

Are you taking steps that, though difficult, in the long haul feel RIGHT to you?

What decisions are you currently facing?

Are you willing to do what feels more difficult, arduous & truer to your heart, rather than what feels easy, familiar, & deep-down like a cop-out (i.e. a betrayal of your heart)?

Are you holding yourself to the same standards as you hold others to?

If not, do you hold yourself to a much higher standard than others, or vice versa?

What would happen if you leveled that playing field?  How might that transform you, your relationships, & the people you are in relationship with? 

On 5/9, we have the second of this spring’s three eclipses - a Taurus solar eclipse (new moon on steroids).  Although none of these eclipses are particularly strong, the planetary energy throughout this time is dense.  This solar eclipse begins the lunation that culminates in a Sagittarius lunar eclipse on 5/25 - the last eclipse in the Gemini/Sagittarius axis until the end of 2019 (more on that in next month’s posting).  Also occurring within this lunation is another exact square in the ongoing square dance between Pluto & Uranus (2012 - 2015) on 5/20/13.

This Taurus solar eclipse closely aligns the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Mars, Pallas & the Dragon’s tail (karmic release point) in the 7th house.  Any new moon, but especially a solar eclipse signifies a time to retreat into oneself in order to locate & hit our personal reset button.  With all this activity in Taurus in the house of relationships, suggested reset activities are gardening, hiking, or a picnic & heartfelt conversation with a loved one.  Basically, do something rejuvenative & either contemplative &/or intimate out in nature.  Whatever it is, make sure it’s something you enjoy, & enjoy it fully.

We are also, in this solar eclipse chart, under the influence of a Grand Water Trine between Saturn in Scorpio, Neptune in Pisces, & Vesta in Cancer.  This is a prelude to this summer’s Grand Water Trine fugue, so take note of the emotional momentum that is coming up for you now.  Consider the energy of water: reflection, cleansing/release, the ability to fill any vessel & take any form.  With this configuration, either (high road) you work with your emotions, or (low road) they work you into overwhelm &/or cruelty to yourself or others - your choice.

Questions to help you evolve through the Taurus solar eclipse (5/9):

Review & realign yourself with your values yet again, & see if they’ve shifted since the Scorpio lunar eclipse.

What do you value in relationships?  Which current relationships most align with your values?

Which relationships do you value the most, & why?  Do you act in alignment with that hierarchy?

Do you feel valued in your relationships?  If not, how can you discuss this with those you are close with?

Do you value those you are in relationship with?  What actions can you take that would clearly communicate that to your partner/s?

Do you have unhealthy attachments to anyone?

How can you evolve those relationships into interdependency rather than codependency, or let go of those relationships that are beyond salvation?

What do your relationships teach you about who you are (& who you’re not)?

What is the current state of your emotional momentum (do you tend towards anger, depression, grief, overwhelm, etc)?

If you are unable to access or work with your emotions, what sort of help would you be willing to try (therapy, hypnotherapy, EMDR, NLP, weekly acupuncture, support groups, regular exercise, etc)?

Do you have any addictions (substances, food, TV, internet, social media, work, etc)?

What are you willing to do to help yourself evolve out of those habits?

That should tide you over until the Gemini solar month’s report on the Sagittarius lunar eclipse & the next installment of the Pluto/Uranus square saga.  This Taurus month is a preparation for next month’s crack-your-mind-wide-open imperative.  Good luck with this time of density, release, right risk, & transformation.

For more personalized insight, you may go here to schedule a private astrological consult, or - if you’re feeling out of whack - an Alithesis healing session.  Until next month’s posting, happy digging & delving, releasing & committing.  Thanks for reading,

Rae Diamond

rae13diamond {at} gmail.com

                                                          

Vernal Equinox, Sun in Aries - Wednesday, March 20th, 2013, 4:02 AM, PDT

In the Pacific Northwest, we have a number of salmon hatcheries.  There, as the salmon grow, they are released into successively larger pools that eventually lead to a wild river.  Thence, they begin their extreme journey upstream to the sea.

You can think of this past winter as your life as a young salmon in a fish hatchery.  The past month was particularly uncomfortable as you were fairly large, yet all you could do was swim around in circles in a little pool.  Maybe it seemed annoying and constricting, but hopefully you learned some few key lessons that will help you succeed in reaching the ocean.

That was Mercury, swimming backwards (i.e. retrograding) in noncommittal Pisces (2/23 - 3/17), in company with Neptune, Chiron, Venus, Mars, & the Sun.  Mars’ ingress into Aries on 3/11 gave a bit of forwards momentum to that wishy wash, but things will be kicking into higher and higher gears throughout most of this spring.  I hope you rested up in preparation for this mad dash!

Spring begins on Wednesday, 3/20/13, with the Sun’s entrance into fiercely determined Aries, a.k.a. the Vernal Equinox.  This is the point in the year when light overtakes darkness, when activity shifts from internal to external - a time of arising and bursting forth.

A chart cast for this spring indicates a highly serious and goal-oriented tone, aggressiveness &/or over-extending oneself, all at odds with a supremely sensitive undertone.  The way to handle this mish-mosh of energies is to alternately attend to your inner needs and your outer responsibilities.  Always, but especially this spring, take note of your emotions and the state of your body as indicators of whether your outer actions are on track, or need some adjusting.  Know well that this spring, ignored emotions will have a stronger tendency than usual to erupt into fights, eruptions of aggression, illness &/or injury.  You may also find some family issues beginning to surface, which will grow bigger, starting in late June.

In addition to a highly sensitive equinox chart, which includes three major configurations - a Grand Water Trine (massive sensitivity with a life of its own), a Cardinal T-Square (act or be acted upon - your choice), and a Yod (a dose of reality forces you to choose what’s really important to you, rather than frittering your energy off into a zillion directions) - we are moving into eclipse season (April & May 2013).  I’ll get into that in next month’s posting, but for now:

Do you notice any recurrence of issues that arose last eclipse season (November 2012)?

How can you meet these issues, relationships, emotions and situations in a more evolved way?

For practice, relive those situations in your mind, but say what you wish you had said, do what you wish you had done, or hold back in that moment when you rushed headlong into an ambush.

The first couple weeks of spring 2013 are explosive.  Many of the “personal planets” enter go-go-go now-now-now Aries, one after another - Mars led the way on 3/11, followed by the Sun on 3/20, and Venus on 3/21, all convening into a massive conjunction with edgy, electrifying & altogether unpredictable Uranus.  Bare in mind that Uranus is in a longterm square with nothing-but-the-truth Pluto in hard-nosed Capricorn.  This conglomeration peaks into another Cardinal T-square pattern at the Libra full moon on 3/27.  With Libra activated, relationship issues, fairness and the arts are brought into the my-freedom-now versus face-&-attend-to-true-&-longterm-responsibilities mix.

Your “homework” for 3/20 - 4/5:

What opportunities are showing up for me?

Which ones best align with my values?

 Am I attending to my personal needs as well as my responsibilities & my relationship needs?

Am I wasting time & energy on unimportant details?

What, in my life, is most important to me?

Hint: look to your actions, as well as the story you tell yourself in this regard - then determine which is truer & adjust yourself accordingly.

What fears are holding me back from expressing my true potential/power?

Are there any issues starting to show up in my family?

How can I prepare for their increase in prominence this summer?

By the end of the first week of April, a new set of energies begins to simmer.  At this point, the classic lovers, Venus & Mars, form an exact conjunction in mid-Aries (a highly sexual configuration with potential for argument, but also an alignment of values & will) as Mercury exits the shadow of his recent retrograde.  The Aries new moon on 4/10 marks the build-up to the Scorpio lunar eclipse on 4/25.  Use this day (4/10) as a still point to quietly & privately determine what the wisest course of action will be for you in the coming weeks.  Mercury enters Aries on 4/13, setting your mind afire with new ideas.  Then, Venus placidly leads the next planetary trend into her home-sign, Taurus, on 4/15.  This will shed some light on the themes of the quickly approaching eclipses.  Taurus is the most nature-loving sign, so you may enjoy taking the intriguing class, Eco-Poetics, taught by prime poet & professor, Janie Miller, on Tuesday evenings in April, in her cozy living room that overlooks the fiery glow of sunsets on the Cascades from the top of Capitol Hill.

Your “homework” for 4/6 - 4/18:

What do I value?

How have my values shifted since November 2012?

How can I align my values with my will & actions?

What fresh ideas am I excited about?

How can I communicate assertively, honestly & with kindness?

What gives me a sense of peace, & how can I bring more of that into my life?

For more personalized insight, please contact me for a private astrological consult, or - if you’re feeling out of whack - an Alithesis healing session.

Until next month’s posting, have a wonderful beginning to Spring!  Thanks for reading,

Rae Diamond

rae13diamond {at} gmail.com

206 - 963 - 3073

Sun Enters Pisces, Mercury Retrogrades in Pisces, 2/18/13 & 2/23/13, respectively

I hope you know how to swim because things are about to be supremely watery.  By the Virgo Full Moon on February 25th, half of the ten major planetary bodies of astrology will be in liquidy Pisces, plus Saturn and the Dragon’s Head (evolutionary true north) are in the deep pools of Scorpio.

Before going any further into the nitty gritty of who’s on first in the planetary world, let’s take a look at the art of swimming.  A very different set of rules apply when we’re in the water.  Ole gravity itself is seemingly tweaked unless, of course, you’re weighted down with some extra heavy baggage.  To stay afloat, it’s necessary to both keep yourself unburdened & allow the water to hold you up.  To maneuver yourself around in the water, you must both move the water & understand that the water also moves you.

Many of you know that in esoteric terms, water is associated with emotions.  Just in case you didn’t get all the above metaphor, here’s the breakdown:

1, Let go.  Release unnecessary baggage.

2, Let go.  Allow your life, work, relationships, surprises, & surroundings to hold & direct you.

3, Let go.  If you want to shift things, master your emotions.  However, you cannot force them.  It’s like swimming in the ocean - you can move in your intended direction, but the tide will also move you in its own way.  Stop occasionally to check your progress & adjust yourself accordingly.

On the 18th, after the Sun enters Pisces, Saturn stations retrograde in Scorpio until early July.  Until then, you have the opportunity to gain truer perspectives on issues that have come up for you around power, exchange, sexuality, death, and authority (anything dark & uncomfortable) since Saturn entered Scorpio in October.  This Saturn/Scorpio combination is particularly prone to the projection trap.  Here’re some methods for getting free if you’re stuck:

1, Assume total responsibility for the state of your life. How have you created your life as it is now?  In what ways do you have the power to alter it from this point onwards, & in what ways are attempts at control futile?

2, Understand that no two people perceive anything the same.  Therefore, you cannot know another person’s motivations.  Nor can anyone know yours unless you state them clearly & honestly.

How do you perceive others’ motivations?  Do you know these perceptions to be true?  Where do these perceptions come from?  How might these perceptions relate to previous experiences & relationships you’ve had?  If you are experiencing repetitions of relationship patterns that are unique to you, doesn’t it make sense that you are in some way creating them?  How can you harness that creativity to make new, more evolved relationship experiences?  For a really mind-blowing line of questioning, what are you not choosing to perceive in the motivations & actions of others?

3, In relationships, take note of who takes the role of the angry one, the sick one, the emotional one, the sexual one, etc.  In reality, we take part in both halves of all of these equations.  Where, pray tell, is the anger/illness/emotion/sexuality in the other half of the relationship?  What comes up for you when you switch these and other roles (teacher/student, boss/underling, perpetrator/victim etc) in your mind?

With Saturn, responsibility is always up for review.  With this retrograde through Scorpio, it’s time to consider how we can be responsible for our emotions.  It’s also time to be responsible with our power over others, & responsible for how we give our power away, often in ways that the people we’re giving it to do not want, or even know about!  No matter how you use it, don’t use it, give it away, or lock it up “safe,” your power is always, only & irrevocably yours.  Saturn is asking you how you can use your power more responsibly.

On February 23rd, Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces.  Thrice a year, for roughly three weeks at a time, Mercury does his little inversion dance.  The general mundane preparatory protocol in the weeks before Mercury’s retrograde period is:

1, Back up your computers, phones, & other communicatory devices.

2, Pin down any dates & obligations that have been kicking around, but be flexible about whether/when they actually happen.

3, Deal with any outstanding issues in your car/bike, or even - in this instance especially, as Pisces rules the feet - your feet & shoes.

The soul level preparatory protocol is this:

1, Take note of what issues are arising in your mind, as you will be revisiting them, & learning about them in depth in the coming weeks.

2, Open yourself to a new way of looking at things.

3, BE FLEXIBLE!!!

Here are some thinks to think during the next few weeks until Mercury stations direct in Pisces, on 3/17/13:

Forgiveness is up in spades for the next month, folks.  Whom do you need to forgive?  Whom do you need to forgive some more?  Do you need to forgive yourself for anything?

Are you playing the martyr or victim card?  How can you shift this story?  What happens when you forgive your perpetrator?  What happens when you take responsibility for how you respond to the suffering you are experiencing?

Are you playing the savior card?  Whom does this actually serve?  What is a more honest role for you?  Are you projecting the savior card onto another person?  What happens when the projector’s light goes out?  What does that person become?  What do you become?

Hint: Historically, saviors often become martyrs, & vice versa.  Consider how this relates to your situation, & to the people you paint in these lights.

How can you bring compassion forth in your life every day?  How can you bring love forth in your life every day?  How does/do the world, people, situations, and your environment shift when you perceive them through the lens of compassion & love?  For extra credit, try this with your “enemies,” with people you think deserve no compassion or love.  See how you feel afterwards.

The Dalai Lama once defined compassion as the desire for oneself or another to be free of suffering, & love as the desire for oneself or another to be happy.  For a most elevated Pisces experience, you can envision your heart extending outwards, so that it encompasses yourself & whomever/whatever you’re feeling compassion/love for... maybe all of humanity?  Try it out, yo!

That is plenty to keep you abreast of the energetic tides of the coming month.  For those of you who miss my old every-two-weeks format, please consider revisiting this same posting on the full & new moons.  This is a dense report, chock full of juicy queries & soothing reminders that you’re feeling the way you do because you’re in alignment with the Cosmos.  It’s not just true right now.  It’s true for the entirety of the coming month.  I promise.

Another thing about Pisces, where so much planetary energy will be concentrated in the next month - it’s a mutable sign.  That means things are changing.  Allow yourself to change.  Allow yourself to be changed.  We’re moving out of winter.  You can see, hear & smell harbingers of spring already.  Remember the inherent impermanence of life.  Feel crummy today?  You might not tomorrow.  Feel good today?  You might not tomorrow...  Or you might!

Thanks for reading, & enjoy your swim!

Rae Diamond

rae13diamond {at} gmail.com

Go here to schedule an astrology or healing appointment with Rae.