Greetings from New Paltz. I was up at dawn, awakened by the horoscope angels, so I'm asking Tracy to send out the Friday weekly. As you may know, I'm completing a nearly six week East Coast tour, taking the advice of Freddy the Pig: When in doubt, stir the pot.
The pot is brewing here in New Paltz, New York, where a young mayor, Jason West, is involved in what amounts to a civil disobedience, marrying gay couples, facing prosecution by the local District Attorney, and drawing media from all over the world. As someone who has a passion for both social causes and sexual evolution, it feels literally miraculous to have front row seats for this event.
The astrology of this week seemed to fit the bill: Fifty television cameras pointed at West as he responded to the absurd charges of the DA after pleading innocent, amid the most celebratory, biggest, funniest protest I've ever seen in this rather energised little town.
Pisces Power. This is what it feels like. Wednesday, as events peaked in New Paltz (and, coincidentally, the biggest PCB story of my 12-year career on this subject went out into the media), Mercury and the Sun made an exact conjunction in Pisces, opposite Jupiter. By a rule called "mutual reception" (explained in birthday report, below) this was also a Sun-Jupiter conjunction opposite Mercury. Big. Dramatic. Mercurial. Add a Leo Moon and you've got a lot of fun. Add one last factor: this configuration squared the Great Attractor in mid-Sagittarius, the most prodigious point in the known sky, drawing a million galaxies toward it like a cosmic magnet.
The Full Moon this weekend is no less inspiring (again, see birthday report). Uranus, still in the first flush of vibration from the Uranus ingress, is delivering a new kind of energy, at once both radical and compassionate, inventive and responsive. It is a liberated energy, but tempered by the slow, potent station of Saturn in Cancer, which is making sure that all this creative energy is being expressed as actual opportunity (thank you Sally for that piece). Saturn stations to direct movement in the seventh degree of Cancer on March 13, and is at a virtual standstill 'til that time.
The Sabian Symbol for this degree is "Two nature spirits dancing in the moonlight" and is about the work of hidden spiritual forces in all aspects of life.
One last point that I am sure to develop into a full essay. In aquasphere, I talk a lot about the Venus retrograde and the occultation of the Sun by Venus this June. I knew something big was up on the sexual liberation front, and the acknowledgement by straight society that gay people are people just like them is a big one. I think I summarised it as "We're all queer," if I recall.
http://planetwaves.net/aquasphere/norlnpgg/open/all_queer.html
This is just the beginning, kids. We are on the ride.
Enjoy the day. I'm going to play investigative reporter. I'll be back with a full report from New Paltz in a day or so, including a view of tomorrow's second round of queer weddings set for noon, right down the block, and a lot of really wild stuff on the PCB story -- I am genuinely astonished, and that's coming from somebody with a room full of PCB documents.
Love to you,
e
Planet Waves Horoscope
for the week of 5 March 2004
Aries (March 20-April 19)
Understandably, this is an edgy time for you, but it seems to be because you're getting a look at your fears rather than hiding them away. Worldly wisdom (insert quotation marks) teaches us to do the opposite: to conceal our fears not only from others, but from ourselves. I think you see the futility in this, and as the next few days progress you're bound to see how intelligent you are for calling your mind to focus and concentrating simply on what is so. Once you catch the vibe of awareness, you're going to become more adept at maintaining it. The obvious benefits will feed your heart and soul. Keep your lights on.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
Venus is moving slowly right now. As of Friday she is in the last degree of Aries, heading for your birth sign for the first time in many months. There is an extraordinary gift for you here, in particular, the revelation that you are learning to work within the system to achieve the innovative goals you have set for yourself. It would seem you've been of a rather conservative or even pensive mind these days, but I assure you that once Venus reaches Taurus over the weekend and Saturn changes directions midweek, you're going to feel the sense of liberation and completion that you deserve.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Take a ride on the sense of urgency and imminence of these days. It's not just your imagination: you are on the edge of something big, something you might describe as an inner cosmos. The intensity is likely to be more than you can grasp with your senses. As Friday progresses, the scene comes into focus and you'll be able to wrap your mind around the extraordinary events of recent days. But what you are experiencing is not an idea. There is no explanation. There may not be words for any of it. You don't need them now.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
The Moon is now approaching full phase and, at the same time, the mighty Saturn has slowed to a halt in your birth sign. You may as a result be experiencing an upsurge of emotion, a crystalline sense of your own thoughts, and the sense that you've reached a turning point in your life. The overriding theme is maturity. While this is a short commodity in the world, it's in abundant supply for you. I am certain that in the past you did not view your sense of age, experience and stability with such welcome. Behold: many other things are not as you thought.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Fear sucks. We live with so much bloody fear in this world that it's sickening. Most people are absolutely clueless how controlled they are by their fear. You are not. For you, fear works as a conscious debility, which you may view as a negative. In truth, your awareness grants you far more freedom of movement and authentic liberation than most other people dream of. You are approaching the point where you fear no one and no thing. Just don't take it for granted. From this point, you must be vigilant, but this will have fine rewards.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
This weekend's Full Moon in your birth sign is a calling to points beyond. We tend to view time as a line rather than as a space. But if you can embrace some new ideas about time, you're going to free up a lot of energy and sense of needless effort. One thing about time we all need to be reminded of is that you can get anywhere from anywhere. While there are often what feel like necessary steps in life, there are those moments when the fabric of reality bends to meet us. May this remind you of what else is possible.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You must negotiate your way forward. While in the past driving a hard bargain has worked well for you, from this point you need to pay close attention to everyone's needs in the whole situation in order to achieve an outcome that actually works for everyone. You appear to be making a dedicated effort to leave a certain element of the past behind you. You are right to believe that this is truly necessary and not a matter of anyone's opinion. Face up to what you are losing and you will see more clearly what you are gaining.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
If the current circumstances of your life are anything less than satisfactory, let me be the first to offer my empathy. And let me be the first to say that tables were made to turn. While under the current arrangement you may find yourself living in someone else's world on someone else's terms, there is a long-term process at work. While you are under no obligation to trust it, doing so will save you a lot of energy and unnecessary struggle. And, in the short term, you're about to encounter a life lesson which reveals that none of the debilities you think slow you down really do.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)
No, things are not going as planned, but what of it? You're making more of the situation than is called for. Remember, you are born under a mutable sign, and that means you have the ability to adapt like few other people. While it may seem that forces outside yourself are pushing you in a direction you would rather not go, you run the risk of negative progress if you don't get clear about a thing or two. For example, there is no one you need in this world more than you need your own sense of autonomy and well-being. Two, there is no one who can replace you in your own life.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
While you are not normally given to impetuous fits of revolt, there comes a time in any long term process where the desired change actually comes. How, when and why it comes can be an elusive mystery, but you can just chalk it up to the cosmic joke. Unseen forces are at work in your life. Factors you never would have considered are contributing not only to your success but to your happiness. What you thought was a wall is really a curtain.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
You are about to learn a thing or two about the whole notion of sacrifice. I would describe it this way: sacrifice is for the most part a construction of the mind. It is supported by belief, and reaffirmed by the failure to embrace that solutions are possible that actually work for everyone. When we block out that possibility, the logical solution to a challenging circumstance always involves unnecessary loss. For now, remember that every solution is in the same room as the problem.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
You are certainly not at a loss for imagination these days, or for determination. Does it really matter that you're not exactly on everyone's top ten list? You have learned one thing in the past few weeks, it's that focus counts, and that you do have the necessary measure of control over your feelings to create that focus. This weekend's Full Moon in your opposite sign is likely to open the floodgates on some interesting developments that will make you feel right at home on the planet, no matter what opinion anyone else may hold.
Pisces Birthdays This Week
In the laws of physics, friction is an important force. It is the property of nature that keeps the tyres on the highway. You have just enough friction in your birthday chart to make sure you remain attentive in love: on your toes, aware, alert and accepting.
Generally, attentiveness as a rule articulated by the world is measured in how much attention we pay to the other. I would say that this year, it's how much attention we pay to balance. This weekend's Full Moon chart, which reaches across the Virgo-Pisces axis, involves Mercury and Jupiter now residing in one another's signs: a truly extraordinary set-up that has many clear messages. This is called "mutual reception" and it is one of the most positive conditions in astrology. (Specifically, Mercury, ruler of Virgo, is in Pisces, and Jupiter, ruler of Pisces, is in Virgo, and the two are in face-to-face aspect).
With the Virgo Full Moon right in this same neighbourhood, the emphasis is on relationship, which is the meeting of hearts, of souls, and of minds. And it is the meeting of bodies, in the form of sensuality, of shared necessities and community property. There is a theme of being able to sense one another's realities without a word; of being able to reverse viewpoints as needed. This is a rare gift in relationship, where half the struggle seems to be about paying attention to one another enough to have a clue what the other is experiencing.
As the Pisces in this equation, whose chart this is, you get to set the example. This is not a time of teaching by words; you really can forget words, which should come as a great relief since you know that while they can be useful, they have demonstrated themselves to have some serious limitations. Definitely use them as needed: for courtesy, for making requests, and for checking basic facts of circumstance that will help life flow more smoothly.
But rely mostly on empathy. Yes, you are different than the people around you, and they would not have it any other way. You are real to them, you exist in a visceral and tangible way, and more than that, there is something about your existence that gives theirs the necessary contrast to make life not just interesting -- you add that edge of intrigue.
Discomfort needs to be your teacher. Be it emotional, economic or social, learn to be sensitive to where and when a need of yours is not being met. Pisces is the most self-sacrificing sign. It is not this way by choice; it is anything from a matter of survival to a matter of adapting to life on a lonely planet. What you now have a chance to adapt to is your own sense of necessity, and you need to do this in ways both large and small.
Feel your world and the people in it. Consciously sense who is supporting you. Pay attention to how you breathe around other people. You will learn a lot from the simplest messages of your body, and your impressions are generally going to be accurate enough to trust on first impulse. Of course, monitor your inner messages as you explore people and their worlds; but trust yourself as you do it. If Pisces has one other fate, it seems to be a failure of trust in oneself that, rather joyfully, is fast becoming a thing of the past.
Remember every day: there is room in this big world for you. Exactly you, exactly as you decide to change. ++
