CERTAIN BASIC facts about the timing of the reclassification of Pluto (and thus the rearrangement of the scientifically accepted model of the solar system) have not escaped me, though I haven't made a big deal about them yet.
 
There is no shortage of things to rant about lately, and we are in some positively strange days. Saturn and Neptune in exact opposition have us living in a state of maximum tension, and with this mix of energy we must more or less calmly accept that anything and everything is subject to change; anything or everything is possible. And it's a little scary. I think Saturn opposite Neptune suggests that we really do have a choice in most matters, but that choice seems to involve maintaining a very tense balance.

When this astrology passes, we will see what it was all about. But while it's here, we need to make the very most of it. The peak energy lasts through late spring 2007, and then it's gone; uncomfortable as it may be, it's extremely useful.
 
One aspect I have not mentioned much yet, and I don't hear much about -- given so much else going on -- is Jupiter square Saturn. Saturn is in Leo and Jupiter is in Scorpio, and they are meeting in a series of squares. Imagine these two great worlds angling the Earth in a right angle -- yet another image of maximum tension, and in particular, the reminder of a turning point in all things originating with events of 2000. Gee what happened that year? I can barely remember now. But it seems to ring a bell.
 
Each on their own, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune or Pluto can completely rearrange the pool table of life. But when they act together, we get what is called a world transit -- the whole world experiences it, the world grows, the world changes, just like a person. No, I am not necessarily speaking for a rural Chinese farming family -- but then, I am not leaving them out of my thoughts. A lot happens these days that affects the world, as in the whole world. Very, very slowly we are getting a grasp on this idea. The solution to pollution is not dilution.

Planets working together act together on everyone's natal chart. Using Saturn opposite Neptune as an example, wherever one planet makes an aspect in our charts, the other is making a corresponding aspect. For example, let's say you're Sagittarius rising. You would have Saturn trine the ascendant at the same time Neptune is sextile the ascendant. Both move your chart along together.
 
Those who are really feeling the pressure probably have one or more important points in the middle of the fixed signs -- Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. Everyone born in the mid-Sixties is taking this opposition in a square to their natal Neptune in Scorpio, and this, to me, is saying it's time for us Sixties kids to have no illusions.
 
A Rearranged (notion of the) Solar System

For several reasons, we can set aside the fact that from a scientific standpoint, the new definition of a planet is pretty much a joke. It makes a lot more sense astrologically than it does scientifically. I would not go as far as to call it fraud, but I would call it political science, and apparently scientific politics was indeed involved -- but I've decided not to chase down this story in nonfiction form. However, from a fictional standpoint, I can tell you that had Prof. Smedley not been rebuffed by his lovely research assistant, Nina, on the eve of the vote, Pluto would still be a planet.
 
One of the new rules for being a planet is that the critter in question needs to have "cleared its neighborhood" (i.e., swallowed or crashed into all the smaller objects nearby its orbit), but this doesn't work so well as a rule where Neptune is concerned -- had Neptune done that, Pluto would not exist. Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit (this orbit-crossing factor seems to bother some people). But if we say that everything called a planet has "cleared its neighborhood," this is just another less-than-true thing that will be taught in schools. At least most kids will remember that Pluto exists, and that it was once called a planet; and will be aware that it was reclassified along with two other bodies -- which everyone now agrees actually exist and has potentially heard of -- Ceres and 2003 UB313 (Xena). If for no other reason, this whole debate had great value for putting those two terms into use.
 
Two things are striking about the timing of all this, and I keep getting emails reminding me. One is that the decision occurred in the run-up to the Saturn-Neptune opposition (the first of three exact passes happened Thursday, Aug. 31). Hence, the decision to make Neptune the 'last official planet' (a distinction it was granted most recently in 1846, when Abe Lincoln was a young man) came during a peak moment in the Neptune cycles -- with Saturn approaching an exact and rare opposition to it. Saturn-Neptune is a cycle that seems to speak volumes about the shape of the world, and the shape of our physical lives. It's as if ideas turn to wet clay under this influence, and new shapes of reality are created.
 
The current opposition refers us back to the conjunction of 1989 (just like a Full Moon refers back to the immediately preceding New Moon). At that time, we saw the dissolving of the Communist bloc and the more-than-symbolic fall of the Berlin wall. If you were alive, you were going through big changes at that point. One world was giving way to the next. Even if you don't think what happened back then was meaningful, try it on for size. Look at the implications of those developments. The same is true of today, only now you know the process is happening and that gives you the opportunity to add awareness and creativity.
 
Bridge to the Core

Second, the vote by [some] astronomers occurred just as Pluto is about to cross the Galactic Core. This, too, is a world transit. Pluto made a very close (less than one degree) approach to the core on March 29, but did not quite get there. The first exact contact happens the last two days of this year, and the process continues through 2007 -- though at this point, it is in orb of the black band at the center of the galaxy, the winter solstice point and the Aries Point -- so Pluto as a factor is getting hotter, not cooler. Of note, this is the first time Pluto will have made a conjunction to the Galactic Core since well before the American and French revolutions and the Enlightenment. Pluto on the Core has a touch of "before and after science."
 
Let's pause for a moment of background on the Core, since many people have not heard of it and cannot visualize it. Our Sun is part of a galaxy, consisting of about 300 billion stars arranged in a big flat spiral with a bulge at the middle. The Earth is fairly well on the outside of this spiral, out on the edge, in other words, pretty far from the Core. Here is a picture of the view from Earth. At the middle of the bulge is a black hole (now proven and accepted by science). This holds the galaxy together, and around it are clustered a vast number of stars. So many that it must be light around the clock out there -- during the day from your immediate star system, and at night from all the other millions of stars close by.

There also appears to be a lot of what is called dark matter in the region of the core. In that direction is also an X-ray source (probably from the dark matter). I can never quite get clear the relationship between the black hole, the dark matter and the X-ray source, but I'm going to give it another go before this essay is over.
 
Pluto crossing the Core is a rare event, occurring about once every 250 years. This is the first time it's happening since we know the Core even exists. In astrology, rarity gets you points for weirdness and intensity. The first time something happens where astrologers are aware of it adds energy as well.
 
Pluto is always good for a spectacular show (proof that it's really associated with Pisces -- it's a drama queen). The Core is mind blowing, it is barely understood and a truly deep metaphor for something in space, associated with us, that is "at the center of it all," meaning at the core of the psyche. In many ways, Pluto functions as the center of individual evolutionary growth; and the Core is a metaphor for something we all have in common, arguably the most collective symbol and point there is. In the depths of space, the Milky Way is our home, and with the Core, we're talking about the center of our little island.
 
The core feels a little like the heart of God or Goddess (indeed both, as it contains both light and dark matter). In terms of history, Pluto going over the Core feels to me like Big Big Waking Up on that soul level, where the center self moves the rest of the self to be aware and act with volition. At right around the same time, Uranus (in Pisces) more closely approaches a square to the Core; that builds through the 2012 era but I believe we are already feeling the warm-up jiggles from the Uranus-Pluto-Core alignment now.
 
A Planetary Dimension Shift

The solar system doesn't get officially rearranged every day, so this is a big metaphor for something. (It does get physically rearranged every day because there are new discoveries on a near-daily basis.) But face it, this stuff has not been taught in school, and most astrologers have frankly not given a holy darn or half a thought about discoveries like UB313 till pretty recently. Most appreciate anything they can find on Chiron (a kind of little planet called a Centaur, discovered in 1977), and we did not even have coherent literature on Pluto (discovered in 1930) until 1973 -- and then, after a rather long wait, a book finally came out in 1985.  My point is, astrology is slow to catch up with new developments in science.
 
The great thing about what has shaken down the past couple of weeks is that it's more true to say that the solar system consists of eight planets, plus a number of unusual things like Ceres, Pluto and Xena, than it is to say nine planets and leave it at that. At least if we say eight planets plus other stuff, we remember the other stuff. Pretty much everyone who reads a newspaper now knows that there a lot of other things resembling Pluto and UB313 that are waiting to be classified as this new thing called a dwarf planet. So this term opens the door to many other discoveries that will become factors in the way we think about nature, ourselves and our collective life. The important thing is that we're very likely to hear about them because they now have an accepted name and category. And before very long at all, it now seems there will be a lot more dwarf planets named.
 
And this changes us, even if just a little. Even if you sell used cars and the most important thing in your life is baseball, you're vaguely aware that the Earth and Sun are part of a solar system and the model of that critter can conjure vivid mental images and stir us on the psychic levels. When these planets are acknowledged, the energy they represent stirs to life in our minds, and in our larger collective life, including as events in both. There are always collective shifts around the time new planetary discoveries are acknowledged.
 
Astrology is the study of where all these things intersect. From this standpoint, our new model does something that I think is very helpful. We can start with the presumption that Pluto is a force that you can't really reckon with -- you can only deal with it, embrace and grow with it. Now we have a new dimension of planets that starts with Pluto, this magnificent little anti-planet on the edges of the solar system. Then we include another factor presumed to be on a similar level: Ceres.
 
Ceres (Demeter in the Greek version) and Pluto (Hades in the Greek version) have two astronomical parallels: one is the biggest object in the inner asteroid belt; the other is the biggest known object in the Kuiper Belt, the icy outer belt of objects that surrounds Neptune. Ceres and Pluto have a long relationship in mythology, which involves the daughter of Ceres (Demeter), called Persephone (per-seff-o-nee).
 
First off, she is the goddess of fertility and food -- a meaningful counterpart to the lord of the underworld and the god of the dead.
 
Wikipedia writes that Ceres "was depicted in art with a scepter, a basket of flowers and fruit, and a garland made of wheat ears. The word 'cereal' derives from Ceres, commemorating her association with edible grains. The name Ceres comes from the Proto-Indo-European root 'ker', meaning 'to grow', which is also the root for the words 'create' and 'increase'."
 
Ceres factors into the mythology of Pluto because the lord of the underworld abducts the daughter of Ceres, called Proserpina in the Roman telling and Persephone in the Greek. The stories are similar. Ceres' loss of her daughter is one mythological basis for the changing of the seasons, as Proserpina is down in the underworld, Ceres is grieving and the world cannot bear fruit. While in the underworld, Proserpina, as Pluto's consort, becomes the queen of the dead. Eventually, she is reunited with Ceres, but several months of each year she must return to the underworld, and this is why we have winter. The story, told in Wiki, is well worth the 10 minutes it takes to read, and there are many nuances that I'm leaving out so I can stick to the main point. One that I'll touch upon is that the whole myth may really be a commentary on marriage as a kind of abduction, more than it is about the seasons.
   
So Ceres and Pluto share an important relationship via Proserpina, and it actually makes a lot of sense for the two to be considered planets of the same class. It is also pretty interesting that Ceres, the giver of life and abundance, should be the mother of one who has been referred to as the Iron Queen, or one whose name could not be spoken. Ceres is the mother of the Queen of the Damned, and Pluto is her husband. (When I referred to an "archetypal drama" last week, this is part of what I was getting at.)
 
A Co-Ruler of Taurus?

Astrology pretty much accepts that Pluto is the co-ruler or ruler of Scorpio. There are hold-outs; most Vedic astrologers don't factor in Pluto, and the Helenistic movement (a kind of retro movement using basic rules from the BC era) prefers not to. Then there are those such as myself who hold Mars as the first ruler and Pluto as the modern ruler.
 
The rulership system was arranged before the modern planets were discovered and is a complete, symmetrical entity, so there is some debate over whether new discoveries should even be called "rulers." But all chess and checkers of astrology aside, the connection is intuitive, and the death and regeneration themes of Scorpio are certainly a good fit with Pluto.
 
In the past couple of weeks it occurred to two of us working on the subject, independently, that Ceres was a logical co-ruler or modern ruler of Taurus. I first saw the connection in the Pluto-Ceres myth. Ceres is the goddess of fertility and grain, which work well both as earthy Taurean themes and as those specifically opposite Scorpio.
 
Taurus and derived themes in the 2nd house speak of personal resources, one's own wealth (that cow in Taurus is usually the dividing line between the haves and the have nots). So, in Taurus one possesses, and in Scorpio one makes an arrangement for trade of some kind, or surrenders something to someone else (i.e., Taurus is about sensuality and masturbation, and Scorpio is about deep surrender sex with another). Ceres is the perfect symbol of that abundance, in a relationship that is directly with the Earth. We get a sexual aspect of Taurus in the form of Ceres being a fertility goddess. Venus gives us the amorous, pleasure and beauty aspects of sex, and Ceres the fertility and abundance aspects of sex.
 
Then something else struck me. In the research process, we came up with the names of people born with Ceres conjunct the Sun and Moon.
 
Here is a little list of those with Ceres conjunct the Sun, from the Solar Fire chart database:
 
Muhammad Ali, Barbara Cartland, Patsy Cline, Jodie Foster, Susan Sarandon, Michael J. Fox, Germaine Greer, JFK (and Junior!), Madonna, Martina Navratilova, Nancy Regan and Robin Williams.
 
Now, I am the most pathetic person in the world where celebrities are concerned -- and there is something I can tell you many of these people have in common. Maybe it will be more clear with Ceres conjunct the Moon:
 
Julie Andrews, Phil Collins, Gene Roddenberry, Marie Stopes, Noel Coward, Christian Dior, Indira Ghandi, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Bette Midler, Mary Tyler Moor and Sandie Shaw.
 
In a word: VOICE. Voice is a Taurus theme as Taurus rules the throat. People with a well-aspected Venus almost always have a nice voice, a distinctive voice, a magnificent voice. And quite often, something to say. So do a heck of a lot of Taureans, in a uniquely Venusian way.
 
There is also something going on with Ceres here. It just happens that while the truly heart-stopping voices are on the Ceres-Moon list, I can easily remember what the speaking voices of many of the Sun-Ceres people sound like -- which is amazing since I am a culture vacuum poster child. I've heard a recording of Germaine Greer (thanks to Sinead); I love Jodie Foster's voice; Susan Sarandon will always be Janet Weiss to me, and the boudoir scene with Frank N. Furter [Rocky Horror Picture Show - my idea of culture] is stolen by Janet's laughing moans; imagine Robin Williams belting out "Good morning Vietnam!" and Mary Tyler Moore chirping away with that immortal, kind of pathetic voice you can never forget.
 
There is also a lefty political slant to this lot; even Nancy Reagan is the de-facto leftist leader for the Republican Party. She may be the hardcore Republican's last voice of conscience at this point.
 
My favorite bit of Ceres trivia is that she was discovered on New Year's Day 1801 -- the first day of the 19th century -- on the island of Sicily, by a Sicilian, Giuseppe Piazzi (my distant cousin, who lived from 1746-1826). He named her Ceres Ferdinandea, after the Sicilian goddess of grain (in the land of macaroni, an important goddess for sure).
 
In an odd synchronicity, my second favorite bit of Ceres trivia is that the first asteroid was also discovered the day the Act of Union took effect, binding the modern British Empire, a Tauruean institution if there ever was one -- if, of course, we allow for London being Capricorn.
 
Voice, perhaps, but a touch of understatement. "I have announced this star as a comet," wrote Piazzi in a letter shortly after his discovery, "but since it is not accompanied by any nebulosity and, further, since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet. But I have been careful not to advance this supposition to the public."
 
-- Additional Research: Melanie J. Andrews





From Planet Waves blog for Weds., Aug. 30, 2006
 
Dear Friend and Reader:
 
ONE comment on yesterday's entry suggested that I tend to link the themes of houses, signs and planets -- in particular, the 8th, Scorpio and Pluto. This is a mistaken impression that I owe to a few shortcuts I've had to take in summarizing recent events involving Pluto. Houses, signs and planets are related, but they come from different levels of the game of astrology, if you can call it that, and it's a helpful meditation studying the differences. If you look, you'll see that any house and its corresponding sign are like two siblings: exactly the same, and totally different.
 
Houses are more worldly, grounded in the environment. Signs, while also representing things and environments, tend to be more cosmic and biological. An example of a Scorpio theme is DNA. An example of an 8th house theme is decoding the DNA, cutting it up and selling it for billions of dollars.
 
In any case, when we look at the current revision of the world, "all the things that seem to matter most" tend to be 8th house themes, derived from Scorpio in a more organic form, and associated with Pluto processes as Pluto makes its way around the solar system. In the current astrological climate, we tend to forget that Mars is also a driving force in the whole experience: desire, pushed to the limits -- or in many cases, made subservient to a "higher power" -- the company one works for.
 
The 8th house begins with the themes "death, dowry and the substance of the bride" (this is from the first astrology book in English). Karl Marx summed it up as commodification -- in a capitalist society, everything you need becomes a commodity. However, the idea of bride-price (buying a bride) or dowry (buying or financing a groom) were around long before Marx was ever a gleam in his daddy's eye. Yet his prediction has come true; we must buy very nearly everything we need; we share and trade very little; most of life comes back to an agreement or a contract of some kind, with a capitalist entity. As well, the kind of relationship we tend to want the most is marriage. The expressions, "banks run everything," "everything is about money," "nothing is certain in life except death and taxes," and "all is fair in love and war" are the reasoning processes of the 8th house as we know it. And they are pretty difficult to escape.
 
How do you get sex? Lots of guys will tell you take a woman out and spend money. How do you get a wife? Of course, dress well, drive a nice car, and make a lot of money. How do you get a guy? Be very sexy, which usually involves spending a lot of money. Whether this is true, or a belief, it's a thought-form that tends to dominate our ideas about life, and we live in a world where sex (8th house theme, as it relates to bonding, orgasm and reproduction) is nearly entirely a commodity. Prostitutes know this better than anyone, not because they charge for sex, but they are not blind to the ways everyone else does the same thing. And I observe that prostitutes are controversial because they are not hypocrites. They state their price openly, and you know what you're getting in the arrangement; nothing is implied.
 
What pushes this whole complex system of economics along is the idea of death, which is one thing that the 8th house and Pluto definitely have in common. Survival (desperately needing money or sex) is a sub-topic of death, and is well taken advantage of by those who see the opportunity and set up a system to either meet a need, or exploit one.
 
Then there is the growth aspect of the 8th house and Pluto -- what comes from these confrontations with "the bottom line." Everyone knows that in the metaphorical world of humans, death and change are nearly interchangeable; and that people tend to fear change the more. And the resistance of so many people to change tends to push things in to an 8th house context (crisis), and make them vulnerable to Pluto-type upheavals.
 
So given all this, it's all very interesting what has happened with Pluto -- for example, the best fact I can think of, is that he's been put on an equal plane with Ceres, the goddess of fertility and food. There is something about a balancing out the energies here.
 
Fertility and food are the perfect answers to the distorted themes of the 8th house, as we live them in the world. Because when fertility and food are focused on, and received lovingly, we don't have all those 8th house problems. We recognize our common needs (instead of just fearing our common fates). The suggestion (Ceres theme) is that we learn as much from abundance as we do from lack; we can just as easily create passion, fertility and wealth as we can create our gun-to-the-head kinds of situations we love to get out of; and we had best start considering how to do that better, because we are in a global resource crisis that is calling for a new approach. And we do have the ability to create a different reality, if we will work together. There is plenty to go around, if we cooperate.
 
Ah, well, that's a big one. Here is how Swami Beyondananda sums it up:
 
"Of course, if you're looking for signs [of an up-wising] in the news, you won't find them. At least, not yet. The news might as well be called the 'olds', because the world still seems stuck in greedlock, ruled by fossilized fools fueled by fossil fuels. But I have been receiving encouraging intelligence reports that say indeed, humans are becoming more intelligent. Yes, people everywhere are wising up. And that's great, because we could sure use an up-wising! The evolution has begun."
 
Yours & truly,

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, September 1, 2006, #626 - By ERIC FRANCIS

This unusually detailed report covers the first two weeks of Virgo, with a focus on the first decanate (the first 10 degrees/days of the sign, approximately Aug. 23-Sept. 3). There will be additional information provided next week for those born the third week and the second decanate (approximately Sept 3-Sept. 13).

Everyone in the first decanate has at least one thing in common: You are clear of two major transits, Pluto square your Sun, and Uranus opposite your Sun. (You may be under other Pluto and Uranus transits, which I'll explain in a moment.) Pluto and Uranus are outer planets, sometimes characterized as The Gods of Change. There is nobody who has experienced several outer planet transits within a few years who is not in some important ways profoundly different than you were before they happened. That is the whole point of the outer planets.

The transit of Pluto square the Sun, which you may have experienced as early as 10 years ago or as recently as the past few years, is a kind of high-intensity purging process that clarifies one's sense of identity and one's role in the world. It can be painful, but the overall feeling is that the whole experience really is necessary. No matter how long ago this transit may have occurred in your life, you are still under its influence; Pluto transits don't really go away, and they are reactivated with other outer planets get into the act (as is happening now).

However, because so many people, particularly those born in the 1960s, have numerous placements in the mutable signs (Saturn and Chiron in Pisces, and Uranus and Pluto in Virgo, to name a few), life with Pluto in Sagittarius has for many people been one long, never-ending Pluto transit. Indeed, for many people with strong mutable charts (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces), it is not over, and the best thing an astrologer can do for you is help you make the very most of these genuinely once in a lifetime opportunities.

From Inside Out

Virgo is generally a deeply individualistic, and internally-oriented energy, and it's rarely easy for Virgos to be "out there" in the world, and to make themselves vulnerable in a way that to other signs feels normal. To a Virgo, sometimes the most basic gesture of stepping out can feel like becoming a stampeding herd of elephants. (If, however, you're born the first 10 days of this sign, you are in the decanate or 'face' ruled by the Sun, so it may be a little more natural for you -- not a lot, but definitely a little. But indeed, Pluto has been encouraging you to get over your hang-ups and do just precisely that: feel stronger in your foundations, come from deeper in your core, and express yourself with a clear mind and a clear voice. Venus and Mercury never go far from the Sun and if you are a Virgo there is a fair chance you are experiencing outer planet transits to these planets as well, or will be soon.

Next case: the transit of Uranus in Pisces is making an opposition to your Sun and any other Virgo placements. This is probably the more recent experience (focused on the past three years), and has at minimum put you into a highly-charged state the past few years. Uranus has represented a confrontation with the world and with people in it. Uranus represents people and situations that provoke us to be free. If Virgo has a quality of getting caught in its own world of feelings and ideas, Uranus is the shock that refreshes, that calls the inner being forth into the outer world, and most of all, represents some circumstance that compels you to go beyond your fears.

The chances are that Uranus represents something you feel is bigger, more powerful, more evolved, more talented, or more creative than yourself -- or many such situations, in a long succession -- and your role is to meet that 'something' on equal terms. I know this may, at times, feel like the most painful thing in the world; like somebody is expecting you to scale Mount Rushmore with your bare hands, and dance around on Abe Lincoln's nose.

Recent Events: New Moon

Solar return charts in the first decanate of Virgo have a different feeling than recent years. The quality of the charts is like someone has dropped a focusing lens in front of your life. There are several good examples of the astrology. For instance, the day the Sun entered your sign there was a New Moon -- which gathers and aligns many internal and external qualities of the personality, and is nothing but a blessing and affirmation of something beginning. The New Moon is a joining of the internal and external natures; a reminder that you are evolving and aligning within yourself; and that whatever halves of yourself you feared were not talking are getting themselves Together.

This also means that for all Virgo birthdays the first two weeks, the Moon is waxing toward the full phase, and gaining momentum.

The New Moon was in an exact trine to Pallas Athene in Capricorn. Pallas, the second asteroid ever discovered (officially called 2 Pallas), is the energy of protector, warrior and negotiator. She is verbal, thoughtful, and represents all forms of strategy. Capricorn is your 5th solar house, the house of art. The implication is that you need to develop creative strategies. These strategies need to combine a dimension of maturity, but also an element of risk. The syntax translates to "know the risks you are willing to take, and then take them."

These are not the kinds of risks like jumping off the roof into a pile of leaves. This is more like beginning the strategic search for the right work (Virgo-Cap theme), which invariable means work that taps into your creative talents rather than sidelining them. But this is not something that "happens to you." The aspect is a trine involving the earthy signs; it is a door that you can go through, and a potential you can develop. While there are indeed trines that "just happen," this is one that I suggest you make happen.

Both Virgo and Capricorn are signs that reveal their energy in layers, like the Earth. And layer by layer you need excavate, or build, the strategy that works for you. But remember: there is an idea you're developing, and that idea is a way to interact with the world. Very likely this involves getting your material needs met (again, earthy sign influences).

Saturn opposite Neptune

The big news lately is of course Saturn opposite Neptune. For all Virgos and most Virgo rising people, this is taking place from your 12th solar house (Saturn in Leo) to your 6th solar house (Neptune in Aquarius). This placement could easily be the topic of a whole reading or essay, but I will sum it up. Your 6th and 12th solar houses are particularly important to you, a Virgo, and these are the houses that represent two things you're very familiar with: service, and a sense of isolation.

Saturn in Leo has been pushing you deep into yourself to call forth your identity, which can be lonely work. Neptune in Aquarius has represented a drive to find your true service, your true expression of dharma in the world. Neptune never makes anything easy. You're lucky if somebody taught you to swim when you were a kid; but most of us had our third eyes shut down as children and Neptune is for sure an influence that is accessible mainly through the 'psychic' sense.

The alignment of these two planets, which affects every sign a little differently [please refer to Parallel Worlds, which was largely based on this aspect] is another example of a focusing lens or a meeting point between two hemispheres of consciousness. It is a significant growth point and point of release for you. It may take a little time for the sense of 'something having settled' to reach you, but you can trust that it's happening.

The results will feel like the process of things that had no relationship finally having a relationship; a sense of your life being different; a sense of something deep inside you finding a purpose in the outer world. Give the process time. Saturn and Neptune meet two more times between now and June, and this transit will take a while to settle in.

Sun conjunct Mercury in Virgo

This is less abstract. The aspect is exact Friday, the exterior or superior conjunction of the Sun and Mercury, your ruling planet. Note that with this conjunction we are now exactly halfway between Mercury retrograde phases. But for Virgo, particularly in your solar return chart, it's a stunning symbol of self-union, awareness, clarity and confidence.

While the Sun and Mercury make relatively many conjunctions (about six per year), it is rather excellent to have one occur in your sign and so close to your solar return. I think that Mercury is a much more spiritual influence than most people give it credit for being; Mercury to me has a touch of Krishna consciousness ("the mind behind the senses, the consciousness of creatures").

The Sun is more concerned with glory, expression and ego consciousness, a kind of "mind in front of the senses." The alignment brings two potentially competing aspects of the psyche into alignment, and they both happen to be archetypes strongly associated with Virgo, in a time of year so close to when you were born that it's a personal message.

Of what? Of wising up, rising up, growing up and of being an integrated, united individual, able to meet the world on equal terms.

Because so much of the astrology of the past three to 10 years has involved intense confrontations, upheavals, losses and instability, the sequence of events associated with your solar return (New Moon the day of the Virgo ingress; Saturn opposite Neptune in your solar return chart; and Mercury conjunct the Sun), the image is one of collecting all that you've gained, consolidating all you've learned, and finally being able to encounter those powerful, creative others as someone who has something to offer, and is willing to play.

Discuss this report here.


Aries (March 20-April 19)
There is what you do, and what you dream of doing. Both are exceptionally compelling right now, but the forthcoming lunar eclipse in your neighboring sign Pisces opens a window to the unusual, the improbable and the unlikely. Something enters this world from the other, and soaks your life with meaning like spring rains soak a garden -- and what grows, as a result, defies your expectations and beliefs. If you feel a certain overwhelming quality to whatever is associated with this astrology, stand back and let it all be. Something bigger than you is at work, and for that, you can be thankful. Family Focus: Encourage children to discuss last night's dreams at the breakfast table.
 
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
The tide is rising, and the great wave may arrive with some stunning news or a brilliant idea from a close friend -- and the truth has a way of setting everyone free. Freedom is relative in this world, not absolute. So consider this movement as a step along the way of life, and an opportunity to see how important that thing known as "perspective" really is. Only the truth is true, but there are indeed many ways to see it, and many ways to embrace it. Giving yourself a little space to think and feel has only deepened your thirst for more. Family Focus: An oppressive situation in your home has finally lifted like a thick fog.
 
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Your life is hardly as placid as a mountain lake, but weeks of emotional conflict, pressure and anxiety can now finally give way to peace and contentment. Just prepare for at least one more big surprise before that happens. And remember, it is not just your life that is changing, indeed, becoming something entirely other than what it was. The world around us is changing, the shape of reality is yielding like so much plastic, and there are many who are waking up to the mysterious fact that things don't stay the same for very long. But you're taking this in stride, and the reason is simple: you've been willing to work through your difficulties with faith and awareness. There are rewards for being open to your own inner truth. Family Focus: Are you expecting company? Better wash all the extra linens.
 
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Those who are most interested in your work and ideas are also most likely to influence your thinking and creative process. The fact that they feel and understand you is a good cue to extend the same sensitivity to them. Be open to their suggestions, and also the subtle ways in which their words and ideas set off your own creative process. Somebody you care about deeply holds the key to what you've been struggling with for months. This person may be nowhere physically near you, but they are close at heart, and watching you carefully, and guiding your relationship with the wider world. Family Focus: Children will be learning much more at home than they do at school this week.
 
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
You've probably come to the conclusion that some kind of long-term financial rearrangement, refinancing or sale of property is necessary. Just remember: you are finally approaching financial matters from a place of abundance, and you need to let this one fact guide you every step of the way. Abundance is always based on economy, that is, a community based on mutual needs and interests. What facilitates commerce and expansion of wealth is good for everyone; all that gets in the way should be gently side-stepped. Family Focus: Savor the miracle that despite so many changes, you are safe and secure in your home.
 
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Whatever surprise pops out from behind the cosmic curtain over the next week or two, take it in stride -- but enjoy the change of pace that comes with it. In truth you're being offered a doorway to another life, and an invitation to the unknown. This, after a fairly long spell of 'the known' getting a little ready for something new. The charts for your entire birthday season have revolution spray painted all over them. Don't worry if this happens to make you nervous today. Enjoy the developments while they are strange, new and exciting. Family Focus: You play many roles to many people. Be yourself no matter what they say.
 
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
So much is about to change, and people are going through all kinds of not-so-subtle transformations -- but in truth, you're the one who is growing by the hour. Yesterday's fears are about to become today's strengths. Yesterday's uncertainty is becoming today's clear, vital message from the cosmos that you have the right to exist. A long identity crisis is becoming the fuel for a new way of looking at yourself: from the inside out, rather than the outside in. But don't 'do' any of this -- let it happen. Family Focus: You may need to reverse an important decision. Don't worry what anyone thinks.
 
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Give a voice to your fears every chance you get. Mars working its way toward your 12th solar house is suggesting that you can no longer live in silence, within your own mind. But no more should you live in silence with those around you. You need the empathy of someone who can listen, help you process your feelings, and provide the ever-essential insight without judgment. You need someone's perspective and assistance, so choose the most intelligent, sensitive friend you have. Something surprising and liberating to both of you comes from this once-in-a-lifetime discussion. Family Focus: Despite your hesitancy, you are doing very well at keeping a handle on sensitive family matters.
 
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
For the next month or so, you need to see every obstacle as being a little veil over an opportunity. It's difficult to say whether this is a mental game, or the application of a cosmic law, but for your purposes it does not matter. Not only will it work, it's likely to be the only thing that does -- and quite well at that. In the most practical terms, it's a matter of interpretation. When something gets in our way, it's all the more effective for our deciding it is so. When we interpret the same event as a possibility, the creative power of the mind has a strange way of making it just precisely that. Family Focus: A young woman in the family will surprise you with her leadership and wits.
 
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
You may change your mind about something, and do so with stunning speed and clarity. Others are sure to hesitate as they discover what you're up to and the direction you are now pointing your life, but in truth it's not so far from what they have in mind for themselves. You just get to be the emissary from the future; the one who rings the morning bell; the sensitive one of the lot who knows that the only way to have a future is to do something about it right now. Family Focus: Someone making you very nervous today turns out to be a true friend.
 
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
You have just emerged from a particularly strange passage through life's waters, but I trust you'll notice how new and open your life feels. It's as if the clouds have begun to part and all of a sudden you can see out to the horizon. You may be wondering whether something has changed in the world, or rather, in your mind. This is one of those moments when the dividing line between the two, which is thin most of the time, has become nonexistent. So apply your creativity -- that is, what you do, and who you love -- with full awareness. There was never a time more important to do what feels right, just because it feels right. Family Focus: You have no need to fear -- you are providing a safe and stable home for your children.
 
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
For many months now you've been living under increasing pressure to be someone or accomplish something. This subtle sense that you must live up to something, be it your own ambition, or an idea about you that you perceive someone may have, might even go back years. Was it right or wrong? Did you put yourself under too much pressure? You may finally look back and ask whether it was worth it, and while you're at it, check you're heading in the right direction. You have covered a great distance, but still have time to make adjustments to your course, or change your agenda. Family Focus: If a younger child is trying to prove herself to an older one, remember: this is natural -- let it unfold on its own.