By Judith Gayle

OUR CURIOUS-AS-A-CAT Gemini New Moon cruised in opposed by Pluto this week, and when you combine Gemini and Sagittarius, you'd better prepare for some first-class chat, the kind that bubbles best hunched over a little table at a café. If Luna and her friend were a couple, Gemini would want the latest pop culture scoop, know where to get the best latte and constantly scan neighboring tables for people of interest. Sagittarius would ponder the profound, plumb the sociological depths of the moment and discuss the virtues of the foamy brew, perhaps mention the dilemma of the growers versus pickers and the trade agreements that complicate civil rights in coffee production.

In short, the meeting of these two energies will produce the full spectrum of our current reality in the next weeks and bury us under an avalanche of information; finding the common thread in all this incoming communication will be our challenge. Will we be more interested in Paris Hilton than congressional oversight? Will we find our balance in the midst of so much chatter?

New Moons give us a fresh start, and this one is defined by Mercury. With Pluto in the mix, we would be wise to screen all information through a filter of temperance and intuition. Secrets will be blabbed, political debate will ratchet up in untrustworthy ways, and I think we'd better prepare for a lot of smoke to be blown up our...ummm...bloomers. With Mercury in self-protecting, sensitive Cancer gone retrograde now, we'll have time, we'll have NEED, to sit with this overabundance of information, feel it in our belly and decide what is worthy of our attention and what needs to be scrapped.

You may protest that you already have too much in your head, at this point, that more is NOT better -- I certainly do, much of the time. But I still hit the Web early each morning to see what else has turned up on the political scene...and that's because I still haven't "found it" yet. Found what, you ask? Why, the key -- the thing that will make sense of this long, arduous Neptunian journey. I'm not looking for the Holy Grail, here...I just want a little clarity.

Most everything seems surrealistic, as in a Harry Potter novel, and the key that unlocks this strange mystery keeps shifting just out of reach. Just when I think I'm onto something, another new enemy, another terrorist plot is announced, a new campaign (or campaigner) for this or that shows up to add to the mix and obscure the story. Our plot is so snarled now with truth and untruth that only a great detective could pick up the clues; only a talented and mighty wizard could protect him/herself from the distractions and distortions and find a clear path. Many of us just throw up our hands and put down our heads, following our feet through an overwhelming maze.

It's understandable -- from the Congress of the United States to the internal workings of our own workplace or family, everything is shaken up. What doesn't work has become glaringly apparent, and what needs attention seems too big a project to contemplate and beyond our ability to fix. This isn't how we expected life to look, not what we thought ourselves equipped to handle. But when it seems as though we're inching toward madness and nobody has stepped up, who else is going to take charge? We can't sit by and watch it happen. Can we?

No, we all need to be looking for that key. And here's a hint for where we might find it in the weeks ahead -- the Sabian Symbol for 27 Sagittarius, where deep-thinking and secretive Pluto currently resides, reads An Old Bridge Over a Beautiful Stream Is Still in Constant Use. It's not baby-out-with-the-bathwater time, at least not at this point. It's time to look at the structure of our lives and our nation to see what has stood the test of time, what has served us with honor and beauty. It's time to carefully assess what is valuable and what is not.

In our personal lives, that might look like a serious re-think of relationships. Cancer will influence us to move carefully, awash in feelings we may not even be able to articulate. It will benefit us to pay attention to them, perhaps journal some of our thoughts rather than shotgun them out at those around us. Relationships define the way we move through our private worlds, and often the question to ask is not "what's wrong with me," but who. We can use this retrograde to get a clearer picture of who and what isn't working in our best interests, mindful that our underpinnings are still sound...our Old Bridges. It's time to fact-find courageously, not with disdain for another but with respect for ourselves.
 
In our nation, there is much that was carefully built over centuries that is being ignored. There is a new push for habeas corpus to be restored, and the public is finally listening to the voices of those who have long warned of the collapse of our civil rights. Calls for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp are making the headlines, as are demands that the Geneva Conventions be reinstituted. The courts are increasingly speaking up for the Constitution, and ruling against an imbalance of authority. What was carefully designed for this nation at its inception is still the template for her future.

We're at yet another turning point and we're getting a chance to look at everything again, take it into our gut and feel our way through it. That's important because we're rushing toward a third, and final, opposition of Neptune and Saturn -- the transit that will redefine who we are in the world for years to come. Acknowledging what's valuable and workable is as important as discerning what's wrong and broken. We are in the process of recreating, even though it feels as if we're in a chaotic freefall. There is alchemy at work here, bright with promise. We're the detectives, we're the wizards -- we're closing in on the key.

Open yourself to the energies that are banging on the table -- don't be afraid to look at what's going on around you. You won't sink under the glut of information if you take it to your heart to discern what's valuable. Oh, and did I mention that sitting in the café, pulling up a chair, is Brother Uranus in complex, watery Pisces? Our moon configuration was loosely squared by the planet wearing the dynamite pack strapped to its chest. He'll bring a sense of discontent to the conversation and likely have a surprise or two in his pocket. He'll whisper that the coffee pickers should be liberated, and he may want to blow up the Old Bridge without a blueprint for a new one -- one more potent voice in a sea of voices we will listen to, one more important energy defining our changes.

Yes, the transits are tricky these days -- we have our work cut out for us in these coming weeks and months, but take heart. It's an opportunity filled with wonderment and purpose, even if it feels like we're strangling. It's taken decades for us to come to this difficult place, and that's not by accident. Something amazing is happening; it's happening in you and me. I'd suppose butterflies feel like this when they're struggling out of the cocoon. We'd do well to remember that on the other side of all this, there will be wings.


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