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Planet Weather for
Weeks 6/19 and 6/26/11.
Planet Weather has been published for 14
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NewsBits: Weiner Roast! Neptune sitting
strong (although retrograde now since 6/3/11) is dishing out a host of scandals
and secrets. Tops in the news is the salacious story of the up and coming
congressman (now up and resigned), Anthony Weiner, with the drop-dead gorgeous
wife of nine months, who is pregnant, (and who is employed as a close aide to
Hilary Clinton), who got his kicks on the side sexting photos of himself along
with text-sex with a bevy of women across the country. Now there’s a concept, a
virtual harem and mind-f language. (oops
have to bleep myself and not use a word I shouldn’t). What is always so curious
is that these guys somehow think no one will ever find out. Gee, we all know
how hungry Americana is for trash of this sort. (The French may be laughing but
they’ve got an even bigger sex-scandal on their hands – LOL!)
Let’s
look at the chart of the poor guy with the unfortunate name, who is actually
living up to his name! Anthony Weiner was born a Virgo Sun on 9/4/64, in
Brooklyn, NY, time unknown. What is immediately
apparent is that the aforementioned current Neptune position of 0 Pisces is
sitting smack dab on Weiner’s Saturn/Pisces @ 0degrees. The poor guy obviously
does not have a decent astrologer. This is a classic pattern of locked doors
(Saturn=control/structure) opening and secrets spilling out (Neptune=dissolving
boundaries/structures). A part of us has to feel sorry for his stupidity but
then lust overcomes even the strongest boundaries. It’s the same old story
couched in modern guise. Weiner has a potent Mars/Venus conjunction in Cancer,
which typically indicates a strong urge to engage in relationship, and a great
love for women in general. These are not bad things in themselves of course,
but it always comes down to how we use the energies we’ve been given or how we
play our hand. Weiner’s Moon is in Leo (showmanship, ego, and pride) and likely
square to Jupiter/Taurus, a love of pleasure and a propensity in that aspect to
push the envelope, with a tendency toward stubborn addictiveness to attention
and pleasure-seeking. Again, not necessarily a bad thing but geez, if you’re in
the public eye and you know how the media love to dig up dirt about you, why
take such a risk? Weiner has a four planet grouping in Virgo – Mercury Rx,
Uranus, Sun, and Pluto. He’s a smart man with ambition and we could say was even
a rising star in Congress but it’s that wiener of his that took over. Pity -
yet knowing the short attentions span of the public, Weiner may yet have a comeback
somewhere down the road and be able to stand tall again!
China’s Muscles! In
another context, Neptune is also pulling away the veils of secrecy and less
than honest rhetoric concerning a few of China’s expansion plans. Apparently
China bought an aircraft carrier that was little more than a hull from Russia
in 2005, and said it had no plans to turn it into a military ship, but rather a
floating casino! Now, just this month, China revealed that the ship is its
first ever aircraft carrier and is ready to set sail. Also revealed is China’s
plan to build a naval base on the Arabian Sea at Pakistan’s request. The Chinese built a port at Gwadar in 2007 for
commercial reasons. This port overlooks Gulf shipping lanes and is close to the
border of Iran. China has insisted that it was only meant to be a commercial
port but the Pakistani Defense Minister spilled the beans this week and told
the truth of China’s future plans.
Let’s take a peek at China’s horoscope. There are many charts for China
but I will use the one for when the new government of the People’s Republic of
China was functioning and took office amidst great fanfare. That date is 10/1/49
@ 3:15PM, Peking, China. What is most obvious at this time that Pluto,
signifying power, made its last station @ 7deg. exactly square China’s Sun @ 7
Libra and urging a push for increasing power. Pluto has already in the past
several years been opposing China’s Uranus @ 4 Cancer. And currently
Uranus/Aries made its last station retrograde @ 4 exactly squaring China’s
Uranus. So…this massive country is flexing its energy in various ways. It has
wealth of all sorts and a huge population and with Mars conjunct Pluto/Leo, it has a huge ego and a large appetite, along with its
Venus/Scorpio. Time will tell if this country will succeed in its obvious goal
of becoming a superpower. It has strength and wealth but what about its human
rights violations?
SkyWatch for the weeks of 6/19/11-6/26/11
Moon phase for
the week of 6/19: 6/23
- The Moon enters her Last (aka Third) Quarter at 7:48 AM EDT, at 1 degree of
Aries. Skywatching events for the week: Nothing
spectacular. 6/21 - The Sun enters the sign of Cancer, marking the official
start of summer. Saturn is the sole planet visible after sunset, high in the
sky. Jupiter, Mars, and Venus are all "morning stars," rising in that
order from early morning to just before sunrise. (Mercury is too close to the
Sun to be visible.)
Moon phase for
the week of 6/26: 7/1
-- The Moon enters Her New cycle at 4:54 AM EDT, at 9 degrees of Cancer, the
sign of Her rulership. This
New Moon also very partially eclipses the Sun along a narrow path just North of the side of Antarctica across from the southern tip
of Africa. (This one is not a big whoop.) Skywatching
events of the week: This week also sees a trifecta of close Moon-planet passes.
6/26 -- The waning Crescent Moon makes a close pass by Jupiter about an hour
after midnight as seen from the US East Coast. Look for the two to rise
together shortly afterwards, with Jupiter leading the Moon into the eastern
sky. 6/28 -- The waning Crescent Moon makes a close pass by Mars. Their point
of closest approach occurs in the early afternoon when Mars won't be visible
but they will rise fairly close together both the morning before and the
morning after. When the Moon makes two astrological conjunctions in a row
like this, She is said to "carry light" from
one planet to the other, in this case from Jupiter to Mars, the equivalent of a
conjunction between these two planets. 6/30 -- The third event in this
celestial trifecta is a close pass of the Moon by Venus although both will be
too close to the Sun to visible.
Space News and
Weather: Bio Station
Alpha on Mars! Last week, an amateur Mars explorer posted a video on YouTube of
a "discovery" he supposedly made using Google Mars. Google Mars
allows users to zoom in on virtually any region of Mars provided it has been
photographed from orbit (as nearly all of the planet
has). Voila! There is what appears to be a metallic cylindrical structure of
some kind, roughly 300 by 700 feet, just sitting in the middle of the Martian
desert. Definitely not ours! The discoverer made a video of his zoom-in, which
he posted on YouTube, and it soon went "viral" as they say, tallying
well over a million views. "Bio Station Alpha" is his name for it
whatever it is but he may have been jumping to conclusions. NASA scientists
were, of course, quick to explain away this apparent alien structure, claiming
it was the result of a cosmic ray striking the photograph. Who knows? At a
certain resolution, it certainly LOOKS like a cylindrical structure of some
kind, and even if/when a real alien artifact is photographed on another world,
no doubt NASA scientists will quickly hasten to explain IT away as well....Go
out! Look up!
Knowing when VOC Moons
occur is key to planning your successful week!
The Void-of-course (VOC) Moon is
a kind of limbo. As it reaches the end of a sign, the Moon makes no major
aspect to another planet before it enters the next sign. VOC is best for less
outcome-oriented activity, since VOC often means detours, distractions,
drifting, or delays. If you want specific outcomes, or if timeliness is
critical, don’t use a VOC Moon time. VOC is best for processing, imagining,
creating, and open-ended activities, like parties, research, or cleaning your
desk/closet for instance! It is said that when a new action is initiated during
VOC, “nothing will come of it,” or energies go in unplanned directions, which
may not necessarily be negative.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Week of 6/19/11 – Monday (Mars enters Gemini), Tuesday (Summer
Solstice), Wednesday (all-day VOC Moon) and Thursday are the most active days
energetically – more Moon or planetary aspects for engagement with others,
projects, and stimulation for producing results, or demands/challenges on your energy.
On 6/20/11, the Moon is VOC/Aquarius
from 4:23PM to 4:45PM EDT – On 6/21/11, the Moon is VOC/Pisces from 10:51PM to 4:24PM
EDT on 6/23/11 (two days later!! – very unusual) – On 6/24/11, Moon is
VOC/Aries from 6:07PM to 4:53PM EDT (next day!)
Week of 6/26/11 – Tuesday, Thursday, Friday (Solar
Eclipse) and Saturday (Mercury enters Leo) are the most active days
energetically – more Moon or planetary aspects for engagement with other or
projects, and stimulation for producing results, or demands/challenges on your
energy. On 6/27/11, the Moon is
VOC/Taurus from 12:24PM to 3:56AM EDT (next day!) – On 6/30/11, the Moon is VOC/Gemini
from 3:33AM to 12:13PM EDT – On 7/1/11, the Moon is VOC/Cancer from 7:37AM to
5:43PM EDT (next day!)
Summary: Compared
to the last two weeks, there’s not much planetary activity except for the
Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, which is the Sun entering one of
the four cardinal, or power points in the Zodiacal year, Mars changing signs
and a Solar Eclipse, which is important. See below.
Quote of Note: “Do not the most moving
moments of our lives find us without words?” – Marcel
Marceau
Planet Patterns and Cosmic Headlines:
Mars enters mutable, airy Gemini, on 6/20/11, until
8/3/11. Mars now leaves productive but pleasure-oriented
Taurus and takes the mantle of the lighter air-sign Gemini. This is sword play
and touché, as in fencing. Mars wields words as sharply as a sword. There is
precision in its communication and it does want to communicate. Yet often with
this position there is rashness with speech and a lack of sensitivity for the
effects of words on others. Venus is also still in Gemini, so the sexes are
likely to participate in lots of flirting and verbal banter. It remains to be
seen if this is all talk and no real action! Mars immediately makes a square to
Neptune (now retrograde) which has been sitting at 0 Pisces since 4/4/11. This
on a day when the Moon is VOC all day and the Sun is making an angle to Neptune
as well. All of these aspects indicate a porosity, a
flow, and a day of perhaps dreamtime and listening for signs and signals coming
from other than logical channels. You may begin an action one way and change
your mind and go in another direction. There’s an intuitive process at work and
a chance to trust your inner guidance. Neptune is skilled at ferreting out
secrets as its boundaries are loose, so we may hear of more scandals, or
further unsavory details that were meant to be kept hidden.
The Sun enters cardinal, water Cancer on 6/21/11 heralding
the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere! This
is always a significant event, since 0deg. of the cardinal signs (Cancer,
Libra, Capricorn and Aries) are doorways and initiation into action. Cancer is
the time of year when we are more preoccupied with home and family and the
basic comforting rhythms of our lives, the ebb and flow and sense of continuity
that habit, consistency, and tradition bestow. Two of the three outer planets
are located in cardinal signs, as is Saturn these days, and so the Sun in a
cardinal sign will have powerful meetings with first Uranus in Aries on
6/26/11, then Pluto in Capricorn on 6/28/11, and finally with Saturn in Libra
on 7/1/11. Watch how you feel on those days and watch the news, as often the
intensity of these planetary patters is reflected in world events (as I’m sure
you are aware of by now)!
Solar Eclipse New Moon @ 9 Cancer on 7/1/11. This
eclipse is the last of three for this time of year and this series. We’ll have
two more eclipses in November and December. The current eclipse belongs to the Saros Series 13 New South. The energy of this eclipse is
expansion but with an undertow of frustration and possibly separation,
according to descriptions in The Eagle and the Lark by Bernadette
Brady. Anyone with planets in early
cardinal signs will feel the effect of this eclipse most strongly, and the
eclipse is re-triggered by a square from the Sun three months later and
sometimes other planets before that time. In fact, Mars/Cancer will trigger the
eclipse degree on 8/16/11. Ask your astrologer how relevant this eclipse will
be for you.
**Mercury enters fixed, fire Leo on 7/2/11 to 7/28/11,
when we will be moving into another Mercury Retrograde. In
fact Mercury’s shadow begins on 7/14/11, when Mercury reaches the degree at
which it will turn direct again in August. In Leo, Mercury is proud and
dignified and sometimes too possessed by its own ego. Communication is more
opinionated, bold and creative, although there is also a stubborn unyielding quality.
Having fun and room for creative adventuring is important during this time.
Currently Active Paradigm-Shift Patterns -- Back Stories: Repeats and elaboration of the
major configurations affecting all of us currently.
Jupiter entered fixed, earth Taurus on 6/4/11 until
6/12/12. Jupiter
stays in Taurus without moving back into the previous sign, even when it turns
retrograde (it remains in Taurus), which only happens about every three years.
Most of the time when Jupiter turns retrograde in any sign, it moves back into
the sign before and then its retrograde cycle moves between the two signs. We
might speculate that this can grant us greater relaxation and stability from
the fast and furious and sudden changes that we’ve all witnessed since the beginning
of this year, at least, while Jupiter was in fiery Aries. Stable and practical
with a certain amount of sweetness, abundance, or favor is the message of this
giving Jupiter in a Venus-ruled sign.
Neptune in mutable, water Pisces turned Retrograde @
0degrees on 6/3/11. Almost two months after Neptune first entered Pisces, it makes its station retrograde and leaves Pisces on
8/4/11 to complete its cycle in the previous sign, Aquarius. Neptune returns to
Pisces on 2/4/12 for the extent of its stay – until 3/31/25. So, we’ve had a
taste of Neptune’s dissolving energies and the power of the water! Anyone with
planets near 0deg. of any sign has been especially imprinted with Neptunian
themes such as paranormal experiences, illumination about some life themes or
experiences, and secrets leaking out, or even some
funky illness. Neptune energies can also manifest as melancholy as we review
dreams that may not have materialized, make necessary adjustments, all the
while maintaining our faith in life, spirit and the meaning of it all.
Neptune entered mutable, water Pisces for the first time in 164
years on 4/4/11. Neptune turns Retrograde on @ 0deg. on 6/3/11 – Neptune
returns to Aquarius on 8/4/11. Neptune re-enters Pisces for the duration of its
14 year cycle on 2/4/12. This planet’s sign change is the
biggest news in April and has consequences for the next 14 years. Now we have
the third outer planet making a sign change since January 2008, setting in
motion a series of conditions and events that have global long-term effects.
There is much to say about this momentous passage and we only get a taste this
year, since Neptune will retrograde back to Aquarius from 8/4/11, through
2/4/12. Neptune is entering the modern rulership of
its own sign Pisces and expresses itself quite naturally here according to its
intrinsic nature. We can expect the need for greater sensitivity and
environmental protections, as the harm we have done to the planet becomes more
obvious. [And Gaia thinks seriously about giving us an eviction
notice.] We may witness the formation of new religious groups and a
reformation of existing religion as we know it. Secrets may be exposed and more
leaks of information that some people may not wish to be revealed. On the
positive side, new artistic accomplishments will flower in all fields,
especially music, but all across the artistic spectrum. In essence it is a
cultural call for greater refinement and attunement to what we often take for
granted or fail to notice.
Neptune was discovered in 1846, and entered Pisces on 4/26/1847
through 1861. Oddly enough, Uranus was also in Aries (although farther along in
the sign) when Neptune entered Pisces for the first time (since its discovery).
This is only the second time, after Neptune came into our consciousness
awareness, that Neptune is transiting Pisces! Both Neptune and Pisces are
tricky. They operate on a completely different level. Pisces is known for its
hyper-sensitivity, compassion, diffusiveness, spirituality, dream-like
imagination, second-sight, idealism, patronage of the arts, and the ability to
dissolve barriers of all kinds for greater unity. Negative manifestation
includes: dissipation, neglect, addictions, deception, drugs, theft, scandals,
and secrets. Neptune leaves Pisces on 3/31, 2025. A few highlights of Neptune’s
last transit through Pisces include: new social movements, such as Marxism,
emancipation of slaves, the start of the US Civil War, the California Gold
Rush, the Romantic movement in music, and
transcendentalism. You can be sure we’ll be discussing Neptune’s amazing
journey through Pisces in future issues of PW.
It’s not even a month since Neptune
entered Pisces, which we have not experienced for 166 years! As we begin to
integrate with this complex novel energy infusion, you may notice a greater
sensitivity or subtlety. Neptune dissolves barriers and that is one of the
reasons a positive Neptunian response often allows greater compassion for human
error and human frailty. Neptune deals with the unseen and the unnoticed and
often accounts for spiritual breakthroughs and even paranormal experiences. I
believe that this transit of Neptune through Pisces will loosen the boundaries
between the material realm and the spiritual or energetic realms. Many of us
will experience more than can be easily explained through the measurable
functions of science. This can be a time of high magic but also the stripping
away of illusions and deceptions and unless one has a strong inner core, the
disillusionment we find may destabilize us. Practice faith in the joy of being
alive and the true mysticism of that fact alone, no matter what your religious
beliefs may be. Neptune is magical and a component of magic is addiction, as we
seek to recreate the transcendence of blissful states that allow us to escape
the harsher realities of everyday life.
Uranus re-entered Aries on 3/11/11, and remains
there until May 2018. This is the biggest news of March and beyond, and heralds
a new upward spiral in social and cultural evolution. Last summer, Uranus
teased us by parking itself and remaining only at 0deg. Aries (the powerful
degree of the Spring Equinox) from 5/27-8/13/10. Now it really means business –
it has engaged into its full cycle. Any planet in the first sign of the Zodiac
wants to start a fire, begin something new, innovate, and create or reinvent
something in its own image. This combination can certainly be aggressive, bold,
courageous, willful, and because of the influence of Uranus, unexpected and
explosive. Most of the previous text was written well before the popular
uprisings (conflagrations) in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and other parts of the
Middle East. We are seeing the effects of individuals asserting
themselves in their striving for personal freedoms that they believe are their
birthright. Repressive regimes will no longer be tolerated. Aries represents
the new and renewal – as it emerges from the dreams of the previous sign,
Pisces. It burns with the fire of justice and courage to be free at any cost.
Saturn in cardinal, air Libra turned Stationary Retrograde (Rx) @
17deg. on 1/26/11. Saturn remains Rx until 6/13/11. We’ve
had our share of challenges, burdens and tasks, now haven’t we? When a planet
makes a station, it is demanding that we recognize its energy and pay
particular attention to the message it is transmitting in our lives. In
general, Saturn in Libra addresses the questions of balance, fairness,
relationships, negotiations, and compromise. With Saturn there is always some
kind of evaluation, some testing of standards met or not, and have we achieved
what we set out to do in the various areas of our life? If we feel we are out
of balance, then we will want to rebalance, or renegotiate the contracts we’ve
made. Saturn will be backtracking now, to refine those imbalances and to test
the rebalancing that you’ve begun. What is it exactly that makes for harmony
and contentment in your life? All Libras, Aries, Cancers and Capricorns are
feeling this testing more – and this current retrograde segment affects those
born between early to mid-April, July, October, and January. Ask your
astrologer where and how this Station degree affects your chart.
Saturn entered cardinal, air Libra on 10/29/09. The full cycle
lasts until 10/6/12. Saturn retrograded back into the last
three degrees of the previous sign, Virgo, from 4/8/10-7/22/10. What
can we expect? Let’s speak to the greater implications of this 2.5-year
Saturn-sign cycle. Saturn is exalted in Libra. This so-called “essential
dignity” means there’s more of a commitment to promote cooperation and harmony
among equals. Or, we can say, that is the primary striving in this combination.
The collective will be more focused on what is fair and equitable and what is
not. Generally, the message is to find the imbalances and rebalance as needed.
Where are you giving your commitment and attention? Are the returns you receive
what you really want? If not, then adjust those commitments and relationships
for greater equality and fairness. Saturn in Libra also asks – what matters and
what is valuable? When there is real value, it is easier to make a commitment
for a longer time and with greater attention and intention. All major
relationships and, in particular, those with Libra/Aries Sun, Moon, or
Ascendant, will be put to a greater test. Saturn in a cardinal sign is more
proactive than in other signs, and you may find that you seek order from recent
chaos and productivity from prior stress and mess.