Planet Weather for the Week of December 3, 2006                                                                                 

SkyWatch –  Moon phase of the week: 12/4 -- The Moon reaches perfect fullness at 7:25 PM EDT, at 12 degrees of Gemini. Because she is exactly opposite the Sun in the sky, a Full Moon during the cold months in the Northern Hemisphere rises very high in the sky, whereas the Sun's course stays low to the South (which is, of course, why these are cold months!) Sky watching events of the week: 12/3 --The nearly Full Moon passes about a half-degree North of the Pleiades star cluster (the brightest stars in this sort of "mini galaxy") in Taurus, making her closest approach to the so-called "Seven Sisters"  at 10 PM EDT. Look high overhead to the south-southwest.12/9 -- Fast Mercury slides past Mars, coming within about a degree, with their point of closest approach happening around 3 PM EDT, in broad daylight. However, you can catch this pairing before it happens, along with Jupiter brightly shining nearby, by looking very low to the east just before dawn. (You will need an unobstructed view of the eastern horizon.) All three will make a close triangle with Mercury at the apex, Jupiter to the lower left, and fainter, orangish Mars to the lower right. Space news of the week: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will attempt to raise the orbit of the ISS, so that it will be in a position to receive the Space Shuttle Discovery, scheduled to be launched sometime between late this week and the December Solstice. Astronauts made a failed attempt to change the ISS orbit last week but the maneuvering rockets were shut down by an unhappy computer program. They believe they now have the problem corrected and look forward to a successful boost. All in a week's space work!

Go out! Look up!

This week Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday are the most active and possibly the most productive energy days. The longest Void-of-Course (VOC) Moon time, during the day, is Thursday 12/7/06 – in Cancer, the entire day. The Moon begins its VOC @ 8:13PM the night before and leaves VOC to enter Leo @ 6:52AM on 12/8/06. VOC is best for less outcome-oriented activity, since VOC often means detours, distractions, or delays. If you want specific outcomes, or if timeliness is critical, choose another time. VOC is best for processing, imagining, and open-ended activities, like parties!

* Monday and Tuesday are powerful sky days with the Full Moon square Uranus, followed by Saturn making a station retrograde and then…Mars changing signs into fiery Sagittarius!

Mercury in fixed, water Scorpio square (90deg.) Saturn in fixed, fire Leo @ 25deg. on Monday, December 4, 2006 @ 3:07PM EST. Mercury will reach its shadow point (the degree at which it went retrograde on 10/28/06) of 25deg. along with this aspect. Saturn helps to define the mind and give certainty to thoughts or decisions you were previously unsure of. The aspect brings back something you were entertaining at the end of October – and now you have a more definite opinion. Saturn is always practical and looks for viability when it is weighing options. In the square aspect, one can be very definite about an opinion and even entrenched, but it doesn’t mean that is necessarily the right decision – so be aware that you may be digging your heels in and reflect as to whether your position is based on wise analysis or simply stubbornness and the need to be right.

Saturn turns Stationary Retrograde on Tuesday, December 5, 2006 @ 11:07PM EST until 4/19/07. It’s Saturn’s turn again to make a strong statement – world leaders are affected and a stubborn position may be apparent. This pending station was foreshadowed by the recent controversial elections in Mexico. The losing party threatened to shut down the swearing-in of Felipe Calderon as the new president amidst cries of election fraud. Saturn’s station is closely trine Pluto/Sagittarius, and this combination often indicates major power shifts and turnovers in power or government. Personally, you may be much more aware of situations and people that you have depended on being stable and there for you. It’s a shift in status, the status-quo or prevailing conditions and a concern for security.

Mars enters mutable, fire Sagittarius on Tuesday, December 5, 2006 @ 11:59PM EST until 1/16/07. Mars in a fire sign is always more feisty, aggressive, and restlessly active than when it is in the sign of another element. In Sagittarius, Mars actions are more risky – often throwing caution to the wind. This Mars feels positive and positively lucky and flies by the seat of its pants too easily. Still, its humor and charm have you forgetting how it once irritated you by pushing at your sacred boundaries. This is an adventurous position and one that does not like being hemmed in – so give it plenty of space and enjoy the exploration and the inevitable philosophical asides. You can be sure this Mars will get things going in a big way as only Sagittarius can do.

Venus in mutable, fire Sagittarius trine (120deg.) Saturn/Leo @ 25deg. on Thursday, December 7, 2006 @ 2:17AM.  This aspect is typically one of affirming or defining something, or of making a commitment. There is seriousness to playfulness and a desire to manifest or make real something that is creative or in other ways close to the heart.

Venus/Sagittarius conjuncts (0deg.) Pluto/Sagittarius 2006 @ 27deg. on Thursday, December 7, 10:50PM EST. Much later on the same day, after Venus makes a Saturnian commitment, it meets Pluto, lord of the underworld, and is taken to deeper levels of bonding and inundated with layers of impactful emotion. The conjunction promises the initiation to a new level of intimacy. Something is released and destroyed just as something new is being born.

Mercury enters Sagittarius on Friday, December 8, 2006 @ 12:52AM EST until 12/27/06. With Mercury’s entry into Sagittarius we will briefly have 6 planets in the sign of the centaur. Although Venus will leave Sagittarius on 12/10, there will still be 5 planets in Sagittarius until 12/21/06. This grouping can bring a wild flurry of enthusiasm. It can also mean that one feels sharply the contrast between what one wants and what one is actually experiencing. In this odd way, melancholy can result. Jupiter ruling Sagittarius is also in Sagittarius and so will exaggerate the issues that are on the table for good or ill.

Sun/Sagittarius sextile (60deg.) Neptune in fixed, air Aquarius @ 17 deg. on Saturday, December 9, 2006 @ 12:44PM EST.  This aspect allows for imagination, hope, enlightenment and the entertainment of ideas and ideals in a mixed medley of chaos. There are opportunities to solve social problems in a fresh and bold new way – that is, if one believes in the possibilities.

Mercury/Sagittarius conjunct Mars/Sagittarius @ 2deg. on Saturday, December 9, 2006 @ 9:28PM EST. Before you know it, those words are out of your mouth and once said, you can’t recall them. This aspect speeds up the mind and the mental process, often resulting in motor-mouth or talking simply to be heard. In Sagittarius, there may be some hilarious story-telling or other great humorous banter. In any case, there is likely to be an equally good chance of exaggeration and embellishment for audience reaction. Thinking large can lead to living large and could mean taking unnecessary chances. Keep some semblance of practicality and enjoy the rest of the show!

NewsBits:  The Pope travels for atonement! In an effort to mend the unfortunate comments about Mohammed made by the Pope in September, he traveled to Istanbul last Tuesday, the most secular of Muslim countries. Pope Benedict XVI is an active man with Aries Sun and Mars in loquacious Gemini. He defines his leadership and his persona with communication. In this case, and at this moment, Pope Benedict is attempting to undo the damage of a phrase that created uproar in the Muslim world. Sensitivities are raw in the world these days and certainly between Muslims and the rest of the world. The Pope is in need of educating himself to these realities and sensitivities. He can easily do this using the perceptiveness of his Pisces Ascendant conjunct Jupiter, with Mercury, also in Pisces. The trouble is that transiting Pluto/Sagittarius is poised to square this place in his chart, which means that the Pope’s real opinions are sure to be cajoled from his private mind into the public eye. Stay tuned, this Pope will have much more to say, especially around the next Pluto station @ 28 Sagittarius on 4/1/07.

Leaked Memos: So what else is new? This astrologer is very clear that Moon phases work like a charm. Monday night’s Full Moon is exact at 12 deg. Gemini, which is the precise degree of Donald Rumsfeld’s Mars/Gemini! Is this a coincidence? Well, yes – a cosmic coincidence, but in the cosmos there is no such thing, there is however, serendipity in mathematical alignments! It is no surprise that this memo reveals the former Secretary of Defense having second or alternative thoughts about the chaos in Iraq – these in particular just days before the mid-term elections. The handwriting was on the wall, but it seems that Rumsfeld did not yet know that he was going to be the fall guy.

Civil War? It appears that the enmity between Shiites and Sunnis that has been accelerating for nearly a year is finally being called what it is – civil war. This newsletter has named it so, months ago. Perhaps the administration thought that by not calling it what it actually was – it would quietly morph into something else? Then again, when hundreds of Iraqis are senselessly murdered daily in sectarian violence, the truth has to be told. The chart for the start of the War in Iraq has the Sun @ 29 Pisces, a volatile and unpredictable degree, and Mercury sits @ 27 Pisces. Pluto/Sagittarius is getting closer and closer to squaring these two planets, which will bring unprecedented change. Uranus/Pisces reached the War Chart Ascendant @ 14 Pisces for the first time in May 2006 – and it is at that time that the intense enmity between the different Iraqi religious and political factions reached a more alarming and aggressive stage. Uranus made an exact station on this War Chart ascendant signaling the extreme nature of what was happening, and screaming for the truth to be acknowledged by the world.