Saturday, April 26, 2003

Mercury "Retr-oh-grade"

Expect more intractable political posturing as well as serious deficits in listening skills with those with whom you hold nearest and dearest. Mercury (ruling our ability to clearly project and perceive information) is in Taurus, the sign of the baked potato. It’ll be retrograding in that sign from April 26th till May 20th. Till then telepathy is strongly recommended. Otherwise the chance that you’ll ever get your point across is slim to nothing.

Mercury retrograde has been popularized by the mass media (which I’ll never refer to as being even remotely liberal) as an influence that induces catatonia and encourages sloth. That interpretation is at the very least a gross over statement and at most, is often abused as a cosmic rationalization for bad behavior.

Mercury, traveling so closely to the Sun goes retrograde more often than any other planet. It does so for three, three week intervals during each year. That’s roughly 20 % of the time.

Though the term "retrograde motion" does suggest that a planet pulls a celestial U turn, if that were true it would create an unfathomable astrophysical calamity. If you imagine that you are driving on the highway (aka freeway, autobahn, M road, etc) and you pass a car going in the same direction and it appears to go backwards, that phenomenon demonstrates the mechanics of retrograde motion. The Earth simply passes by another planet. Astrologically this seems to internalize planets which typically manifest themselves externally (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) and externalizes the planets which typically manifest themselves internally (Mercury, Venus, and Mars).

Mercury retrograde is great for editing, and organizing paperwork. Just don’t over schedule your self especially if travelling. The whole purpose of it is to deepen one’s thought processes. It can inspire one to change their minds, though this is rare when it's retrograding in a fixed sign such as Taurus.

Anyway it’s not as though most have been even remotely capable of critical thinking since Saturn entered Gemini temporarily in the summer of 2000. This heralded the onslaught of convoluted reality TV and the total absence of objective non-corporate sponsored media that became seemingly permanent in April of 2001. Saturn has been in Gemini since then. It also apparently compelled our current regime to employ the doctrine of concocting facts and repeating them ad nauseum. The most recent fallout from this transit has been the wholesale whitewashing of the war.

Fortuitously, Saturn will finally leave Gemini and enter Cancer on June 4th. Maybe then and then only will the voices of dissent in the former land of the lively discussion be considered as thought provoking as opposed to being vitriolically unpatriotic.

There is another word for cultures that are intolerant of criticism for their leader but it thankfully escapes me right now.

Sunday, April 20, 2003

On Monday, the Moon will be in cranky Capricorn. Aside from that influence, a cheerful sextile between Mars and Venus at 4:50 am EDT at 29 degrees of their respective signs (Capricorn & Pisces), represents a pivotal influence for personal relationships. 29 degrees of any sign is the most critical degree of any sign. For these two signs it speaks to both practical pragmatism and romantic idealism.

As a result, in certain time zones it may be very difficult to get out of bed. In others it is more than likely that you will probably get caught talking to lover on company time. Either way, don’t come to any absolute conclusions about anything because the planets that rule both the source of one’s personal happiness and one’s desire nature are about to shift. In other words you’ll feel differently about everything by days end.

The most unusual influence for this particular day is that both Venus and Mars will change signs within the span of 7&1/2 hours. That is very rare. On this beauteous holiday, I’m not quite up to calculating the stats on just how infrequent it is, but suffice it to say that I can’t recall seeing these ingresses occur on the same day over the span of several decades. But if it did occur, I may have missed it.

Venus enters Aries at 12:18 pm EDT. It’ll remain in that sign until May 16th. Pisces, the sign where Venus has transited since March 26th, is selfless and self-sacrificing. Venus in Aries completely the opposite (a.k.a. self absorbed). It can be very creative as well. This ingress is rarely a graceful transition. Like, you might receive the best foot rub that you’ve received over the course of several lifetimes only to moments later, witness your partner morph into a sports obsessed moron who’d probably be too distracted to take you to the hospital when you’re in the throws of labour.

Mars enters Aquarius at 7:48 pm EDT where it’ll transit until June 16th. Mars in Aquarius varies from waves of incidental and forgivable flakiness to full blown flagrant irresponsibility. The higher vibration of this placement compels one to commit acts of will that benefit the whole. In that regard it can be quite noble. But the enormity of that kind of behaviour and responsibilities implied, more often, are so daunting that it inspires most humans and sub-humans to go. . ."awww screw it". . . thus the flakiness.

Maintaining some degree of independence in relationships will help enormously through the duration of both of these transits. Think. . ."space. . .the final frontier". . .

On Tuesday, the Moon will be void of course in late Capricorn all day. Harmonious aspects between the Moon and Mercury and between the Sun and Uranus in the morning will help in terms of adjustments in relationships from the day before.

I may or may not be blogging on a regular basis during high gardening season in the NE USA, but will definitely come through for major aspects, ingresses, and assorted rants.