The May 25 Lunar Eclipse and Relationships

Posted by & filed under Aquarius, Aries, Cancer, Capricorn, Eclipses, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Pisces, Relationships, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Taurus, Virgo.

tweedlesCertainly, eclipses falling in your 7th house or in aspect to natal Venus or your 7th house ruler are signs that your relationship world is likely to be rocked by change. But lunar eclipses, by virtue of the Sun and Moon being in opposing signs (symbolizing self and other), all represent – to some extent – critical moments in evaluating relationships.

For those who aren’t in a romantic relationship, or are in one that isn’t going well, eclipses might well mark times of finding or ending a romance. But what if you’re in a romantic relationship or partnership and it’s going just fine? Your union may come through these eclipses intact and strong, with only a few long-delayed adjustments. If the rest of your birth chart bears this out, however – and especially if this year’s eclipses are impacting those sensitive relationship areas I mentioned above – you may well find that your happy relationship isn’t as secure as it seemed.

On the other hand, romantic partnerships are not the only relationships in our lives (just the ones we’re most likely to be obsessed about). What about the 99.999% of the relationships in our lives that don’t involve yearning looks across a crowded room or intimate physical contact? What might the upcoming lunar eclipse have to say about the ordinary human connections among family members, friends, colleagues, and casual acquaintances? Here are some thoughts: (more…)

New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Taurus: Living Well

Posted by & filed under Eclipses, Taurus.

livingwell_breadThis New Moon/Solar Eclipse is in Taurus, “the money sign.” Since eclipse times are usually pretty frantic and stressful, many of us might be fretting a bit over our bank accounts lately. It’s no fun to feel worried about how you’re going to pay your rent or your car mechanic. So by all means, at this New Moon, do some rituals (I love this one from Dana Gerhardt) and set intentions around attracting more money into your life.

But to focus only on money is to miss the larger point of Taurus, and perhaps of whatever crisis in which you find yourself. And the larger point is the need for self-sufficiency.

Aries represents the challenge of withstanding immediate threat, but Taurus is where we meet the challenges of day-to-day survival. It represents how we put shelter over our heads, food on the stove, clothes on our back. If we don’t have these basic necessities or can’t provide them for ourselves, we’re in a serious crisis of security. Nowhere is this crisis more evident and immediate than in the way we feed ourselves.

Eclipses usually bring about forced change. In Taurus, these changes might have come in the form of reduced income or other resources, including your physical health. If that’s the case for you, you might be in the process of rethinking your relationship to the food you eat, either to save money or to feel better. And learning to do a little bit of cooking or gardening is a great first step. (more…)

Eclipses in Natal Houses: Dancing in the Dark

Posted by & filed under Eclipses.

by April Elliott Kent

dancing_dark_mainDon’t know how to find where an eclipse will fall in your birthchart? This post will help.

I find that most clients come to me for the first time because they’re at a critical turning point, a “crisis” in their life. It’s usually very easy to pinpoint the source of the crisis with eclipses. I just map out the solar and lunar eclipses for the year, figure out where those points fall in the client’s chart by house placement and hard aspect to natal planets. Then I backtrack 19 years, at 4-5 year intervals. These will show me years where the client was receiving conjunctions, squares, and oppositions from eclipses to roughly these same areas of their chart.

At that point, I have easy reference points for exploring these issues in more depth during the reading. Then I calculate secondary and solar arc progressions, transits, and the solar return chart for the year; almost invariably, the configurations in the chart receiving the most emphasis from eclipses will also show a lot of important activity in all these charts. Fairly quickly, the main themes for the year emerge and provide a solid framework for a reading. (more…)

Scorpio Lunar Eclipse: Snake in the Grass, Dragon in the Heart

Posted by & filed under Eclipses, Full Moon, Lunar Phases, Scorpio.

paradiseMy mom, a robustly optimistic Sun in Taurus person, was fond of saying that it’s the bad times in life that make us appreciate the good ones. That’s a fine theory; but a certain amount of Moon/Pluto, Neptune in Scorpio skepticism persuaded me early on that bad times can, in fact, taint the good ones – by making us distrustful, jaded, and regretful.

Consider Adam and Eve.

They are naked and happy in the Garden of Eden. All is beautiful and serene. Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Enter a serpent – a nasty snake in the grass – that tempts them with forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve succumb to temptation, leading to their expulsion from the Garden, awareness of their nakedness, and introducing humanity to the concepts of sin and death (and inevitably, “Project Runway”).

Relatively speaking, the rest of their lives were probably something of a let-down.

Who is your serpent?

We’re born Adam or Eve, naked and usually pretty happy, I imagine, though my memory of the event is sketchy. There is that unpleasant business of getting through the birth canal, but quickly enough you’re snuggled up to some soft, friendly person and given something to drink. You’re in Eden.

And, being Eden, life will introduce you at some point to a snake in the grass. Something that tempts you with a luscious and forbidden treasure. Something that leads you to realize you’re naked, possibly sinful, and that the garden of beauty and love and innocence that you’ve called home is lost to you forever.

For young women, this serpent often takes the form of a young man who is charming, crafty, and clever. He knows just how to lead you into temptation and engineer your downfall.

For instance, according to evolutionary biologist and Harvard professor Steven Pinker,

“The most desirable man of all, in many woman’s eyes, is ‘tough-tender’ – nice to her, aggressive with everyone else.”

It’s a pretty irresistible apple when a good-looking, venomous serpent shows you his sweet side. You feel incredibly special. You will do anything to ensure a steady supply of these apples!

Before you know what hit you, your family is threatening to disinherit you, your friends won’t return your calls, and there are fang marks all over your body.

That’s a nasty serpent. Some of us are still pretty young when he arrives on the scene and leaves with our innocence.

There are nastier serpents, though, and sometimes they arrive when we’re even younger. Serpents who tempt us, boys and girls alike, with toys or candy or games, and then handle us in a way that makes us feel dirty. Serpents who rustle through the grass, hardly detectable until they suddenly leap from a bush and bite you.

And the next thing you know, you’ve been expelled from the Garden. The world isn’t so pretty or benign anymore, not so safe or secure. Your eyes have been opened to your nakedness and vulnerability. You’ve been tricked and made to feel foolish. You’ve been told your natural state is an abomination, and told it in such a convincing way that you kind of believe it. (more…)

Eclipse Astrology: Lunar Eclipses, Earthly Instincts

Posted by & filed under Eclipses.

moon-treesHere is what happens during a lunar eclipse: the Earth casts a shadow on the Moon, blocking it from reflecting the Sun’s light. How do you like that? Here’s the little Moon, furiously trying to find some light to bounce around, only to find there’s a big old ball of dirt in her way.

Similarly, at a lunar eclipse our ability to transmit and receive light – to channel and midwife divine inspiration – is trumped by the impulses of pure worldliness. Sometimes, it’s the worldliness of physical disease or limitation that casts a long shadow; other times, the pain of Earthly need and loss.

Usually, it’s a pain you recognize. Eclipses have 19 year cycles, so an eclipse falls in the same sign and the same part of your chart every 19 years, and in the opposite spot every nine and a half years. What happens on the outside, in your outer life, is a little different each time – but the thing that’s touched inside of you is exactly the same. At the lunar eclipse, an antidote to these earthly difficulties seems to lie in the celebration of Earth’s healing, stabilizing powers. (more…)

“Where’s my Progressed Moon?”

Posted by & filed under Learning Astrology, Moon, Progressions.

dreamstime_5738951_fullmooncloudThe Progressed Moon moves about 1 degree each month and covers a sign of the zodiac in about 2.5 years, completing an entire lap of the horoscope in roughly 28 years. Its current sign and house placements point to the areas of great focus and strong emotional engagement for you now.

The Moon symbolizes the rhythm and minutiae of daily life, so the Progressed Moon tells us which matters are likely to consume your day-to-day existence (the Progressed Moon’s house) and the style in which you’ll approach them (the Progressed Moon’s sign). When the Progressed Moon makes an aspect to a planet in your birth chart, the matters ruled by that planet are drawn into your daily life for a two-month period (one month approaching the exact aspect, one month separating from it) so that you can immerse yourself in its particular concerns.

Here’s a quick video that walks you through finding your Progressed Moon using the free chart service at AstroDienst! (more…)

New Moon in Aries: Hair of the Dog

Posted by & filed under Aries, Lunar Phases, Mars, New Moon.

A note, all too necessary in this litigious age: This article uses my personal experience to illustrate astrological ideas. I’m not a doctor (and I don’t play one on TV). I’m not even a medical astrologer. Nothing that follows should be construed as an endorsement or prescription of any kind. (There… that should satisfy the AMA.)

A few years ago, I got excited about the idea of doing a research project about the astrology of women and Mars. I sent out questionnaires. I began collecting books and papers on the topics of women and work, women and anger, women and conflict.

Then my progressed Sun entered Venus-ruled Libra. And suddenly, it was hard to remember what I’d found so fascinating about Mars.

I thought I might revisit the project while my progressed Moon was in (Mars-ruled) Aries. But while I certainly lived Aries energy in the last frantic couple of years, promoting my book, putting together a speaking tour, and giving lots of radio interviews, I never found the time or patience to listen to Mars.

The truth is, during my progressed Moon in Aries years, I overdid it. I worked like a fiend. In my personal life, too, I rarely slowed down. I was finally brought to my knees last November, when the progressed Moon squared my natal Saturn, and transiting Saturn entered my 12th house. I finished my last out-of-town speaking engagement of the year and segued immediately into cat sitting for three different friends – including one cat that became critically ill while I was watching him – all while frantically catching up on work.

That’s when the asthma started. At first I thought it was my usual mild, seasonal flareup. I saw an acupuncturist and figured I’d soon be on the mend, as that had always worked for me in the past. But my breathing just kept getting worse.

For months I struggled along, laboring for breath, doing as much work as I could. As my progressed Moon went void-of-course in Aries, limping toward the finish line of that Mars-dominated sign, I finally gave in. I had arranged a sabbatical to work on a new project I had in mind, but instead, I’ve spent a lot of that time trying to regain my health.

In early February, I broke down and went to a doctor. I didn’t expect him to help me, and he certainly didn’t; I just wanted to rule out any underlying problems. Then, on the advice of a friend, I went to a homeopath.

If you don’t know anything about it, homeopathy takes a sort of  “hair of the dog that bit you” approach. The idea is that a substance that causes symptoms when taken in large doses can be used in small amounts to treat those same symptoms. My homeopath recommended a remedy that helped immediately, almost miraculously. It was Ferrum Metallicum.

Otherwise known as iron.

Ruled by Mars.

After two and a half frantic, progressed Moon in Aries years, I was literally burned out. And since Mars is the God who has been oppressing me, it seems reasonable that he’s the God who’s trying to heal me. (more…)

Libra Full Moon: Befriending the Enemy

Posted by & filed under Full Moon, Libra.

by April Elliott Kent

befriendingAstrologers are fond of observing that a Libra is nothing more than an Aries who’s been to charm school. Libra is every bit as determined as his fellow cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, and Capricorn) to get what he wants. But unlike those signs, Libra has the ability to make it look as though serving his own needs is the furthest thing from his mind.

That isn’t meant as a criticism, by the way. I admire the strategy. My mother was born with Libra rising, and she had the iron fist in the velvet glove routine down pat. For years, I watched her put this skill to use securing contributions for fundraising events on behalf of her favorite charity. She overcame any resistance with sunny charm, pretending not to notice reluctance or impatience coming from the other end of the telephone, and refusing to be intimidated. By pretending that others wanted to be helpful, she persuaded them to be so. In the end, she always got what she was after – and nearly always, earned another fan in the process.

With this Libra Full Moon facing off against a Mongol horde of planets (the Sun, Venus, Mars, and Uranus) in ferocious Aries – and all of them square unyielding Pluto in Capricorn -  conflict resolution is the order of the day. I’ve been thinking about the best way to deal with people who make me angry, as well as those whose interests are diametrically opposed to my own. One hesitates to call them “enemies;” it sounds so dramatic. But let’s face it, that’s what an enemy is: one whose interests conflict with yours. (more…)

New Moon Astrology: Beginnings

Posted by & filed under New Moon.

by April Elliott Kent

nmbeginningsI was about seven years old when I made my initial foray into the world of business. Intrigued by an advertisement in my Archie comic book, I sent off for packets of seeds that the ad strongly suggested could be parlayed into significant wealth. In due time, the seeds arrived, in packets decorated with beautiful sketches of the lush flowers and vegetables that these seeds would someday become. Enthused, I immediately began trying to sell them to friends and family; who could resist, I figured?

But in my youthful enthusiasm, I had overlooked one important point: I lived in a farm community, and seeds were not exactly in short supply. So, my career in horticultural commerce was short-lived. The seed of the idea – sell an appealing, inexpensive product to lots of people – was a fine one. But the soil and growing conditions were not hospitable, and so the “seed” of my youthful entrepreneurialism withered without bearing fruit.

Any gardening book will tell you how to produce the best results with a given seed – what kind of soil to plant it in, how much light and water it needs. But there is no guarantee that what is planted and nourished in a particular way will flower as expected. Even nature cannot make solid predictions that a plant will end up looking like the picture on the seed packet. As scholar Edith Hamilton once put it, “The seed never explains the flower.” Two gardeners plant seeds from the same zucchini, and tend them with care; one ends up with a garden full of green, the other with a shriveled vine. What made the difference? Neither can say.

And then there are those mysterious plants that flourish despite harsh conditions. My husband tells the story of a rose bush that once flourished on his property. He didn’t want a rose bush; he understood them to be “high maintenance,” needing lots of water, food, and attention that he didn’t have time to give. So he systematically deprived the shrub of all water and ran over it repeatedly with a lawn mower. It responded by growing stronger and healthier, producing beautiful, fragrant flowers. Some ideas, like hardy plants, have the strength of the zeitgeist on their side. In the words of Victor Hugo, “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”

As in gardening, making predictions based on beginnings is what astrology is all about. The whole system, from charts of people to charts of countries, marriages, business ventures, buying a car – is based on moments of beginning. Astrology works, we reason, because moments in time, like seeds, contain the prescription for what they will become. But even gardeners and farmers, with a wisdom borne of years negotiating with nature, acknowledge that at some point, all the planning and care and preparation in the world won’t ensure the outcome of their crops. Nature and life have a way of surprising us; but the lore of both gardening and astrology can serve as guides to supervise our humble efforts to undertake new beginnings. (more…)

New Moon in Pisces: Deep Focus

Posted by & filed under New Moon, Pisces.

mrpittPisces seems to have a natural gift for happiness, instinctively relaxing and going where the river flows instead of fighting against the currents. Where Pisces lives in your chart, you may get farther by not trying so hard – by relaxing and floating instead of struggling to move in a particular direction.

Sometimes, we’re so focused on details that we miss the big picture altogether. In an episode of the TV series Seinfeld, Elaine’s boss, Mr. Pitt, has become fascinating – and frustrated – by a 3D art poster, struggling to find the “hidden” image he has been told lies within its seemingly random pattern of squares. Finally, he hits on a winning strategy: “You said keep your eyes out of focus, which is misleading,” he tells Elaine, his eyes staring wide and unblinking at the poster. “You want deep focus!”

Mr. Pitt had it exactly right. What sometimes looks to the rest of the world like a lack of focus is actually Pisces looking deeply, unblinkingly, at something the rest of us just can’t see. (more…)