As is often the case, the faster moving “personal” planets will be acting as go-betweens for the outer “transpersonal” planets during this time period. The Messenger of the Gods, Mercury, activates the ongoing alignment between the titans of the sky, Saturn, Neptune and Jupiter, asking us to take a deeper look at how we go about achieving our dreams.

  OK, it’s here. Mars is now retrograde. It went retrograde on Jan. 23, 2012 at 4:54pm PST and occurred right after a New Moon. I’ll write about the significance of this later on. This retrograde period is unusually long as it lasts for 11 weeks, returning to direct motion in mid-April. As this cycle [...]

The out-of-sign opposition between Jupiter at 1° Taurus and a very slow moving Saturn at 29° Libra discussed in the last AstroCast is still in effect and will be activated in a T-square configuration by the Sun, Moon and Mercury during this period.

Congratulations to Janet Korenchuck (First Prize) and Louann Williams (Second Prize)!

It’s time to resume our look at the deeper nature of Pluto in Capricorn with Part III of our series on Scorpio. You can read the first two articles at the following links: Pluto in Capricorn- Part I and Pluto in Capricorn- Part II- Libra, Let me summarize what the nature of the Plutonic process is.

The Plutonic process in psychological terms is concerned with what is referred to as the field of depth psychology. This field studies the relationship

A couple of lunar transits open this period offering up a challenge to rise above our personal dramas. On January 6th the talkative Gemini Moon trines aloof Venus in Aquarius, trying to engage her with sweet declarations of love.

Winter Solstice arrives on December 21st at 9:30 pm as the Sun moves from high-flying Sagittarius into down to earth Capricorn. While each sign seems to be an antidote to its immediate predecessor in the zodiac, each one also comes equipped with the capability to take the gift of the preceding sign to the next level.

As we enter the winter season, Mercury has now gone back to its regular, direct motion and on Dec. 25th, 2011, when Jupiter turns direct, none of the planets will be in retrograde. This will be true until Jan. 24th, 2012 when Mars goes retrograde. I will be writing a great deal about this very significant transit later. Actually, it is not rare to have one or more planets in retrograde. Most of the time at least one planet is in retrograde motion. What is rare is to have all of the planets moving forward as they are about to be. This means that we can move forward in the latter part of this year and the first three weeks of January quite easily.

I’m dedicating one last Dine Like Your Sign to a suggestion of homemade gifts from your kitchen for each sign. Yes, it’s much easier to pick up a box of assorted chocolates or those boring Danish butter cookies no one likes, but why not whip up something sentimental and very special.