AstroCast: March 5 - 19, 2015

“Paradigm takes another ride on the Shift Train.”

                                        – AstroCast / September 18, 2012

Welcome to the last pass of the much discussed world rocking Uranus/Pluto square! In preparing this article, I reviewed what I had written on the subject since 2012 when this first quarter “crisis of action” square unfolded and began the process of awakening the environmental and social movements that began at the conjunction of the two planets in the 1960s.  Undoubtedly it has also awakened something in each of us and for me personally the quote above appropriately sums up what I’ve experienced over the past few years.  This dynamic planetary interplay has been in a T-square tango with my Venus in Libra and I can definitely attest to how much the quality of my personal and professional relationships has transformed.  To my surprise, it was less about others, and more about how the relationship with myself has changed at a very deep level.  I’ve seen individuals who are on a different wavelength trajectory, some of whom lived in a high level of chaos, disappear through no direct action of my own, and new purposeful relationships form.  I became the board chair of the women’s organization at work and joined the board of a non-profit arts organization.  The relationships that have endured are stronger than ever.  I joined Jim Sher’s meditation/contemplation class during this period.  Through steady effort, I discovered tools that have helped me understand the world and the people in my life in a new way.  Ultimately I came to embrace playing the game of life.  In the process I have been able to marginalize my fears, which opened space for me to have a deeper sense of self worth, gain a much greater awareness of my individualized self and know that the one thing I truly can control are my choices.  Because my internal landscape changed so much, the external one has followed suit.  As above, so below; as within, so without.  All this is indicative of the astrological archetypes at play (2nd, 8th and 11th houses included): a revelatory leap in personal value and power that led to quality engagement in joint enterprises with groups related to arts, women and transformation.  Ultimately, I am learning how to Be, more at peace, in a state of love and joyful than ever.  What an amazing gift!

The Full Moon on March 5th symbolizes an appropriate theme to take us through the next couple of weeks that will help us focus on the balance between practical physical realities and care of our soul.  Matter and spirit face off when the Moon in earthy Virgo opposes the Sun in metaphysical Pisces.  Virgo is the model for discernment and the Moon here is very well placed to fulfill the object of this lunar cycle that was set up by the New Moon a couple of weeks ago: to practice the art of distillation, to focus on the essence, the heart and soul of what faces us.  The Sun in Pisces reminds the Virgo Moon to look at the core of the matter rather than the external details, the purity of intent over perfection of presentation.  The Virgo Moon doesn’t like a lot of unnecessary baggage and generally disdains the Pisces Sun’s penchant for being all-inclusive.  If she can get beyond the lower-octave pickiness of her nature, she has the ability to help the Pisces Sun know where he ends and other begins.  She can help him learn the importance of having an individualized self (with appropriate boundaries!), and be that special point of light in the sum of all light.  The Pisces Sun’s gift to the Virgo Moon is a deep and abiding compassion for all her faults and transgressions.  As he encourages her to contemplate the Cosmos and imagine a life greater than the sum of its parts, she can learn the value of a dream and to love unconditionally.  The Full Moon’s energetic dispatch of service to self and humanity through spirit infused matter is intensified as Pluto syncs up in a trine to the Moon only minutes later and a sextile to the Sun in a matter of hours, which may release a depth charge of will and emotion that is as authentic as it is powerful.  Increasing the sense of urgency, the Full Moon, is part of a complex six-planet configuration sharing the 14 to 15 degree range in Aries, Leo, Virgo, Capricorn and Pisces.  Off the heels of Ms. Venus triggering Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto on March 4th (see last AstroCast), the Sun and Moon pulls in that quartet’s vibrational force into a passionate wave of intentional breakthrough.

Mars may bring the decisive moment of action March 9th through 11th when he confronts Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto on his own terms generating that may enthusiastically blast ineffective edifices in a dazzling display of atomic force, in order to make way for durable creative expressions and innovations that have the potential to change the world forever.  Mars loves to take risks and if his strong drive to initiate is thwarted, well… watch out.  Remember what I said about resistance!  There is a high probability at this time that we will be moved to act and act big, to spontaneously break free from anything we feel restricts our right to be who we truly are, or to break down suffocating structures that inhibit growth.  This energy may activate a strong drive to manifest the vision we have for ourselves.  The other thing to remember is that a little strategic forethought can ensure our actions have legs.

On March 12th, Mercury ends his more than two-month stay in rebel Aquarius where he unpacked the thinking box and then tossed it altogether.  Fresh with a bevy of unusual intellectualities at the forefront of his mind he now takes the plunge into the cosmic waters of Pisces for the next few weeks to see if they can swim on their own in the ocean of galactic consciousness.  Mercury in Pisces is sensitive, idealistic and poetic.  He learns by absorbing concepts through the energetic membranes of life rather than in linear book fashion.

Highly magnetized like a pulsar, Saturn has moved only one degree in the last five weeks in preparation for his retrograde turn on March 14th.  Saturn archetypes are therefore enhanced and in need of attention: discipline and order, structure and tradition, foundations and security, time and commitment.  Saturn will spend another five weeks retracing that one-degree step, and remain retrograde until August 1st, during which time he will retrace his steps from 5° Sagittarius to 28° Scorpio (where he was last December 5th), giving us the opportunity to do the same.  Segueing from Sagittarian big picture concerns of back into Scorpionic themes of intimacy, shared resources and personal power, we may be able to pick up any missed steps in recent endeavors requiring the mastery of those skills before we can advance our philosophy of work and instill pragmatism into our faith.

Once at the edge of the Piscean sea, Mercury enters into a square to Saturn in Sagittarius that becomes exact on March 16th.  As their aspect tightens, so does the tether to earthbound reality.  The Mercury/Saturn planetary pair can be the voice of reason but it can also be quite negative, bluntly defeating possibilities before they are even tried.  This is cold water on a dreamy, starry-eyed face that tends to limit the imagination or at least could inhibit the outward expression of it.  Saturn challenges Mercury to take the necessary pragmatic and educational steps to formalize his dreams.

Saturn barely moving gives us a much needed still point on which to focus, and Mercury in Pisces brings indispensible compassion to our lips as the last pass of the Uranus and Pluto square that has been building in earnest for the last few weeks becomes exact on March 16th.  On the eve of the first aspect back in June 2012, I wrote about what became my theme image in handling the tumultuous, disruptive energies at play around me including a paradigm shift at my workplace that revealed the tremendous fear of change in many around me.  This was no time to be channeling Bette Davis in All About Eve, I kept saying to myself!  Yes it’s a bumpy night and fastening my seat belt would help me brace for any dramatic impact that may come, or so they say.  But… what if there was a way to neutralize the impact?  Strong resistance always yields an equal and opposite force that has as its raison d’etre to shatter that resistance.  The stronger the resistance, the stronger the force.  With all due respect to Bette, the image that kept popping in my head as I allowed myself to be catapulted into the unknown is the moment in the movie Contact when Jodie Foster suddenly realized she needed to UNfasten her seatbelt.  Not in the original alien design of the vehicle, the earth scientists added a pilot seat that attached to the ship’s structure which was designed to absorb the violent vibrational impact of the time-warped thrust through the wormhole.  When Jodie detached from the chair she simply floated in the amniotic-like space within and allowed the unknown to unfold with wonder.  Symbolically, she de-identified with the physical so she could enter a non-physical dimension.  In ironic counterintuitive fashion, taking the safe route appeared to be the most dangerous when transformational growth is the end game.  While the exact hits of the seven squares between promethean Uranus and elementally empowering Pluto are technically over as of today, the fall out over the next few years will reveal the shape and course our lives will take through the next long leg of the their unique cycle in history.  I for one will continue to eschew the seat belt – unless of course there is a great Saturnian reason to use it, such as driving in a car.

Taking a cue from the cosmos, Venus says enough of this impulsive bunker-busting drive for self-determination, for now.  On March 17th she shifts from Aries high gear to peaceful stroll as she comes home to Taurus, the sign she rules, where she prefers to focus on what she truly values for the next three and a half weeks – art, beauty, steady relationships and sensual romance.  Venus in earthy Taurus is attuned with Mother Nature in all her glory.  Venus in Taurus has the power to naturally soothe our over-stimulated bodies by singing love ballads, reaching out with her healing touch, or simply creating enough peace and quiet in her environment to hear a heartbeat.

The planetary tone continues to soften on March 18th when Mercury shifts from matter-focused Saturn to spirit conscious Neptune in Pisces.  Mercury’s perception reaches the highest octaves of sensitivity when he aligns in this lyrical conjunction with Pisces’ ruler, becoming attuned to realms where only spirit resides.  While in this state of divine union, Mercury may lose touch with solid ground but he will have exclusive access to the Akashic Records where every thought, feeling and deed encoded in the non-physical dimension of the astral plane is available to download via the open floodgate of imagination generated by this aspect.  As we lift our thoughts to the heavens in meditation or contemplative creative pursuit may we see ourselves enveloped by love and being a channel to express that love to others.

Tap into your personal Akashic Records and share your Uranus/Pluto stories!

* To read the various AstroCast posts on the Uranus/Pluto square referenced in this article, search the relevant dates on this website: June 24, 2012, September 18, 2012, May 20, 2013, November 1, 2013, April 21, 2014, December 14, 2014. 

Here’s the data:

*Times where noted are Pacific Time Zone.  

**Degrees where noted are rounded to the nearest whole degree.

March 5th – Moon opposite Sun (Full Moon) at 15° Virgo/Pisces at 10:05 a.m.

March 5th – Moon trine Pluto at 15° Virgo/Capricorn at 10:36 a.m.

March 5th – Sun sextile Pluto at 15° Pisces/Capricorn at 4:16 p.m.

March 9th – Mars trine Jupiter 14° Aries/Leo at 11:04 p.m.

March 11th – Mars conjunct Uranus at 15° Aries at 9:06 a.m.

March 11th – Mars square Pluto at 15° Aries/Capricorn at 3:37 p.m.

March 12th – Mercury at 0° Pisces at 8:52 p.m.

March 14th – Saturn stations retrograde at 5° Sagittarius at 8:02 a.m.

March 16th – Mercury square Saturn at 5° Pisces/Sagittarius at 2:41 a.m.

March 16th – Uranus square Pluto at 15° Aries/Capricorn at 6:50 p.m.

March 17th – Venus at 0° Taurus at 3:15 a.m.

March 18th –  Mercury conjunct Neptune at 8° Pisces at 1:49 a.m.