March may be winding down, but it's not too late for a little March news. Boy things are heating up out there, aren't they? And this fresh Aries energy is energizing if nothing else. Steven has some thoughts to share with us about the stellium in Aries beginning to line up for April, during which 7 planets (yes, 7!) will be passing through that feisty sign.
Caught in the buzz of the bustling New Year energy, I've just returned home with hours of great video footage filmed with Steven in El Dorado, CA. The goal of the shoot was to create Steven's first official Introduction to Evolutionary Astrology DVD. This footage will serve as a much needed introduction to the material Steven presents in his Apprenticeship Programs, but in a format that doesn't require airfare! We're very excited about the footage and look forward to sharing it with you in the coming months - so stay tuned.
As we leap into 2011, I can feel a buzz in the air. Dramatic news has already captured the public's attention, people are making new starts left and right, and I'm placing my bets on Jupiter and Uranus stirring the pot quite vigorously this year as they both move into Aries.
Many of us experience the new year as a time of renewal and fresh starts, and with 2 major planets soon moving into Aries, we'll have some extra energy at hand to push us in new directions of reinvention. It will be interesting to see what develops.
As we draw our awareness to the coming winter solstice, we find ourselves in tune with an ancient earth rhythm, marching in time to the beat of ancestral drums. I make a point of gathering with friends at these cyclic annual checkpoints, sharing thoughts about what has passed and expressing intention about what is to come.
If you haven't been to a solstice gathering, I encourage you to create your own. It doesn't have to be elaborate or fancy. Just get some friends together, share some great food, light some candles, and talk about what the year has brought you, and what you hope to create or change in the next one.
Steven's latest work has given us a fresh perspective by pointing out the link between the moon's rhythms and the annual cycles of the solstices and equinoxes.
What's overhead this month in the Northern hemisphere?
Note: The constellation names given are for the planets' astronomical positions overhead. Their zodiacal, astrological positions in the tropical zodiac used by most Western (as opposed to Vedic) astrologers run about 23 degrees later in the zodiac than their astronomical positions. So if you have a current issue of Astronomy magazine, or another viewfinder for the February sky, a quick-and-dirty rule of thumb is to look for the planet in the sky about one sign/constellation before the sign/constellation that planet is transiting through in your birth chart/in the zodiac.
In the evening:
You can see Mars in the east in Cancer, Venus in the west in Capricorn/Aquarius, and Jupiter in the west in Aquarius. Reddish Mars is particularly bright all month, and won't be so large or luminous in a telescope again until 2014, so if you don't have a telescope, grab your binoculars.
As I've mentioned here before, we are 3/5ths of the way through a pattern of five oppositions of Saturn and Uranus:
* on 11/04/08 at 19 Virgo (Saturn) -Pisces (Uranus)
* on 2/5/09 at 20 Virgo-Pisces
* on 09/15/09 at 25 Virgo-Pisces
* on 4/24/2010 at 29 Virgo-Pisces
* on 7/26/2010 at 1 Libra-Capricorn
Hello, and welcome to our September 2009 newsletter. Can you believe it's September already? I'm back from speaking at the ISAR conference in Chicago in late August. My lecture was well received, and I was glad to see some of you there.
The planets are fittingly busy in solar Virgo, the sign of personal growth, wholeness, and craftsmanship:
1. Transiting Mercury is retrograde from Sept. 6-29, from 6 Libra back to 22 Virgo. For those of you new to astrology, Mercury rules communication of all kinds, learning, teaching, details, transportation, commerce, and devices we use to work with anything Mercury rules. It also rules how your mind works, what you notice, how you process information. When Mercury is retrograde, that which it rules tends to go "backwards." It's a good idea to double check all details, get tracking numbers, etc. It's also wise to review information or edit material rather than act upon it or begin a Mercury-ruled project.
2. There is an transiting Saturn-Uranus partile (exact) opposition on the 15th at 25 Virgo (Saturn) - Pisces (Uranus). We are in a pattern of five oppositions of these planets:
*on 11/04/08 at 19 Virgo (Saturn) -Pisces (Uranus)
* on 2/5/09 at 20 Virgo-Pisces
*the one mentioned above, on 09/15/09 at 25 Virgo-Pisces
*on 4/24/2010 at 29 Virgo-Pisces
* on 7/26/2010 at 1 Libra-Capricorn