Friday, May 29, 2009

New Age Solipsism

There's something many people are caught up in these days, and it has some really horrific effects - socially, culturally, and politically.

It's this idea of: "Nothing exists outside me. I create my own reality."

This concept is basically feeding the already off-the-charts strain of narcissism in Western culture and leads to endless philosophical tail-chasing, navel-gazing, and inaction in any concrete or meaningful way. It also leads to that very scary level of detachment so commonly asserted: "I live in a different dimension. I've transcended the pain and suffering of Earth. It has nothing to do with me. I'm enlightened."

(I'd just like to point out here: anyone who uses the word "enlightened," isn't. There's nothing worse than premature enlightenment! The New Age sells it in a jar.)

It's some sort of Piscean oneness concept gone way wrong, horribly misapplied to the point that its effect is opposite what was really meant. Instead of understanding the energetic connection among people/situations and the personal responsibility that goes along with that, it promotes a very desired mindset: It's all about you! Nothing exists outside you and your own little bubble of understanding!

It's a prime example of how the New Age latches onto a grain of truth (concepts of holism, for example) and then promotes the misapplication of it.

I was on an internet message board yesterday on a thread where people were talking about Obama and if he is a "lightworker." Someone posted that he was doing the evil deeds of the New World Order.

The reply to that comment from another poster (a huge The Secret fan who is constantly schlepping his website based on it) was a prime example of this solipsism.

Instead of actually talking about Obama and his concrete track record (you know, continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, funneling trillions of dollars of taxpayers' money to international bankers under threat of martial law, prolonged detention, attempting to bring in compulsory military service for all citizens 18 - 25, etc., etc.), this dude gets all up on his pseudo-Socratic high horse (another common method with these condescending douches who believe they are "kindly and wisely" pointing out the errors in our perceptions) and asks:

"What is it in yourself that Obama reflects that you've decided is evil?"

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

The old, "If you don't like something about someone, it's related to something you don't like about yourself" trex. Bullshit dime-store psychology packaged and sold as "spiritual truth."

His whole ideology is that if there is something you're seeing that you don't like in the world, you just require more meditation or cleansing or self-examination or whatever the fuck he prescribes, more INTERNAL focus, and that will make all the bad stuff go away.

Insanity. Sheer insanity. And the popularity of The Secret (and now Beyond the Secret!) has created millions of these people, promoting this same garbage, up on their "enlightened" high horses about how those of us who see "darkness" in the world are buying into a "negative belief system" and that we will only understand the errors of our ways once we get to their level of enlightenment.

Dear God. And we wonder how Bush et. al. were able to get away with it all? And how international bankers just robbed the American people blind under Obama? How all this continues?

It doesn't matter what particular subject you're talking about, "true believers" of this stuff translate everything into their brand of The Secret-ese. It all has that very simplistic and meaningless answer. It all goes back to the same solipsistic ideology and lets them off the hook for any sort of real analysis, action, or concrete problem-solving.

Don't like poisonous oilsands mucking up your river systems? Well, it's a part of you that's doing it! You're creating it.

Don't like babies being born irradiated and deformed from exposure to the U.S. Army's depleted uranium munitions? Well, it's connected to you! You create your own reality, so you're creating that.

They seem to believe that constant repetition of this messed-up, solipsistic idiom is meaningful in and of itself. 

It's not.

You can see exactly how this is being used by the powers that be. They love the fact that people are going to look at themselves as the cause of these murderous, destructive regimes and focus internally, rather than holding those responsible accountable for their crimes against humanity.

It's this whole idea of giving institutionalized murder and crime a New Agey free pass because "we were all murderers in one lifetime or another!" 

Bullshit.

It's the same misuse of concepts like "bad karma" and the caste system, manipulating people with "spiritual" concepts into accepting injustice and substandard conditions.

The New World Order (or Global Government) seeks control in four ways - political, monetary, intellectual, and spiritual.

And its clear that the ideology of the New Age movement works perfectly to subdue and energetically lobotomize the population. They'll repeat the same old, meaningless idioms, lulling themselves and those around them into complacency. A complacent population: just what the doctor ordered. Add intense and misguided self-righteousness to that complacency, and it's even better for the criminals in positions of power to operate unfettered.

Unless humanity starts to collectively take a look at what is really going on, to hold awareness of it and demand accountability for crimes committed against humanity, these things continue unchallenged.

All while the "enlightened" crowd sits on their thumbs in some yoga studio.

Oh, but these people are all beyond the archaic political system, right? It has nothing to do with them, up on their enlightened pink clouds. They see no level of personal responsibility or accountability at all. It's all in the hands of the "higher power," which, it turns out, is THEM! (No wonder these people are so messed up.)

"All part of the divine plan. All part of the divine plan. All part of the divine plan."

The thing is: spiritual hierarchy is over. Dead. Done.

So anyone talking about "enlightenment" is living in an outdated paradigm. Most of the Love and Light worshippers I've come across are enamoured of false light. They have little to no intuitive capacity as far as determining what is real and what isn't and have handed their personal discernment powers over to external sources. Many go from fad-to-fad, desperately trying to get their fix of puffed-up Neptunian glamour, using whatever energy they can find (dirty or not) to sustain their ride on the spiritual carnival merry-go-round, refusing to get off to face anything beyond that spinning wheel of hyper-real lights and mind-spinning ether.

Neptunian energy really can be an intoxicating and addictive substance, and once you see how people are using/abusing it, it's sad and enraging at the same time. Most people are better than this.

I see signs of progress, though. There are a lot more people speaking up about this stuff than there ever were before, challenging the constantly repeated assertions of the New Age ideology and ideologies of the day, in general. I think the mass appeal is weakening. People are speaking up despite the fear of spiritual bullying from the positivity-pushers. That pressure really was immense. There were (and still are) so many people lying in wait to latch onto anything they perceived as "negative" and stuff their ideology down other people's throats. These dynamics have definitely created self-censorship, and I hope people continue to break the influence of that.

It's kind of crazy that the positivity-pushers could have that level of control, considering the weakness of their schtick, but they did and still do to a great extent.

The other odd thing is how many people who are blatantly promoting ideology related to the New Age movement do not consider themselves New Age. (Or at least won't admit it.) The aforementioned The Secret-spouting message board poster is an example, as are quite a few people in astrology circles.

I think it's possible they have no idea what they're promoting when they constantly spout off this ideology, no real understanding of the effects this stuff has...

However, in the name of bringing this all to awareness, I definitely encourage people to speak up and put these New Age regurgitators in their places. I do it every (clear) chance I get.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Neptune and Chiron Retro

Soooooo...the Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter conjunction at 26 Aquarius.

As you can probably tell, I'm not as enamoured of this conjunction as a lot of other people are. I'm aware of the pitfalls of this conjunction (with Neptune and Chiron connecting with Jupiter) and demand that they be addressed, rather than getting all spirity, spirity optimistic about it all. :-) (Although, yeah...there is optimism. But only if people take on their responsibilities here.)

Anyway...it is another layer.

Jupiter conjuncted Neptune yesterday afternoon and conjuncted Chiron May 23.

Now all three bodies go retrograde as we process those connections.

Neptune goes retrograde tonight at 10:30 p.m. MT. Chiron goes retro tomorrow (May 29). And Jupiter goes retrograde June 15 after a little more expansion related to these future vision themes.

Mercury goes direct at 22 Taurus May 30, and Mars enters Taurus May 31.

Those are the newsy events.

I'm a little burnt at the moment, but if there's anything anyone wants to talk about regarding the themes of the day, throw it down in the comments section...

Saturday, May 23, 2009

R.I.P. Art of My Heart






I'm just waiting. Inside the fortress that is me. The only place that feels good.

I'm waiting for this wave of hyper-gentrification to run out of steam so that I can properly assess the situation. At the moment, even walking down the street feels like a blast from an overexposed dystopian imagery furnace. Fake light and happy, grinding its pointy high heel into my eye. A nouveau riche nightmare. Teenagers in brand new, sickeningly overpriced clothes designed to look "lived in." Street-tastic! Carrying Chanel purses (yes, high schoolers with Chanel), cell phones, and iced coffees.

They look straight out of the pages of InStyle (Star/People/US Weekly) magazine, so I can see why they feel entitled. That takes a lot of effort.

Mount Royal Starbucks where you'll get the snobby once-over just for going in to get a take-out coffee. They can sniff out non-upper-mid-class-yuppie status.

It's a fucking wasteland. Sorry, but it is.

The so-called alternative crowd drinking overpriced, artisanal beer, eating overpriced breakfasts in pseudo-retro diners, sitting around in carefully chosen "styles" being all alternative and shit. Talking about how to market their band. Hoping to be noticed, to get famous. Even the indy crowd in this town has a marketing veneer lacquered over everything.

No one just living their lives. It's all an agenda. Gotta be someone. Gotta get somewhere. Gotta play the game.

Calgary, Alberta. Schlepping phony Western Canadiana for kicks, but the mean, mean underlying vibe is always there. Vicious millionaires bulldozing soulful establishments and people's livelihoods in favour of clean, cleansed luxury for its clean, cleansed luxury-deserving patrons. A city run by and for young souls. You can throw in a few newly-minted mature souls just to give it that fake "artsy/cultured" thing. Garbage. Trying to lure the people who don't know any better into dropping their money on overpriced drinks and food, clothing and accessories. Paying for fake experiences with fake fiat currency.

The downtown mall has kicked all the real stores out in favour of luxurification plans handed down by Torontonian property management overlords.

Brooks Brothers is coming to town! How thrilling.

Spaces are empty all over town. All over the country. All over the world. Bulldozed livelihoods. Lost our lease. Lost our lease. We're closing shop. And in a way, the independents are relieved. Because trying to keep your head above water in this increasingly corporatized climate is bloody exhausting. They tighten the vice little by little. Priced out. Squeezed out. And when the death of the business finally comes, it's accepted with a sigh.

And so I wait for the bulldozer to run out of gas. Or to at least take a fucking coffee break.

I can see it starting. "Luxury" stores aren't lining up to fill those empty spaces. The spots are sitting empty. Stalled monster condo projects all over town. Massive, gaping holes left in the ground with fences all around. They got ahead of themselves, trying to build on phony foundations.

And here I sit. I'm not sure what things are going to look like or if there will ever be a place I can stand being in again.

Art of My Heart is dead. And every fucking brainless weasel in this town can go to hell.


All Art of My Heart articles.

The Current Connections to Uranus in Pisces

My apologies! I realize I skipped over the current connections to Uranus in Pisces. (Also in the Saturn Direct post.)

Well, I didn't actually skip them...because the influence of Pisces is always there. :) But I didn't mention the specifics.

I've been talking about the Taurus-Aquarius square themes a lot, but just before the bodies in Taurus square the bodies in Aquarius, they sextile Uranus in Pisces, now also at 26 degrees.

This, again, is and indicator of the Piscean Age to Aquarian Age transition. As is the mutual reception of Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius. So the related themes are sort of an umbrella we're existing under. Aquarius is very much interconnected with Pisces at the moment, and vice versa. So it's almost as if when you're talking about one, you're talking about the other, as well.

I have a tendency to focus on the trickier aspects (like squares) just because I think they are generally more difficult to deal with and require a bit more time and analysis to really successfully navigate. My personal bias there.

But it's nice to know we have a nice sextiling energy from Taurus to Pisces to give us a little boost of spiritual intelligence as we do our thing in the earthy Taurean realms. It eases the square vibe a little.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Mean versus True Black Moon Lilith Calculation

"I do have a Q, if you choose to answer - re. BML. Reading that BML was headed Rx towards Pluto definitely got my attention. I am confused about this as everywhere I look, I see BML 15 deg. Cap headed forward direction. I am aware that you put a ton of focused attention and energy into your work. Trust me, most other places, I would not ponder to the extent that I am. Also, I hold a space of respect and awe for BML - being conjunct my Desc., NN, squaring Pluto - Sun, amongst some other major aspects.

So am wonderin' about the missin' link ..."




This is the difference between the mean and true calculations for Black Moon Lilith. (Like the mean and true calculations for the North and South Nodes of the Moon.)

Black Moon Lilith is a point, not a body in the sky. (Lilith is the asteroid; Black Moon Lilith is the lunar apogee - the furthest point the Moon gets from the Earth in its orbit at the time of calculation.) The real movement of this apogee point is very erratic - it can move back and forth a number of degrees in one day. True Black Moon Lilith is the actual position of the apogee (erratic movement included), and the use of it is fairly recent. The mean calculation is an averaged position which was used before there were sensitive enough instruments/calculations to plot the true Black Moon Lilith course.

The mean calculation never goes retrograde. The true calculation goes retrograde often and for varying numbers of days. Direct for 15 days, retrograde for 9, direct for 10 days, retrograde for 18, and so on.

The difference between the mean and true calculation can be up to 30 degrees, which can change the sign/house of BML and also the interpretation/effect.

My personal interpretation is that the mean calculation relates to Black Moon Lilith's strong and steady intention, never deviating, and the more erratic true calculation relates to the complex ins and outs of what it needs to do to make that intention a reality. 

For example:

A woman getting a big holiday meal on the table is the mean intention.

All the shopping and peeling and cutting and scraping and cooking and dishing out and juggling of timing and clearing of plates and washing of dishes is the erratic true course.

I read a comment on the net somewhere that the true version is the only version that takes the raw instinctual movement of Black Moon Lilith into play, and this seems true to me.

If you are looking at mean Black Moon Lilith, it is currently at 15 Capricorn moving direct (as it is always moving direct).

But true BML just turned retrograde and made a mad dash back to conjunct Pluto tomorrow in time to play a role in all the other stuff going on. BML went retrograde over 17 degrees in 12 days to get back to 2 degrees Capricorn for the conjunction. I think this is an example of the instinctual, erratic movement that would not be apparent with the mean calculation.

It's another way the deep, dark feminine does its thing on the downlow and most people are none the wiser.

I only switched from mean to true BML after reading that comment on the net (can't remember where or who said it), but I'm glad I now know the distinction. I would have missed the connection to Pluto if I hadn't looked at the true calculation.

Dark of the Moon Heading to a New Moon in Gemini

We've got an interesting weekend ahead. Not so much for exciting external events, necessarily. But there is a lot going on internally.

We're currently experiencing the Dark of the Moon (balsamic phase) in Taurus.

You'll recall from my Saturn Direct post that the Taurus-Aquarius square is a prominent theme these days colouring the concrete steps Saturn is making as it moves direct, and the Dark of the Moon in Taurus continues these themes...

Tomorrow, we begin the first of the exact conjunctions in that Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune triple conjunction at 26 Aquarius. Jupiter and Chiron conjunct tomorrow (May 23) as the Moon in Taurus conjuncts Mercury retrograde, sextiles Uranus in Pisces and squares all three bodies in Aquarius within three hours.

Jupiter and Neptune exactly conjunct on Wednesday, May 27. Neptune and Chiron immediately go retrograde at that point (Neptune on May 28, Chiron on May 29) with Jupiter following suit June 15.

The Dark of the Moon is a time of allowing the previous lunar cycle to fade to black. It's a time of inner stillness and wrapping up when we function on emotion and inner knowing regarding what needs to happen (if anything) to complete the lunar cycle and prepare for the New Moon. With the connections to Mercury, Uranus and Aquarius, we are preparing intellectually, emotionally and physically for the changes up ahead. It's a busy Dark of the Moon, but in Taurus, it should have a nice, sensuous feel. All in good time. Kick back and let this cycle wrap up as it will.

The Sun newly in Gemini is raring to go, but with its dispositor Mercury retrograde in Taurus along with the Moon in this phase, things are still, with an internal focus.

Twelve hours after the Moon in Taurus squares the Aquarius bodies (Sunday morning), we have a New Moon at 3 degrees Gemini. Fresh. But still with the backdrop of Mercury in retrograde until May 30.

Another important conjunction happening tomorrow, as Jupiter and Chiron come together, is (true) Black Moon Lilith and Pluto at 2 degrees Capricorn. Black Moon Lilith has quite an erratic movement around the zodiac, and she has zipped with great speed retrograde to meet with Pluto on this day. The consciousness represented by Black Moon Lilith has a crucial role to play now under the backdrop of all this "future planning," and BML needed to get back to Pluto so she could put her cards on the table with as much potency as possible during this first Jupiter-Chiron conjunction in Aquarius. BML knows people don't mess around with Pluto. When Pluto exerts itself, people listen. (They have to.) So setting aside for the moment the injustice that many people won't listen to BML on her own terms, she joins forces with Pluto to get the message across. Pluto and BML kind of read each other's mail. All that dark stuff they know about that most people deny or gloss over. Consciousness comrades.

The vibe related to this BML-Pluto conjunction is why I'm talking about this and this.

We have to look at the multi-layered reality now, every aspect, if we are going to really create something beneficial to all of humanity. We can't get caught up in the promise of the future and rosy idealism and forget about the complexity of the issues.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Mercury Retrograde Action

We currently have Mercury retrograde in Taurus (May 6 - May 30). Mercury Rx conjuncted the Sun at 27 degrees Taurus on May 18, signalling the beginning a new intellectual/communication/information cycle. However, Mercury will remain retrograde until May 30 when it turns direct at 22 degrees Taurus.

Mercury will not enter brand new territory until June 14 at 1 degree Gemini (after sextiling Uranus and squaring the Aquarius bodies yet again), so I thought I would post an old informational article I wrote on Mercury retrograde.

When we say a planet is retrograde, it means that because of the speed and motion of the orbiting planet in relation to Earth’s speed and orbit, the planet appears to be moving backward through the zodiac. It doesn’t actually move backward, but it appears to do so. All planets except for the Sun, Earth, and Moon go retrograde.

The effect of a planet in retrograde differs based on the particular planet and sign involved (and the astrologer interpreting it), but in general, a planet in retrograde signifies a period of recalibration when we’re detaching from a previous period of forward motion and preparing for the next one.

When a planet is direct, it moves through an area of the zodiac, and we make external progress. During a retrograde, the planet moves back over that same territory, and we internally adjust/shift gears as we prepare to fully engage in a new cycle (while disengaging from the previous one).

Mercury goes retrograde the most - three to four times per year for about three weeks each time. This is why it's the retrograde most people are aware of. Mercury is the messenger of the sky and relates to communication, intellect, information, transportation, connections and thought processes.

For the most part, people experience Mercury retrograde "symptoms" when they are attempting to move full speed ahead, business as usual. Retrogrades are periods of going back over important degrees to gain and apply insight. As with all retrogrades, when Mercury is retrograde, we have to adjust to the slower rhythms. There's a strong element of "cosmic timing," more noticeable than usual.

If we don't listen to Mercury retrograde, slow down and pay more attention, we can experience some of these classic symptoms:

** Communication problems, delays, glitches, mistakes, misinformation. (Written and verbal)
** Telephone lines, internet, TV, radio, faxes, electronics/computers going haywire - delayed connections, e-mails that don’t go through, messages sent to the wrong people or ones that seem to disappear into thin air, slow or no internet connections, programs that refuse to work, cable TV and telephone problems…basically anything that involves getting a message or information between two parties will be subject to this.
** Transportation problems, especially public transportation - late, missing, getting on the wrong bus or train, lights going haywire, confusion about where to go.
** People just having a hard time understanding each other. Being forced to slow down and make an effort to be understood. Having to repeat yourself.
** A feeling of déjà vu - Didn’t I just say that? Didn’t we already talk about this? Things come back up for review and revision during Mercury retrograde. Old conversations, ideas, information coming up for completion. We rediscover crucial information that perhaps we didn’t realize was important before and receive missing information before moving forward with plans. A time to cross our Ts and dot our Is. Mental preparation for what is to come.
** A lot of mental processing related to what is going on in your life. ("My brain hurts.")
** Delays, delays, delays - remember, this is a time of rewiring, not necessarily of forward progress. It is a time of preparing, making sure the connections are sound, the information is available, everything is ship shape. A feeling of slowness, having to wait on things that you wouldn’t normally have to. We also have to allow ourselves to be directed a little more than usual regarding what we focus on.

Traditionally, Mercury retrograde is not a good time to sign contracts, make deals or make big purchases.

Mercury retrograde happens at the point when Mercury is ahead of the Sun in the zodiac by about 15 degrees. This means that our minds, ideas and communications (Mercury) are ahead of our conscious current moment (Sun) and eventually, Mercury has to slow down and go back to touch base with the Sun. Mercury collects and processes information that we need to deal with our current moment, so it has to stay in relatively close contact.

Basically, we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves or become too mentally excited by our ideas and plans, or we’ll crash and burn! We all know a real life example of how this happens. You get really excited about something you decide to do - say getting married. So you’ve made up your mind to get married. You tell all your friends and family and start getting ideas about what you want your wedding to be like. Cake, flowers, venue, guest list, food, vows, dress, you name it. You talk about it ad nauseum. After a while, it’s all you’re thinking about. You’ve basically mentally projected yourself into the future. But wait a minute! You still have to rent, buy, plan, organize, and have about a million interactions related to the day, not to mention prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for becoming someone's wife/husband. You need time to wrap your brain around the reality of being hitched (along with everything that goes with it) before it actually happens. You have to slow yourself down before you burn yourself out through mental overload.

That’s what Mercury retrograde is for. During this period, Mercury slows down and then goes back over mental territory we’ve just been through for a rewiring process. At this time, external communications can slow, snag, and snafu for aforementioned reasons. Our attempts at further progress are thwarted, which can be frustrating until we accept the "go with the flow" aspect.

All this, of course, so that we are forced to communicate with ourselves about what is going on in our lives - so that we pay attention and don’t skip over anything important.

The process goes like this: SHADOW - STATION - RETROGRADE - STATION - DIRECT - SHADOW - NEW TERRITORY.

For about two weeks before the retrograde begins, Mercury travels through what is called its shadow. This means that Mercury goes through the degrees of the zodiac (for the first time) that it will revisit during the retrograde period. During the shadow time, it’s useful to make note of the things coming up - information, conversations, ideas, things you’re trying to do, etc. These things will be revisited in the coming weeks. Near the end of the two-week shadow, Mercury starts to slow down to get ready for the retrograde. The period of time surrounding a planet turning retrograde is called the station. At the point of its station, Mercury will basically appear motionless in the sky. This is generally a time when nothing much seems to be moving. Communication is a little heavy and difficult. At this time, communication that does go on will generally be potent.

After any planet turns to go retrograde (back through the degrees of the zodiac from which it just came), it takes a while for it to regain speed. While Mercury regains its speed, communication and interaction will, again, be a little slow. After a few days, Mercury is again traveling at its regular pace, but it’s now going backward, through territory it has already gone over, on its way to meet the Sun.

About halfway through the retrograde, Mercury and the Sun meet. At this point, our ideas/brains and our conscious moment are together. We’re no longer ahead of ourselves. Mercury spills the beans about all the ideas and information it has, and the Sun has a chance to integrate this into our conscious current reality. At this point, we have detached from the previous Mercury cycle. Mercury has told the Sun everything, and now it’s time (in typical Mercury fashion) to move onto the next thing.

As the Sun moves forward and Mercury continues to move retrograde, Mercury gets ready for a new cycle up ahead. This period is for bolstering our energies, formulating our plans, and mentally preparing ourselves for the new. We’re not fully in the new cycle; we’re still going back over old territory. But we’ve finished what we needed to finish from the old cycle. We’ve disengaged, and we can sense the new ground up ahead. As Mercury completes the retrograde period, we're prepared to launch into the new cycle.

At the end of the three-week retrograde, Mercury again slows and stations - this time to go direct (move forward) and fully enter the new cycle of information, ideas, communication and interaction. Once Mercury goes direct, it still has about two weeks to pass through its shadow before it gets into completely new territory (completely fresh degrees of the zodiac). But at least it’s now moving forward!

Mercury’s actual retrograde motion lasts for about three weeks, but the whole retrograde process takes seven (give or take a few days).

WEEK ONE - Mercury is going full speed ahead through new territory, but it is in its shadow - the territory it will re-cover during the retrograde.
WEEK TWO - Still moving through its shadow, Mercury slows down and stops - making its retrograde station.
WEEK THREE - Mercury now starts moving backward over the degrees of the zodiac it just covered and slowly regains its speed.
WEEK FOUR - Mercury is back up to regular speed, covering old ground and rewiring, reviewing, reconnecting, reworking.
WEEK FIVE - Mercury slows in backward motion and again stations (becomes practically motionless in the sky) to turn direct.
WEEK SIX - Mercury goes direct at the beginning of this week and slowly starts making it way up to full speed, moving in the third and final pass over the same degrees of the zodiac.
WEEK SEVEN - Mercury is back up to its full speed and completes its retrograde, entering new territory and fresh degrees of the zodiac by the end of this week.

So using our current Mercury Retrograde as an example...

April 22 - Mercury enters retrograde shadow degree at 22 Taurus
May 6 - Mercury stations retrograde at 1 degree Gemini and starts appearing to move backward from 1 degree Gemini to 22 degrees Taurus. The Sun is at 16 degrees Taurus, about 15 degrees ahead of Mercury
May 18 - Mercury Rx conjuncts the Sun at 27 degrees Taurus. The Sun then moves ahead of Mercury in the zodiac as Mercury continues to head retro
May 30 - Mercury stations direct
June 14 - Mercury passes over 1 degree Gemini and heads into new territory

All in all, as with all astrological transits, Mercury retrograde is a period when it’s best to let cosmic timing do its thing. You can’t force things to happen that seem to have a mind of their own. The best thing to do is accept the slower pace, even learn to enjoy it, because Mercury doesn’t stay in one place for long.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto all go retrograde once a year for (approximately) the following numbers of days:

Jupiter: 120 days
Saturn: 140 days
Uranus: 150 days
Neptune: 160 days
Pluto: 160 days

Venus goes retrograde once every 18 months for 42 days, and Mars goes retro once every two years for 80 days.

Thanks to Zane Stein for the data on the other planets' retrogrades.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Venus in Aries Leaves the Retrograde Shadow

In honour of Venus in Aries busting out of the retro shadow into new territory tonight (at 15 1/2 degrees Aries or so), I'm linking to a still-relevant post on rejecting false karasses in favour of real, authentic places for our real, authentic selves (no self-censorship) within communities/groups.

Kicking False Karasses to the Curb...

The Moon in Aries conjuncts Venus in Aries tonight at the very same time that Venus leaves the retrograde shadow (9:23 p.m. MT). Oh, astrology.

Mars and Venus in Aries are both heading to sextiles with that Aquarius triple conjunction (Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune), activating these issues again in our lives. Mars in Aries will sextile the bodies in Aquarius May 26 (just after Jupiter conjuncts Chiron (May 23) and just before it conjuncts Neptune (May 27)); Venus will sextile them June 2.

The Venus retro in Aries was designed to strengthen the relationship we have to ourselves. To get in touch with the warrior within - the one who will take no shit from the people around us, who will bow and bend to no one, who will stand up and demand to be heard (and demand that what we're REALLY saying is heard - not what someone THINKS we're saying).

Through the retrograde process, we have hopefully strengthened the relationship to our real, authentic, no-holds-barred selves to the point that we're bringing it all to the table in our interpersonal relationships. All of us. Not downplaying or whitewashing out a bit. Because getting to that place and living from that place is very important now in creating the right place for ourselves within the unfolding Aquarian paradigm.

The Venus retrograde was also designed to strengthen our personal relationship to the constructive, motivating force of our own anger.

Honouring our feelings there, understanding their validity and determining what actions they're asking us to take.

And this leads me to something that really pisses me off that I would like to address now.

And that is the term "rants." I despise this term. Yep, it's a very strong reaction. And when I go to the root of those feelings, I realize I despise this term being applied to my writing/work (and to anyone's, actually) because, to me, this term has been used in the past to invalidate passion and righteous anger. It's a term that seems condescending, making less of that which it refers to.

I see people use this term relating to their own work/point-of-view as a sort of apology for their candor. I also see people using this term to distance themselves from the truths being spoken...making it seem as if the person speaking/writing is an "amusing hothead" and little more. It subtly attempts to invalidate what is being expressed.

And I think it sucks.

I will never apologize for my work or perspective, especially not to make someone feel more comfortable within his or her own mindset. And I will never do myself the dishonour of applying that term to what I do.

The level of self-censorship going on in this culture makes me unbearably sad, but it also disgusts the hell out of me that people will allow themselves to be stifled in these ways. That they will "tone down" what they really think and feel so as to not ruffle any feathers.

I say, ruffle more feathers! If you're speaking the truth from your personal perspective and what you're saying strikes a nerve, that means it's triggering something that is meant to be brought to collective awareness.

But this happens. In a world that constantly resists your point-of-view and rejects what you have to say, people end up questioning their own sanity. (Even though it's the mainstream groupthink that is actually insane.)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Stars Are Aligned...For Us to See Through These People

I didn't realize that as I was posting the Saturn in Virgo direct post (featuring those nutty, nutty Bilderberg Group members!) the Bilderberg Group was holding its annual meeting - this time in Athens, Greece. (May 14 -16)

Setting the agenda (their agenda) for the planet during the potent Saturn direct station...while Canada celebrated Queen Victoria on the May long weekend with camping and barbeques and such.

I guess it makes sense why that information came up in the post.

Also in the news is Obama (who, let's recall, was elected November 4, 2008, the day of the first Saturn in Virgo-Uranus in Pisces opposition) saying the "stars are aligned for health care." Appeasing people by throwing them a bone with the possibility of universal health care while continuing with the same brutal, destructive agenda.

Virgo relates to health, Saturn to structure. So yeah, that's one way to read these stars, all right.

But these are not coincidences. The powers-that-be use astrology and metaphysical concepts to advance their agendas. They have throughout history. Back in the day, only the very wealthiest and most powerful had access to astrologers/astrology/birth charts. It was something used by the elites to set the timing for their agendas...and it still is.

And isn't it funny how most of the mainstream has fallen into the trap of thinking astrology is something only kooks use? All the while having it used against them by their supposed leaders.

This is how the people have been duped. They have allowed themselves to be stripped of their emotional/intuitive/spiritual aspects in the day-to-day business world, to sever those aspects of themselves from their decision-making processes. To deny and whitewash out the feminine/yin within the structural set-ups of the day, especially within the corporate model. All while those at the top of the hierarchical house of cards capitalize on these things and use them to their advantage.

This is why they want people to remain ignorant on these subjects. People are easier to manipulate when they're at that disadvantage.

Stripping people of their spirituality and cultural practises has long been used in an attempt to break people and control them. This was done on a large scale against Native North American people. And it's done in a sneakier, more subtle way against all people every day, especially within the corporate model.

Wouldn't want the people to actually be empowered within their own spirituality, would we? Wouldn't want them to understand astrology and cosmic timing, would we? Then they wouldn't be willing to follow-the-leader so blindly. They would start listening to themselves and making their own informed decisions. And they would start seeing through the cosmically-timed agendas put in place by these so-called leaders.

This is a prime example of how the feminine is abused and misused within the mainstream structures (Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn). How it's being used to manipulate and control people.

Separate people from these aspects of themselves and then consolidate that energy, that power, and use it against them. Capitalize on the dysfunction and fear this manufactured separation creates in people. Sell them drugs to deal with it and placate them with "all part of the divine plan."

Well, the stars are aligned for people to see through these charades. The time (Saturn) has come.

This is what all these myths are about...Persephone, Inanna...it's about reclaiming our right to our own feminine force. Removing it from the hands of the hijackers who misuse and abuse it. Taking personal responsibility for its rightful application.

And yeah, it's not easy with the old set-ups still in our heads. But as I said in the Saturn in Virgo direct post, it's a matter of taking only the steps we know are right. Taking those tiny steps in the right direction. Not heading back into the old structures, the old traps.

I'm very aware of this right now as I think about what is next for me on the work front. It's still not clear, but what is clear is that I will not go into anything even resembling the old shitshow set-ups. With Virgo, a lot of the time it's about removing yourself from what you DON'T want. Staying out of things. Removing your influence. And that's where it seems to be right now...

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Saturn Retrograde in Virgo Refresher

It's always helpful to remind ourselves of what we've been through during a retrograde as the planet stations direct. So here is a reminder of some of the themes of the Saturn retrograde period (Dec. 30, 2008 - May 16, 2009):

Successful Navigation of Saturn in Virgo (from January 2, 2009).

This is a complement for the Saturn in Virgo Direct post below...

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Another Layer of This Saturn Direct

Just a sidenote on those Aquarius conjunctions as Saturn goes direct in Virgo...

I think it's helpful to recall that Aquarius was traditionally ruled by Saturn. It is currently ruled by Uranus, but I think the traditional rulership adds a necessary layer of understanding.

This is actually more along the lines of how I experience Aquarius. The responsibility (Saturn) that comes with freedom (Uranus).

This also brings into play the Saturn-Uranus oppositions we're experiencing in Virgo-Pisces.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Saturn in Virgo Direct: Withdrawing Misplaced Allegiances and Removing Poisoned Arrows - May 2009

Aspects for May 16-20, 2009 - colouring Saturn direct (done for Mountain Time)

May 16
Sun in Taurus square Jupiter in Aquarius - 2:45 a.m.
Sun in Taurus square Chiron in Aquarius - 3:30 p.m.
Saturn direct at 14 degrees Virgo - 8:06 p.m.
Sun in Taurus square Neptune in Aquarius - 11:05 p.m.
May 16/17
Moon in Aquarius conjuncting Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius and squaring Mercury Rx and the Sun in Taurus - 11:47 p.m. - 4:40 a.m.
May 18
Sun conjunct Mercury at 27 degrees Taurus - 4:02 a.m.
May 20
Mercury retrograde in Taurus square Neptune in Aquarius - 3:21 a.m.
Mercury retrograde in Taurus square Chiron in Aquarius - 3:00 p.m.
Mercury retrograde in Taurus square Jupiter in Aquarius - 9:45 p.m.

As Saturn turns direct in earth sign Virgo on May 16, we have the Sun in Taurus (another earth sign) squaring Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune, which are all in conjunction at around 26 degrees Aquarius (air).

We also have the Moon in Aquarius conjuncting the bodies in that sign and squaring the Sun and Mercury (retrograde) in Taurus May 16/17.

The Sun and Mercury come together at 27 Taurus on May 18, and Mercury moves back over the Sun's steps, squaring Neptune, Chiron and Jupiter in Aquarius May 20.

These Taurus-Aquarius squares colour the challenges we face as Saturn turns direct and we get going on a new, better-adapted structural reality.

Our challenge here is to bust out and create something new...but to do it within a concrete, day-to-day reality. To advance our lives in the ways that most inspire us, making it a practical, daily, work-in-progress, with our personal understanding of what needs to come about so desperately in our communities as our guide.

We're meant to take the vision out of the realm of rhetoric and live it. To take it out of the hands of criminal so-called leaders, disconnect from their version of the future, and determine what it really means to us personally.

This is the radical Aquarian break. The line we draw in the sand. Where we take back the "revolution," the "vision," the "future" from those who have co-opted these terms and used them against us. This is where we say enough is enough and demand real freedom, for everyone. To live with that goal at the forefront. This is where we are no longer willing to accept the version of false freedom that is packaged and sold to us. This is where we wrestle our intellectual independence away from the people and institutions that corrupt it.

Or we choose to go along with it. It's a personal choice each individual has to make.

Revolution is a trendy word these days, used by advertisers to sell cars and body spray. Self-declared visionaries run around, a new one every day, it seems, trying to get people on board their particular vision and version of the future.

This is why the use of personal discernment and judgement required by Saturn in Virgo is so important right now. Define these things for yourself.

Cut away the noise and excess. Pare down to what is basic, simple, necessary, meaningful, real to you in your life. The more we sever ties to toxic structures and energy dynamics, the better we feel. Refuse to play the game. Reconnect with simple pleasures and the appreciation you have for what is real and good in your life. Guard that carefully.

It's important that we have our feet planted firmly on the ground now, stripping away falsity to more fully understand the conditions we are working with.

If we don't personally make the choice regarding which version of the "future vision" we wish to bring about, the choice is made for us.

With the Sun and Mercury in Taurus, Saturn in Virgo and Pluto Rx in Capricorn, there is a lot of earth focus right now...and neither Saturn nor Pluto (both demanding planets) will think twice about giving us a reality-check slap upside the head if we're too far off in the clouds.

Taurus is a sign rooted to Earth. It's the sign where we commit to making progress in the physical realm. Slow, methodical, sure-footed progress. In Taurus we lay a solid foundation - one that will physically support our grand dreams and goals.

Taurus knows that what is really valuable doesn't just miraculously come into existence. There is effort involved to bring about the quality of physical life it desires. Taurus is a fixed sign, and once it gets going, it wants to keep going. There is nothing it dislikes more than shoddy workmanship. It doesn't want to go back over a crappy job later on. It wants to do things right the first time, and it's willing to put the time and effort into things initially to make sure things are on a solid footing. No movement unless it's the right movement.

This is where we find ourselves in our conscious moment (Sun in Taurus), with Mercury retrograde (May 6 - 30) also in late Taurus, dispositing Saturn in Virgo, to make sure we've got it down. Mercury in Taurus (especially retrograde) slows our thinking, communicating and information-processing way down so our thoughts are grounded in practical reality. We're going back over intellectual territory to reinforce anything that seems a little shaky. We're collecting any information we might have missed or glossed over the first time around and making any changes necessary in the process of turning our Aquarian blueprints into a Taurean physical reality.

Taurus deals in the practical here and now, not in abstract intellectualism. So you can see the energy of the Taurus-Aquarius squares we're dealing with here as we take our first concrete steps with Saturn direct. Aquarius has the objective vision. It's tapped in there. But Taurus deals with the practical realities of bringing that vision to Earth. Grounding it. Making it real.

As is always the case with square dynamics, we're challenged to respect what both signs bring to the table. Each of these energies has a hard time working with the other at times. It can be tense. They don't approach things in the same way and come from very different perspectives. But work together they must in order to create a world in which we want to live.

You can think of it as the interior designer doing the visualizing (Aquarius) versus the tradespeople doing the physical work (Taurus) - equally important forces working for collective ends. The interior designer has the vision, and the tradespeople have the skills and know-how to make that vision a reality.

We're challenged now to ensure we're working on our own Aquarian blueprints here - no misplaced effort or allegiances.

We must determine what is required from us in the here and now, in our conscious moment, and take the next step. Taking even the smallest of concrete steps, when we know it's right. Enduring through resistance. Severing ties to anything that does not truly reflect our personal values. This is how the widescale change gets it's legs and digs in in a way that is going to be meaningful over the long run.

So our vision is coming into check by physical-reality-based circumstances. And some fucked up physical-reality-based circumstances they are.

At the same time, the Aquarian part of the square ensures that we push for our prefered future as we see it. Our freedom is at stake. We can't get bogged down in tradition and history (Taurus) and talk ourselves out of what is possible. We know we're in new territory, creating something that hasn't previously existed, and we have to maintain the integrity of that vision.

To start off in the wrong way means going back and beginning again - something Taurus would prefer to avoid. We have to determine what we can and cannot compromise on here. This is the setting of personal values and boundaries related to Taurus.

With two fixed signs squaring off, people/situations are going to be stubborn, frictional.

We've definitely got an infusion of Aquarian energy, with ongoing conjunctions of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune at 26 Aquarius (from May 23 to July 22). We're tapped in and inspired by the Aquarian vibration and the feeling of the new. We can see the possibility of a future beyond murder, violence, oppression and coercion. Beyond unjust power dynamics and horrible struggle. A future where human beings can live freely as who they are, without threat. Where we use the higher functions of human intelligence to solve our problems. A planet that functions by the people, for the people.

We know that so much is possible now. We're able to break the shackles of the past here if we're diligent and give it our all. If we keep our head in the game. This is why we're on the planet now, alive during these times. The rules of the past are losing influence and we're assisting this process. We're responsible for creating better for this planet and its inhabitants. To bring about true freedom. We have to feel this and know it. To live this and never allow ourselves to be talked out of the fact that individuals can and do create marvellous change every day through diligent and committed action. We must not allow anyone to talk us out of what we know about our lives and what we're here to do.

With Saturn just getting rolling in Virgo (combined with the strong Taurus influence), the momentum-building process is going to make slow gains. Earthly timing is often slower than we would like, but we have to make sure every step of the way is correct. We have to watch those Virgoan details, not missing a one. The second half of May will bring a little relief, but movement could seem infinitesimal for the first couple of weeks of Saturn direct. Our responsibilities are in focus. We're working with gravity here.

We also have Venus and Mars moving from feisty Aries to methodical Taurus - Mars on May 31 and Venus on June 6. So the Taurus-Aquarius square themes continue to be prominent into July. Venus and Mars don't square Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune exactly until the beginning of July (after Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune all, almost simultaneously, go retrograde), but the themes are there through May and June, into the first part of July.

To me, this practical focus always seems to be where those of a more Neptunian inclination get off the ride. They seem to be so depressed and discouraged by the idea of any physical limitations or that it is going to take some sustained effort and application to get where they want to go that they head off into the stratosphere, preaching about transcendence and maya and climbing the enlightenment ladder to get out of this physical reality.

With the Sun and Mercury squaring Neptune, this is a big theme colouring the entire Saturn direct process.

There is a misuse of the idea of maya out there these days that I've come across quite a lot. The misuse (as I see it) is the promoted idea that all physical reality is maya and that we must transcend maya. In other words, nothing really exists (it's all an illusion) so we shouldn't really give a crap about this plane. We're just meant to pass through it as quickly as possible, transcend it. "Enlighten" ourselves out of it.

This ideology is often attributed to Buddha and was a main reason I sort of thought Buddhism (as applied in 2009) was leading people in the wrong direction. From what I could see, it was being used as an excuse for inaction in the here and now.

In actuality, I've come to find out, Buddha directed his energy into work on the physical plane.

Early Buddha contemplated transcending the Earth plane, and this seems to be what a lot of people stick with.

But mature Buddha came to the conclusion that to transcend the struggle of Earthly experience, we must deal with physical reality in the moment in which we're living. That physical and spiritual are one and the same, and that the key to alleviating suffering on the planet (and transcending it) was to deal with the conditions of physical reality creating that suffering.

Apparently, Buddha told his disciples not to waste their time and energy in constant metaphysical speculation that didn't bring them any closer to the truth, directing them toward practical efforts instead.

A quote attributed to him: "Suppose a man is struck by a poisoned arrow and the doctor wishes to take out the arrow immediately. Suppose the man does not want the arrow removed until he knows who shot it, his age, his parents, and why he shot it. What would happen? If he were to wait until all these questions have been answered, the man might die first."

In other words, we have to get to work in immediate ways, taking out the poisoned arrows.

It's cool that this is coming up now because Buddha is considered a Sun sign Taurus and illustrates the grounded Taurean application of spirituality we so need to master right now.

All water signs (spiritual realms) have an equally important earth sign (physical reality) polarity. You can't choose one over the other.

Taurus is a sign of sensual pleasure - what is pleasing to the five senses. So the goal here is to create a physical reality on Planet Earth that feels good to live, physically and energetically/psychically. So that there is no need to desire the transcendence of the Earth plane so desperately.

Earth is not our enemy. Saturn is not our enemy. Physical reality is not our enemy.

Properly applying Taurus energy is sensual, earthy, sexy, and much more authentically feel-good than anything being sold to you on the market today. It lasts longer, too. ;)

With Chiron and Neptune coming together, under a Jupiterian spotlight, there will be a tendency to go too far into the promise of blissful Neptunian utopia and spiritual surrender - possibly as a reaction to the fear mongering of the day. Chiron conjunct Neptune in Aquarius shows the potential for pain resulting from the surrender of personal power to external authorities supposedly leading us into "the future." With Neptune involved, there is a tendency to be blinded by rosy idealism and transcendent fervour...to see only the supposed good and be carried along until it is too late.

The expansion of the agenda of the New World Order under Obama is a perfect example of the shadow side of these energies at work.

Also of the current earth element. The incremental (Taurus), systemic (Virgo) creation and takeover of hierarchical power structures (Capricorn).

People could buy into the spiritual glamour of these Aquarius conjunctions (and I'm sure a lot of New Agey astrologers are going to be working that angle for all its worth) and give up their personal power and responsibility in dealing with the application of the energy, resulting in painful disillusionment (and worse) in the long run.

The "and worse" is the Aquarius without Pisces part of the equation. The hatred toward humanity shown by much of the science of the day. Emotional detachment to the point of human beings being treated like robots, test subjects. Arrogant Atlantean throwbacks. Data chips. Depopulation schemes. Eugenics. One child laws. Elitist agendas using science (Aquarius) and spirituality (Pisces) to further the most horrific goals. A war against humanity itself.

These are not science fiction ideas. These are ideas held by some of the most "powerful" people of the day. 90% depopulation of the Earth is a number bandied about among many of these so-called elites. And no, not strictly through birth control.

But most people will reject this outright. It's too far out of their scope, I guess. I remember being at an all-candidates meeting in Carnduff, Saskatchewan about five or six years ago. I asked the candidates what they thought of George Bush's plan for One World Goverment. They thought I was nuts and said there was no such thing. I told them to check out the official website (it existed) before I was tossed out of the meeting for being "inappropriate." :)

I mean, we've been here before, right? History has repeated. As far as the supposed "ruling elites," we really have not progressed past the times of Stalin, Mao, Hitler, so to pretend otherwise, again, does humanity a disservice. Human beings are considered expendable by many of the people in "power" today.

(They're really quite weak when you get right down to it...but they play as if they're in charge.)

This is why humanity itself needs to surpass these fucks (and will)...and why it's so very important to keep a realistic head about us now, to reject the fear tactics and to learn from past over-inflated Neptune, heartless Aquarius, and the mistakes of surrendering to external authority. Inner alignment is key.

Going too far with Neptunian (water) rosiness, idealism and spiritual surrender to the point of escapism, denying the practical realities of where we find ourselves on Earth and our responsibilities there, sets us up for painful reality checks (earth).

As does letting detached, scientific Aquarius energy run amok, unchecked by Piscean lessons.

The horrific reality of the Vietnam War has not much changed. Kissinger (another mass depopulation fan) is still in the White House, and we're living through another Vietnam in Iraq and Afghanistan. The photographs of babies born deformed from exposure to depleted uranium munitions affected me in a similar way as seeing photos of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. My God, my God. What are these people doing? It's unfathomable.

Everyone is so ready to lose their heads over Barack Obama, The Great Hope. A figure who knows how to work the Neptunian fervour while speaking with an Aquarian silver tongue. Someone who uses the power and energy of the new, talks the talk of change and freedom, but then walks the walk of the old regime. He uses the hopes and dreams of the people against them - the most vile use of these energies possible.

(The White House HAS to have astrologers on staff working on his speeches. All the "hope and vision and egalitarian change" stuff is straight out of the Piscean to Aquarian Age handbook.)

Video of people losing their shit after Obama's election is so similar to the fervour surrounding a really charismatic pseudo-Christian evangelist. People crying, praying, looking to the heavens, on the verge of passing out, just begging to surrender themselves to this man. Ready to put all their hopes on this figurehead, to give him everything they have...when he's working for the same old scam.

Pisces/Neptune gets burned in this way, again and again.

And he's getting even further than the middle-aged, white, Good Old Boys from Texas did. People trust Obama...even antagonistic world leaders. People believe, falsely, that he is something new, something just, something inspiring. This is why he is such a dangerous figure. He is using this blind trust in his future vision (Neptune in Aquarius) to advance the same vicious, criminal ends. The same old agenda. How to explain that this goes deeper than race? Deeper than charisma and good speech-writing and oratorial skills?

He has broken every campaign promise he made, continued the warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, and funnelled trillions of public dollars to international bankers by threatening Congress with martial law. The amount of taxpayer money funnelled to the international banks would have paid off every mortgage in America and then 50% of those again...

And all the while people talk about what a bang-up job Obama and crew are doing. Turn on David Letterman and you think the guy is a saint.

In Canada, we have old regime leaders in both major parties, all lined up and ready to hand over our country to the international bankers with the North American Union and "Security and Prosperity Partnership." This is the merger process of Canada with the United States that started with Brian Mulroney and NAFTA and continued through Paul Martin, Chretien and the Free Trade Area of the Americas to today with Stephen Harper and the NAU/SPP. As if they are merging corporations, not countries. Criminals, all.

(Although, apparently the Bilderberg group wasn't so pleased with Harper in 2003 when he was at the meeting as Opposition Leader and wouldn't swallow the Kyoto Protocol, which I believe is being used to impose carbon taxation - another NWO plan.)

Denial will not serve us here.

Find out what version of the future is being preached.

Do not follow blindly.

If you watched Alex Jones' documentary The Obama Deception, you can see that all the major players in the Obama administration are old regime. My Scorpionic spidey sense picked up on this from the appointments of Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emmanuel. But this documentary does an awesome job of laying it out and showing just how deeply it goes. It's complete. The takeover at the top echelons of U.S. government by international bankers/Wall Street has been across the board, leaving Congress, elected by the people, a mere formality.

All major appointees belong to either the Bilderberg Group, its offshoot the Trilateral Commission, the offshoot of THAT the U.S. roundtable group the Council on Foreign Affairs or all three. Collusion at the top.

Personally, I'm not sure that these group members are not puppets themselves and that the orders are being handed down from other sources (their spiritual leaders?). And then we get into the alien element, which, yes, turns a lot of people off. But I can't help but keep going back to the thought that continually runs through my mind that these people are not human (or are living out a viciously inhumane consciousness). They can't be. I remember talking in a previous post about the altogether disturbing element of spirituality running through the White House - not Christianity, as they were suggesting, but something else. I'm guessing that something else is an alien-based religion a la Scientology based on elitism and domination of other human beings? Divine right to murder and pillage?

But here's one layer of the situation to peel away, the political layer, at the very least...

The Obama-appointed Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, is the former president of the Federal Reserve - the privately-owned banking institution masquerading as a governmental institution. It dictates government policy and the use of money in the United States, but it has nothing to do with the people of the United States of America or their interests. It is not a public institution.

Henry Kissinger is Obama's State Department Special Envoy. Kissinger was the National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under Richard Nixon and was instrumental in creating U.S. foreign policy during the Vietnam War.

This man has the blood of millions of people from a couple dozen countries on his hands, continuing to present day. A quote attributed to Kissinger: "(Soldiers are) dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy."

He was the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.

This is the man who advised Bush and now Obama on vicious, murderous foreign policy regarding Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

He also pioneered the policy of detente - a relaxing of tension between previously warring factions through diplomacy.

In actuality, this is a ploy, as there is no underlying change in motive or agenda. More an attempted merging of agendas. We see this being employed on a grand scale with the Obama administration. Surface-level diplomacy designed to advance the underlying agenda. A mix of Libra and Scorpio.

And on and on it goes...Right in front of people's faces.

Hillary Clinton (also Bill Clinton), James L. Jones, Thomas Donilon, Paul Volcker, Dennis C. Blair, Robert Gates, James Steinberg, Richard M. Haass, Alan Greenspan, Richard C. Holbrooke...

All members of either the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission or the Council on Foreign Affairs or all three and all top ranking members of the Obama Administration.

Again, there has been a change of president, no change of regime.

Unfortunately, too many people are still preaching transcendence of maya, surrender and "creating you own reality," off on one New-Age-prescribed "spiritual" diversion or another, to really be of much use in the situation.

"All part of the divine plan; all part of the divine plan; all part of the divine plan," they repeat with glassy-eyed stares.

So you're all going to swallow compulsory three-month military service for any United States citizen between the ages of 18 and 25 as "all part of the divine plan"? Because that's what Obama and Emmanuel are bringing into law.

This "all part of the divine plan" stuff just makes it more difficult for the people who have their feet on the ground - as is always the case when the collective chooses to deny a certain aspect of consciousness. It falls to those who cannot deny it.

And this is also why I'll continue to call out anyone who is promoting an unbalanced, unrealistic version of reality. (Much of establishment New Age.) Every brain counts at the moment, and if you're basking in false light, giving your's up to the groupthink of the New World Order's One World Religion (or any variation of that), and then attempting to promote that to other people, you deserve to be outed.

The goal of the Bilderberg group-Trilateral Commission-Council on Foreign Relations is One World Government - the ruling of the planet by a single world government made up of the wealthiest of "elites." This is what so-called leaders are referring to when they call publicly for a "new world order." (George Bush, Sr., George Bush, Jr. and Obama have all called for this through the mainstream media.) It sounds innocuous when they say it, as if it's a great big old planet-wide singalong. They're going to protect us! Let's hold hands and sing! But it's not innocuous at all.

These groups are attempting to achieve the consolidation of power in four areas to bring about complete domination. The four areas are: political, monetary, intellectual and eclesiastical.

So they're battling to control governments at all levels, the monetary system (through international banks, including the Federal Reserve, dictating governmental policy), the minds of the people (through corporate-owned media) and the spirituality of the people (through the spread of this New Agey mindfuckery called One World Religion).

At the same time, they far underestimate humanity.

More and more people are starting to trust themselves and their own feelings/intuition over these schmucks. People are developing intuitively/psychically. They're looking beyond spoon-feeding and are seeking out other information sources. They're starting to say no more to these criminals.

And then there are those of us who were born knowing this, who could never deny what we see and feel.

Once you see through this stuff, once you can feel the dirty motivations and understand the viciousness of these people and their agenda, there's no going back.

Those of us with this Scorpionic consciousness have more of a load to carry until the collective takes on its share...I guess we drew the short straws. ;)

So it's a battle. And yeah, every individual counts. But we're more powerful than they are.

I always go back to the conviction I have of inherent human freedom. Meaning, external sources can attempt to take away every liberty we have, but they can't get rid of our inner freedom, as long as we refuse to give it up willingly.

They're pulling out every trick in the book these days to get us to do so, and we have to be trickier. We have to stare it down and refuse to be drawn into this dystopic version of the future. We have to call them out on this stuff, to speak up when we know we should, and show them that they can't intimidate us into swallowing it.

Things have been twisted so deviously and enmeshed so thoroughly that many people can't tell real from fake at the moment. Certain truths have been co-opted and mixed with garbage so you swallow the poison along with. I have to go over and over my own posts with a fine-toothed comb and weed out any bullshit that might have found its way in from the collective mindset of the day. This is how entrenched these ideas are and how much they have permeated the collective. This false speech that says nothing of substance but creates false consent. False light doing dirty work. But once you can feel the energy of dirty motivations, you can follow even the most seemingly innocuous statements and ideas back to their dirty roots and reject them outright.

We must not give our power away.

We are sovereign beings. We are connected to our source/God/our spiritual faith. Nothing and no one can change that.

Anyway, the Pluto in Virgos who are truly aligned with change in an authentic, meaningful way (ie. not murdering 90% of the population) are here to trigger the completion of what was started in the 1960s regarding human rights and social progress. We're all here to do this, inter-generationally.

Recall that we're in the midst of a series of Saturn-Uranus oppositions designed to break down old structures and create better-functioning ones more aligned with the times. (Again, make sure you know whose "aligning vision" is involved...)

The Pluto in Virgos were born during the 1960s and thereabout, which was a time frame including the last Saturn and Uranus oppositions, in opposite signs. Uranus in Virgo and Saturn in Pisces.

We're here now to bring a paradigm of freedom and egalitarianism fully into existence - within the mainstream structures and systems - and to out the power players/structures holding us back from that.

It's a constant battle to strip away the garbage we're being fed and reframe it, ensuring we don't become hijacked by the energy and ideology of other agendas. The pitfalls are many, so we have to be smarter and more decisive about where we apply our energies.

The Aquarian revolution of this millenium really is a common sense one. The radical idea that people should live freely with access to the things they need to live decent, dignified human lives. That they have access to health care when they need it, they have decent homes to live in, meaningful work, access to education, access to good, wholesome food and clean water. That they live without discrimination, persecution, injury and death, injustice, oppression and abuse based on class, race, sex, sexual orientation, personal values, etc. That we exist beyond a system of haves and have-nots where the haves benefit from the oppressive circumstances of the have-nots.

And then making that a reality.

But this won't happen under the current world government regime - the Old World Order morphed into the New World Order.

It starts with us, and this is why it's so crucial that we start off in the right way, under the right circumstances.

This is also why the (real) Aquarian revolution will not rely on prominent world leaders for its momentum. The revolution is embedded. It's in all of us, and we all have a responsibility to live it in our daily lives. No more Piscean Age follow-the-leader. That's too dangerous, as we've seen with the assassinations of JFK, MLK, Jr., etc. and how that took the wind out of the sails. We can't set ourselves up for the same downfalls. We have to learn from the past and be smarter now.

We can live inspired and guided by our vision, but we have to first know which vision we're putting our energy behind, which vision we're working to bring about. This is where Saturn in Virgo hammering home the details is necessary.

This really is a very polarizing time...as were the 1960s. And for those of us who refuse to continue with the vicious brutality and crime of the current regime, here is where we take responsibility for our break from that regime.

It really is a matter of survival of the soul. To live falsely is worse than death, to me.

I wish more people understood this.

There are a lot of people living with little to no consciousness of the subtext of our times, I guess.

And I have to go back to endurance - a very Taurean concept.

Aquarius isn't about bells and whistles. It's pretty simple. This physical reality, as a whole, needs drastic improvement. We know this. Saturn in Virgo says so. So we have to dig in in a way that inspires us but also in a way that is going to get the job done in a real, concrete way. We have to get the poisoned arrows out. Identify them and pull them out. The alternative really isn't one we want to live, is it?

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Time Feels as if it's Slowing to a Crawl...

As Saturn (time) stations to go direct on Saturday, May 16. Things are weighty and still, with very little concrete forward progress. It's a little on the painful side.

Mercury has just turned retrograde, about to re-enter Taurus, adding a bit more sluggishness to the mix.

Today we had Moon conjunct Pluto in Capricorn to add to the heaviness with no further major aspects, so the potentially difficult energy of that conjunction permeates the atmosphere.

The Moon now trudges through Capricorn on its way to a conjunction with Black Moon Lilith at 18 degrees Cap tomorrow (Wednesday, May 13) night.

On its way to that conjunction with Black Moon Lilith, the Moon in Capricorn will square both Venus in Aries and Mars in Aries...bringing up some emotion related to the fallout from the Venus in Aries retrograde and the Mars/Venus squares to Pluto.

Some more emotional clearing on our way to new ground.

But we also have a Moon in Cap trine Saturn in Virgo to ease things a little...happening between the Moon squares to Venus and Mars.

Heavy, still, things slowing to a crawl. Some Plutonic intensity combined with the pressure-building vibe of Saturn stationing. But with some nice apects to help us out when we feel we are buckling under the pressure.

Be nice to yourselves and just do the basics to get through these next days...

The pressure should start to ease by early next week with Saturn direct.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Not So Fast With the Fuzzy Wuzzy Healing Stuff...

As I suspected, there are a lot of astrologers out there who are playing up the feel-good healing aspect of the upcoming conjunctions of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune at 26 degrees Aquarius. (May 23 - July 22)

To those people, I would caution that true healing can't happen until the conditions that caused (and continue to cause) the wounds in the first place are addressed and changed. The wounding cycles have to be stopped first. The possibility of stopping those cycles is there...but only if we take a brutally honest look at the situation. We have to penetrate to the real roots and identify the real causes.

Chiron can be seen as a healing force, but it is equally a wounding one.

Chiron is currently flanked by Jupiter and Neptune in Aquarius, so we have some potentially damaging dynamics here, embedded in the tendency to go too far into a vision that is utopic on the surface, dystopic in reality. Rosy idealism based more on promise than substance leading to blindness to underlying agendas is probable.

Right now the Neptunian healing paradigm will be in overdrive, but again, for the most part, they are treating symptoms rather than dealing with root causes of sickness, dysfunction and pain. Unfortunately, many of these Neptunian healers do not hold a strong understanding of systemic root causes and can do more harm than good, setting people up for further wounds and victimization through denial or unconsciousness of these root causes.

Without a strong awareness of the wounding elements going on, the advised opening up, surrendering and dissolution of personal barriers often prescribed in the healing process make one more vulnerable to wounding influences. Again, you have to address and remove the wounding influences before true healing can take place.

More on this in the Saturn Direct forecast...

Thursday, May 7, 2009

And As I Was Saying...

I got a comment a couple of days ago on the "Aftermath of Pluto in Leo" post that I deleted. I really should have kept it and posted it as an example of what I'm talking about with the Pluto in Ego...I mean, Leo...generation. (Total typo, but it works.)

But hey, why don't I post about it now? It's educational.

(Again, disclaimer: this is not for any Pluto in Leos who do not carry around seven tonnes of ego detritus, leaving a trail of energetic skid marks behind them wherever they go. I know you exist, but the guy commenting was not one of those.)

So this Pluto in Leo dude started off the comment by saying that he "didn't appreciate my outburst." (IE. the post)

hahahaha First off, it's my own fucking blog! I couldn't give a rat's balls what you do not appreciate about what I write here.

I don't water myself down for mainstream commercial appeal, and I stand behind everything I write here. I keep it real from my astrological perspective and personal experience, and if you don't like what you read, there are 1,354,565,847,352,346,984,038 other blogs on the webosphere, including 284,957,387,572 astrology blogs. I suggest you visit one of those that might be more to your liking.

Buddy then went on to say he didn't like women stereotyping him and suggested this was what I was doing. Because, again, my blog is all about him. I'm just one more in a long line of women who don't "get him," apparently.

I think we're getting you just fine, actually.

The hilarious part, of course, is that one of the themes of the Aftermath of Pluto in Leo post was how the majority of Pluto in Leos need to stop tripping over their own egos and get over themselves! (Especially in light of the damage wreaked by their gen's way of doing things/regime)

Just as I've said in the past re: establishment New Agers, if you want to stop being treated like a cliche, first stop acting like one. Until then, if you choose to come into contact with me, I'll be pointing it out.

I practise astrology. I write about what's important to me. Your reaction to what I write is not my concern. I follow higher orders than that. It's not my job to deal with your ego-detritus-laden reactions.

This is what Pluto in Leos who haven't taken on the process of stripping down their crystallized ego constructs need to know. It's no one else's responsibility to deal with your ego/personality demands. It's no one's job to indulge you - despite the ways you have set things up for this purpose.

So many in this generation leave a trail of ego bullshit wherever they go and then expect other people to deal with it as if it's something important instead of the big old heap of steaming shit that it is.

Sorry, I avoid stepping in shit at all costs. And if I can't avoid it entirely, I just step over it.

The fact that this enrages a lot of Pluto in Leos says more about them than it does about me. If they can't entangle people in their bullshitty ego constructs, how do they siphon energy off to feed those ego constructs?

This is a perfect example of the dangers of not fully developing Pluto's polarity point. The more the Pluto in Leos navel-gaze and obsess over themselves, turning everything into an extension of themselves, the more mired in ego hell they get.

And when you're constantly dumping ego garbage on people and trying to suck them into false ego constructs, you're not going to get the appreciation and recognition you so crave. People are going to see through that and say no thanks.

Getting outside themselves, taking a more objective view and understanding that there are broader forces at work than just them and what they personally want/think they deserve (Aquarius) would actually allow for a healthier self-expression. It would allow the Pluto in Leos to align with the real needs of the planet/humanity/community and find a successful place within that context for their creative contributions.

Again, too many fall into the trap of doing for the community only what feeds their own egos/needs for status/recognition. It's false.

Without that alignment with Aquarian reality and as long as what they personally want and believe they deserve (especially materially) trumps all else, the Pluto in Leos will increasingly have Pluto problems.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Saturn-Uranus Oppositions Leading to Uranus-Pluto Squares: The Long Range Astro View

Saturn-Uranus Opposition Cycle:

1. November 4, 2008 (Saturn 18 Virgo/Uranus 18 Pisces)
2. February 5, 2009 (Saturn Rx 20 Virgo/Uranus 20 Pisces)
3. September 15, 2009 (Saturn 24 Virgo/Uranus Rx 24 Pisces)
4. April 26, 2010 (Saturn Rx 28 Virgo/Uranus 28 Pisces)
5. July 26, 2010 (Saturn 0 Libra/Uranus Rx 0 Aries)

Saturn and Uranus will both move from mutable signs (transitioning, adapting) to cardinal signs (initiating, new directions), and we start a series of cardinal squares with Saturn in Libra, Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

Saturn enters Libra October 29, 2009, retrogrades back into Virgo April 7, 2010, and re-enters Libra for good July 21, 2010.

Uranus enters Aries May 27, 2010, retrogrades back into Pisces August 13, 2010, and re-enters Aries for good March 11, 2011.

Saturn in Libra squares Pluto in Capricorn three times:

1. November 15, 2009 (Saturn 1 Libra/Pluto 1 Capricorn)
2. January 31, 2010 (Saturn Rx 4 Libra/Pluto 4 Capricorn)
3. August 20, 2010 (Saturn 2 Libra/Pluto Rx 2 Capricorn)

After the August 20, 2010 square to Pluto in Capricorn, Saturn gets out in front of Uranus and Pluto degree-wise and will not exactly oppose/square them again from that sign.

The first exact square of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn is not until June 24, 2012, but these two bodies will be in energetic square in these cardinal signs, at times only one degree apart, for much longer - for all intents and purposes, for the entire Uranus transit of Aries - May 27, 2010 to March 5, 2019.

This is the force of revolutionary new direction/identity (Uranus in Aries) in tense contact with the transformation of our structural set-ups and power dynamics therein (Pluto in Capricorn). The freedom to be who we are in the unfolding Aquarian paradigm butting up against the transformation of power dynamics within concrete structural set-ups/institutions. Widescale new directions creating clashes. Both these planets represent transpersonal/global forces, so this will be going on on a global scale with countries as the players. But as the personal is transpersonal (inter-related) and vice versa, these changes will affect everyone on a personal level, as well.

You can see how the recent Mars and Venus in Aries squares to Pluto in Capricorn (and Venus in Aries retrograde) are pre-cursors for the themes of those Uranus in Aries/Pluto in Capricorn squares. This is why it has been quite heavy at times. It's very important that we get going in the right direction with a good grasp of these energies and how they interact.

The following dates are only for the most severe of astro-geeks (like me). Super long range forecast...

Uranus-Pluto Square Cycle:

1. June 24, 2012 (Uranus 8 Aries/Pluto Rx 8 Capricorn)
2. September 18, 2012 (Uranus Rx 6 Aries/Pluto (stationing direct) 6 Capricorn)
3. May 20, 2013 (Uranus 11 Aries/Pluto Rx 11 Capricorn)
4. October 31, 2013 (Uranus Rx 9 Aries/Pluto 9 Capricorn)
5. April 21, 2014 (Uranus 13 Aries/Pluto Rx 13 Capricorn)
6. December 15, 2014 (Uranus Rx 12 Aries/Pluto 12 Capricorn)
7. March 16, 2015 (Uranus 15 Aries/Pluto 15 Capricorn)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Quick Run-Down

So Mercury is stationing at 1 degree Gemini. It appears pretty much stopped in the sky right now, and it will go retro tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at 11 p.m. Mountain Time. Communication is slowing to a crawl, but what there is is potent.

Saturn has also started to slow as it stations to go direct May 16. (Disposited by Mercury as it heads into its retro period).

We're also heading to a Scorpio Full Moon Friday night (10:00 p.m. MT). Gotta love/hate that Scorp energy coming to an emotional head on the heels of a Mars square stationing Pluto - Scorp's rulers. ;) Some potent stuff. Processing and shedding past-related emotion and integrating the lessons of the Venus retrograde period (which included two Venus in Aries squares to Pluto in Capricorn)...

I was being a bit flippant about this Moon (since its vibe represents my usual state - Scorpio stellium in the 4th). Sort of like, yeah! Now everyone gets a taste! How d'ya like it?

But I realize this isn't the way to go.

We're dealing with some deep emotional endings here. Saying goodbye to another chapter of life/self. And it's sad. We're feeling the effects of the relationships that ended/are ending during the Venus retrograde or that have changed irrevocably - including relationships to ourselves. There is a lot on its way out now. Here is the final emotional snip of the etheric tendrils keeping us connected to dynamics and situations that are past their prime. The final emotional purge.

As much as we know that things have to change to get to more vital and sustaining territory, to keep this life going, it's hard to say goodbye. To really end things.

The passing of time and the changes it brings are tricky things to deal with emotionally. They really are. So we have to do ourselves and our lives and our relationships the honour of processing our feelings, sitting with them in all their rawness and saying a proper goodbye. Man, I hate goodbyes. Probably why I needed so much practise with them with the Scorp stellium in the 4th. :)

Venus in Aries and the Passive Aggressive Epidemic

Passo aggro really is an epidemic these days, isn't it? A symptom of how sick things have gotten and how far from expressing their truth people are, I think.

The current constructs pressure people to put on a happy, smiley face at all times. To keep things harmonious on a surface level and not rock the boat. Everyone is meant to be content, no matter what the conditions. Everything is supposed to be "nice" at all times, especially in the public realm.

So people create this facade self with which to interact. This facade self is always happy, congenial, "positive." It keeps things hunky dory. It's there to give the other person what he or she wants. It will respond to all requests, cater to all needs. It will do things out of a sense of obligation rather than really wanting to do them. It will subvert its own needs to keep other people happy. It will be available at all times. It won't disappoint.

But this just isn't reality.

And the disconnect between the facade self and the truth creates dysfunction. The difference between what the facade self is putting out there in the world and what the real self truly feels and thinks is so big that it becomes an abomination to the soul. It enrages the soul that the facade self swallows what it doesn't want to swallow. That it never speaks up. It's never honest. It's phony, weak, cowardly. It won't stand up for itself or what it really wants, so it goes along to get along...and then bitches about it.

This is a problem a lot of the time with Libra energy (unless it has done the work), especially, as we're seeing, as it relates to Aries energy, but also with Cancer-Libra and Libra-Capricorn squares.

With the Cancer-Libra square, it's the emotional, supportive side of things. The motherly sacrifice. The combo of Cancer and Libra doesn't want to disappoint anyone or make anyone feel bad. It doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, so it takes the supposed easy route and tells people what they want to hear, even when it's not the truth. It agrees to things it doesn't really agree with, and then, yeah...gets passo aggro about it.

With the Capricorn-Libra square the pressure is public/career/business world obligations and what people swallow there related to fitting into those constructs, following those rules to get ahead, taking one's place in the hierarchy and never rocking the boat. Think of how much passo aggro is flying around most office environments these days. Toxic.

This falseness in itself is violent - toward the person being lied to, the person doing the lying, and the social environment, in general. It wastes time and energy and does much more damage than being honest and direct, although, passo aggro people wouldn't see it that way. Just the opposite, actually. People exhibiting passive aggressive behaviour usually think they are being the better person by being "nice." Sacrificing what they really want or think for someone else, for surface-level harmony. They see this as a good thing.

Eventually, the real self has had enough, though, and in desperation, becomes so enraged that the facade self can't keep it contained any longer. The anger just won't allow itself to be stuffed down anymore. And because these people refuse to take responsibility for their anger and emotions in a constructive way, it starts leaking out in sneaky, dirty, poisonous little behaviours:

Avoidance, procrastination, seemingly innocuous little comments that poison with tone and intent, little barbed actions (seemingly unrelated) designed to irritate, refusing to meet time limits (since they didn't want to do what they agreed to do in the first place), dropping the ball, "forgetfulness," shirking resonsibilities, blame, denial, two-faced gossipping, leaving other people holding the bag.

All these behaviours (and more!) are used by passo aggros to keep control and manipulate the people around them.

And trying to confront these passo aggros is like "nailing water to a tree." (Heh heh - thanks, sleepless1111). Frustrating as all hell. Impossible, really. They are slippery fuckers and are either in denial about their behaviour and the damage it causes or feign ignorance. I'm not sure which, possibly both. In my experience, passo aggros generally won't even admit there is anything going on - part of the game to keep them in control.

There's little worse than realizing, weeks or months down the road, that you have been completely poisoned by a sneaky passo aggro. It's like one drop of cyanide at a time until your system is overwhelmed, and repairing the energetic damage takes a whole lot of time and energy.

So why so much of this right now?

Remember that Venus is in Aries, just coming out of a retrograde that was designed to bring this stuff to attention.

Venus is the planet of (among other things) relationship. It rules Libra, which is the opposite sign of Aries (sign of self). So Venus is in the opposite sign of its rulership when in Aries, a not-too-comfortable placement.

You can see how things like Arien exertion of personal will, putting yourself first, using anger as an impetus to action, going after what one really wants, directness, honesty, and the willingness to fight for the survival of the self when necessary can be expressed in healthy ways or in unhealthy ways during Venus' transit through Aries.

There has to be a balance, both internally and externally, of Aries and Libra, me and we. And the balance is pretty messed up in a lot of cases.

There is a societal tendency to demonize those Arien things when speaking in relationship terms, especially for women. Putting yourself first is considered a bad thing (selfish!). Exerting your personal will in relation to another is considered a bad thing (pushy!). Being honest and direct in situations is considered a bad thing (not nice!). Even knowing who you are and what you want in a strong way is looked at suspiciously.

Mothers are taught that they have to put their kids first, their husbands first, their homes first. Men are taught that they have to put their jobs first, their families first, their responsibilities first. And we're all pressured within the current constructs to put on that facade self face. People are made to feel guilty or as if there is something wrong with them when they don't do this.

So as people are demonizing and denying these Arien things (or are existing within constructs that make it very difficult to healthfully express them), the anger comes out in other ways - like insufferable passive aggressive behaviour.

The traditional model for customer service is one of the constructs designed to make it almost impossible to healthfully express these aspects of the self. The usual office environment is, too. This is why you see a lot of passo aggro from people trying to work within these set-ups.

This Venus in Aries retrograde, in particular, is about the radical idea that, yes, we have to put ourselves first. If we don't, no one else will. We have to be honest about ourselves, especially in relationships. We have to trust that our anger impulses are meaningful and that they are guiding us in the right direction when we put them to constructive use.

This means shaking off the social constructs that keep us from expressing Aries/Mars energy in a healthy way, changing our structures to allow for the healthy integration of Aries/Mars - and all twelve energies of the zodiac, if you use astrology as a model.

The Venus in Aries retrograde combined with Mars and Venus in Aries squares to Pluto in Capricorn are forcing the dysfunctional relationships we have to these Aries/Mars things to the surface. We're becoming aware of dysfunctional relationships to our own anger, and we're seeing the damage it causes to stuff it down and deny it - passive aggressive behaviour being one of the worst symptoms of this.

I'm hoping that all the passo aggro being forced to the surface in a public way is going to help break down the constructs keeping people from expressing their real selves in healthy, constructive ways. That people are going to ditch the facade self and reconnect to the real self and re-learn how to trust their own impulses instead of looking for external cues.

I think passive aggressiveness does have a self-worth element (Venus) and that people have to learn to value themselves and their own feelings and desires so that they're not always deferring to the external first and then backtracking. People-pleasing is actually pretty ugly.

But in the end, for me, it comes down to taking responsibility for yourself and the way you interact with others. It's not easy to take on the level of self-examination required to peel away facade self layers and move out of passive aggressive coping behaviours. It takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication - things a lot of people aren't too keen on in these days of instant answers.

You have to REALLY want to change. As we all know, no one can make a passo aggro do anything he or she doesn't want to do. So the energy is there to support this process, but as always, it's up to the individual to take it on.

All I know is, I'm done with this bullshit.