Wednesday, November 26, 2014

A Refresher on Saturn in Scorpio

We are now in the final month of the first pass of Saturn through the sign of Scorpio. This article provides a valuable refresher on the themes, which will be re-visited June - September 2015 when Saturn retrogrades back into the sign. 

"Saturn in Scorpio" - $10

 

  Two thousand seven hundred sixty eight of the finest words you will find on the transit of Saturn through Scorpio.

 

Please note: This is not a new article. It was originally published September 20, 2012, and many readers already have a copy.

If there are any patrons who do not already have a copy, please contact me, and I will send one out.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

A Zero-Degree New Moon in Sagittarius and the Dawning of New (and Hard-Won) Emotional Truth

We are currently moving through the Dark of the Moon lunar phase in Scorpio into a zero-degree Sagittarius New Moon on November 22 (6:32 a.m. CST). A New Moon in Sagittarius indicates renewed optimism and inspiration, new understanding and realization of truth, and a broadening of emotional horizons. We're getting ready to move on to our next adventure - as long as we have earned the right to pass.

This is the second in a series of zero-degree New Moons indicating an emotional clean sweep effect that brings us into new emotional territory and new-era dynamics as we enter the New Year and complete the historic Uranus-Pluto square series around March equinox 2015.

From a previous post:

"We can leave a lot of old emotional detritus behind us over the next months, as long as we are willing to resolve it and make the move into something different. We're actively seeking openings to emotional breakthroughs, rather than sitting under old, festering emotional issues and sticking points."


This is an excerpt from the article "A Zero-Degree New Moon in Sagittarius and the Dawning of New (and Hard-Won) Emotional Truth." It is available in its entirety to Willow's Web Astrology patrons, or it can be purchased for $4.50 from PayPal or by email money transfer.

Please Note: I send these articles out myself (no automatic service), so there may be a short delay after paying before you receive your article. This is especially the case if the article is purchased over the weekend. I'm sorry for any inconvenience.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Wildflowers and Weedflowers

"Wildflowers and Weedflowers"
Original photographs by Willow

This grouping of prints makes a beautiful and dynamic art piece for your wall or to give as a gift.

Six prints (6 X 8 or 5 X 7 inches) - $38

Includes shipping in Canada and the U.S. Please contact me for other international shipping rates.

There are stickers on the back corners of each print so they can be hung on the wall with Sticky Tac, or they can be framed.

Please contact me for other sizes or for framing options.

All photographs are au naturel, no Photoshopping, filters, or effects. 

More prints can be seen here. Mix and match to create your own grouping: 

Renegade Heifer Photography

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Neptune and Chiron Station Direct in Pisces


Pisces is the sign of the most sublime spiritual bliss and also of the harshest disappointments, loss, and devastation known to humankind. It's the idea of the lotus flower, blossoming beautifully out of some of the dankest and most difficult muck this planet has to offer. It is the idea of being invisibly bound together by the trials and tribulations of the human condition but also by the love, sweet love, that brings us through it all.

All this is woven into our reality this November as we have two bodies stationing direct in Pisces - Neptune (in its home sign) stations direct at 4 degrees Pisces on November 16, while wounded healer Chiron stations direct at 13 degrees Pisces on November 23.

The dual stations in the sign of Pisces can bring some grogginess, some dreaminess, and some general mind fog. Everything is a bit weirder and a bit more surreal under the energy of these stations. The veil between the material and the immaterial is just a bit thinner. Taps on the shoulder from the universe are a bit stronger. We perceive the other side communicating with us a bit more clearly.
 
I've written about Neptune stations in the past, and I will include it here for your perusal. The themes are similar for the Chiron in Pisces station November 23:

From "Neptune Stations Direct and Brings the Foggy, the Floaty, the Wispy, and the Surreal," November 9, 2012:

"When a planet appears to slow in the zodiac to station either retrograde or direct, we often experience a palpable concentration of that planet's energy and themes.

Neptune is the planet associated with, among other things, dreams; illusions; spiritual communion and guidance; psychic connection; the unconscious; sublime artistic ability; surreality; escapism; oceans; fluids; flooding; permeation; blind spots; smokescreens; fraud; deception; and addictions...

With stationing Neptune permeating the astro atmosphere, we can expect a few of the following symptoms to be kicked up... 

- Dreams can be much more vivid and involved. They can have a "journeying" quality, as if we have traveled through many other worlds, and we can wake up feeling more tired than when we went to bed. Prophetic or foreshadowing dreams are more common.

- Sleep can be deeper, as if we're falling off into utter abyss and have to drag ourselves out and back into waking life. We may sleep longer or more often than usual, and people can continue to have a sleepy, dreamy quality throughout the waking hours. The standard afternoon coffee just doesn't cut it!

- We can experience disrupted sleep with odd periods of wakefulness in the night.

- "Cosmic winks" and communication from the universe are more apparent. It can sometimes feel as if the radio or TV is communicating directly to you. A stronger than usual feeling that you are not alone.

- Daydreaming increases. Imagery from the mind's eye is clearer and more active than usual and can be distracting in day-to-day life.

- Our psychic space is more permeable when Neptune is strong, and we have to carefully filter the heightened impressions we're receiving.

- People can be more impressionable, easily swayed, and prone to wishful thinking, particularly with love relationships. We can be convinced of things when Neptune is strong that we could not be convinced of at other times. The standard, "What was I thinking?" In the same way that we can believe a dream we've had is real, it's possible to believe things are one way when all logical conclusions (and later, hindsight) would indicate otherwise.

- We can be more easily deceived by people, missing major character flaws because we're blinded by the good in them, by their "spiritual auras," or by their potential.

- Plumbing problems are more likely. A low water level for flushing toilets, in particular, is common during Neptune stations.

- Personal plumbing issues are also more likely. Urinating more than usual or having to use a (hopefully natural) diuretic to assist urination. (Uva Ursi works well.) Urinary tract irritation is more common when Neptune is strong, so avoid soft drinks, caffeine, and alcohol, and increase intake of water and real cranberry juice.

- There can be a strong jonesing for drugs and/or alcohol.

- But we are also more easily altered and affected by drugs and alcohol.

- Food allergies and sensitivities can be heightened. We're craving "fun and easy" foods, but they can have ill effects.

- We can be more sensitive to perfumes and scents.

- There can be a giddy, giggly, intoxicating quality in the air. Neptunian whiffs of ether. This effect is currently mitigated quite strongly by a trine to stern and grounding Saturn in Scorpio.

- People can be more sensitive than usual and their feelings more easily hurt. There is stronger sensitivity to the suffering in the world, and people are more easily brought to tears when Neptune is strong. The Neptunian waterworks. People may choose more isolation than usual to offset this heightened sensitivity.

- We can spend money on things, particularly on frivolous things, that we wouldn't ordinarily spend money on. When Neptune is strong, we crave escapism, entertainment, and ease from the daily grind. Pizza delivery and Chinese take-out must see an increase in business!

- The simplest daily tasks can seem irritating and overwhelming. Multi-tasking is more difficult.

- People may embrace their inner dirty hippie and skip a few showers. Personal hygiene is one of those daily tasks that can seem impossibly arduous when Neptune is strong.

- It can be difficult to make ourselves fully understood..., as if we are yelling underwater. People may pick up on one layer of what we're saying without grasping the full meaning.

- Generally, a lot of projection is flying around. People could be interacting with their own fabricated versions of who you are, rather than anything based in reality.

- Strongly Neptunian/Piscean people can usually be spotted by a sort of dreamy, shrouded, faraway look around the eyes. The area around the eyes can appear a little shadowed and hollowed-out.

Neptune goes retrograde once per year for about five months.

Until 2021, Neptune goes retrograde in the month of June and direct in the month of November. You can expect the Neptune station symptoms to be kicked up at those times."

More on Neptune stations from Willow's Web Astrology

More on Chiron in Pisces from Willow's Web Astrology

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Reality Checking

 All it would take is a stiff breeze...
Photo: Willow

Just a reminder, pretty babies, that the personal planets are on the march toward conjunctions to Saturn in Scorpio, indicating that we receive waves of "reality check" this month. 

People are over-extended - emotionally, energetically, financially, time-wise - and the conjunctions of the personal planets to Saturn are going to reel things back in. These conjunctions also provide us with a status report on our Saturn in Scorpio progress so far.

Energy is at a premium this month, so be careful what you commit yourself to or how full you fill your schedule. Leave some wiggle room. 

Venus conjunct Saturn - November 12 (7:02 p.m. CST)
Sun conjunct Saturn - November 18 (2:50 a.m.)
Mercury conjunct Saturn - November 25 (8:37 p.m.)

We've been slogging it out in the down-and-dirty subtext for just over two years now, becoming painfully aware of the crumbling emotional and psychological foundations in relationships, businesses, and societal institutions alike.

The underlying emotional and psychological realities we're privy to are not always pretty. Quite often, they're full-on stinky and corrupt, and Saturn has been holding our noses in it, ensuring that the whiff we get is potent enough to motivate us toward change, no matter how difficult.

There are certain secrets, certain suppressed realities, that can no longer be contained - though many will try to keep a lid on this to the point that their own psyches become shredded by it.

We've gone as far as we can with certain structural frameworks and with certain power hierarchies, no matter how dressed up, "successful," or "prestigious" they may appear.

Whether it's the institution of traditional marriage, the nuclear family unit, or the grasping tentacles of the Global Government, we simply cannot uphold the shitshow any longer. Those who attempt it, still striving for the perceived rewards for doing so, face a slow-motion emotional, psychological, and psychic collapse.

People are still clinging to the old structures and to their perceived power within those structures, but make no bones about it:

The businesses and institutions cannot go on as they exist. The positions within those businesses and institutions cannot go on as they exist. Personal relationships set up according to old-era rules cannot be sustained. Change is required almost across the board.

Make this your reality, make this necessary change your goal, and these personal planet conjunctions to Saturn in Scorpio will put you in better, stronger, and wiser position.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Now is the Time. This is the Place. So You'd Better Bring it This Scorpio Season...

 Illustration: Willow by Ricardo Mira, gatomorfo.com
Thank-you, Ricardo!


 
We are currently in the thick of a very powerful and transformational Scorpio season, kicked off by the Scorpio New Moon solar eclipse at zero degrees conjunct Venus on October 23. That zero-degree New Moon was the first in a series of zero-degree New Moons, indicating an "emotional clean sweep" effect that continues into the first months of 2015. We're going deep here in order to move into new emotional territory, and no stone is left unturned.

Currently, there is a concentration of bodies in Scorpio - warrior woman Pallas Athene, the Sun, Venus, Saturn, and as of November 8, Mercury. This brings the deep, dark Scorpionic themes to the forefront in a big way with many highly-charged, previously hidden, and potentially uncomfortable subjects rising to the surface.

Today, we experience the Taurus Full Moon (4:23 p.m. CST), the yearly Blood Moon or Hunter's Moon, and all that has occurred since the Scorpio New Moon is pushed to a head...

Mars and Pluto are the co-rulers of Scorpio, the bodies that most strongly influence and drive that sign. And these two bodies are forming a catalytic conjunction (exact at 11 degrees Capricorn on November 10 at 5:06 p.m.) right in the midst of Scorpio season. The movement of Mars in Capricorn is activating the Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square, indicating that major structural changes and major breaks from the way things have been done previously are being initiated via our own personal directions and applications of will. This is societal transformation, structural transformation, institutional transformation, and it's driven by individual actions and decisions.

Mars moves from the November 10 conjunction to Pluto into a November 12 square to Uranus Rx at 13 degrees Aries (7:29 p.m.).

Productive and alchemical earth-water sextiles are also being formed between Mars in Capricorn and the bodies transiting Scorpio.

There's a new direction being initiated here. Help it to dig in. 

Mars is a personal planet, relating to personal desire, will, goals, sex drive, anger, and actions. Pluto is a transpersonal planet, relating to a process of transformation and change on a collective level, brought about by exposing various unsatisfactory elements - corruption, abuse, violence, murder, dishonesty, hidden manipulation, unjust power dynamics. With Pluto now transiting Capricorn, we are exposing those unsatisfactory elements within the institutions of our societies and the associated power hierarchies.

Pluto is a dwarf planet associated with rage. Pluto is a dwarf planet associated with experiences of hell. It is considered a generational planet, meaning an entire generation of people will have Pluto in a particular sign. Thus, Pluto is an indicator of the generational change an individual is tasked with in the area that most needs transformation by that generation of people. Pluto is an indicator of the particular flavour of hell experienced by your generation, and it is also an engine providing the energy, awareness, rage, and strength needed to get out of it.

At it's best, Scorpio doesn't just want to get itself out of hell. It wants to liberate everyone experiencing that particular version of hell. Its personal liberation reaches the desired level of sweetness only when others cannot be tricked, manipulated, or trapped by the same hellacious dynamics and themes.

At it's best, the personal struggle for liberation from the intolerable that is experienced in the sign of Scorpio is fused with the broader, collective struggle for that same liberation. Liberation for all, forever, from the same intolerable circumstances or themes. Annihilation of that which oppresses us  unjustly, manipulatively, and violently, freeing us from those themes for good.