Aries and Sagittarius; a tad too much maybe?

I am increasingly amazed over the power of the transiting nodal axis and its rulers. It seems they take up a lot of space, being so important in a birth chart, they are equally strong in transit.

And those of you who have been around for a while, might have noticed the correlation of Gemini and Sagittarius to the left and the right part of the brain. One for rational, organized and detailed activity, the other for non-linear, abstract and intuitive mode. These two signs, along with the rest of the mutable cross, deals with knowledge. What we think we know, what we believe, what we are made to think, and that which is proven to be right. And then, what we can’t understand, nor mentally grasp, yet is a part of our creative mind, our perception and intuition. Today the maze of knowledge is even crazier than before. I read the other day about a spiritual teacher who listed “headucation” on his CV. I read that (my perception again) as being a negative phrase addressed to regular education, consensus science and traditional dogma. 

No doubt this is a interesting situation. Education is so important. But is is also a great responsibility to express yourself as an educator. Especially if what is expressed locks the door to reflecting freely on conflicting theories. I am very interested in rhetorics. How we say something is often more important that what we say. Astrology might be filled with sinners in that sense, as it states something without adding the “maybe”. A lot of spiritual knowledge is like that. It defines the truth. This is it! This is what you have searching for! etcetc. Same goes for a lot of pseudo-skeptics out there.

In Sagittarius we think we see the truth. We see something bigger than the scientific mind. We philosophize, we search for a bigger meaning, we get in touch with our intuition and then we think we know for sure. The Sagittarian is thus a good salesman. In order to sell something, you have to believe in it. Maybe this is why religious, alternative, political, scientific, any field of isolated knowledge is filled with bombastic statements. Incoherent often, as it lacks holistic approach, but bombastic non-the-less. People read inspiring literature, feel the love that it describes, but have no ability to turn the other cheek, hasn’t gone through the emotional maturity process a spiritual integrated person has to go through in order to walk the talk. That is the next sign, Capricorn. Prove it or as is said; “if you don’t live it, it wont come out of your horn!”.

I am not saying that people are not trying to live it. Maybe more than what is healthy. It can lead to massive suppression of emotions. And then, when the going gets though, the lid flies off  and the monster takes over, quickly followed by a guilt trip or self righteousness.

The things that we believe in are dear to us. They supply an emotional support system for us. Understanding reality is important, we are made with brains and eyes and live on this rock in a vast universe under constant threat; comets, epidemics, famine, pollution, death. So we need a system of thought that creates pillars. Makes it easier to live.  Those systems of thoughts we build together with our allies, those who agree, who seem to be able to say that what you experience as truth is similar to what they experience as truth. We hold on to these people as they empower who we are. It is the axis of Aries-Libra that has been so highlighted in the last couple of weeks. You are either with me or against me. Diplomacy has lost in favor of the fervent preacher or politician, poor Saturn retrograde alone there opposed by those warmonger buddies over in Aries, yeah, Eris just met up with her favorite pals, Mars and Jupiter. Provocation is an understatement. Debates turns into a reality show where offended emotions triggers the next sentence that comes out of the mouth.

It is a war of paradigms. Science meets what can’t be proven. Some people think it is ridiculous that all should be proven, but is that just a defensive attitude because one doesn’t really know whether it is actually true or not?  A scientist would say: if it is there, it should be possible to prove it. Or? What it all boils down to ; is there something beyond the brain, is there a Soul? Or is is all just the brain? If there is disagreement upon these vitals, there cannot be a discussion, there can only be statement vs statement and wounded emotions.

When I talk about reincarnation, I cannot know. I can theorize. There are those who claim that they know, but personally I am skeptic of people no matter what they say, because we all say so much to gain importance or to sell something. The commercial alternative business is filled with that. I am aquarian, and for those of you who knows an aquarian or two, knows that we can be annoyingly rational and skeptic and even arrogant when we meet more emotional people. I know how easy it is to delude oneself. But I also think that it is easy to delude oneself to think that there is only the brain. Brainiacs. They seem to have lost touch with something precious and mysterious and deeply empowering. And this is not the type of empowering that knowledge brings. Knowledge will always be replaced by something else sooner or later, so that is not true power, it is a power you have to defend when the knowledge is challenged or is about to change. Maybe certain principles will stand the test of time , most likely, but a lot of other stuff will appear as equally true. This is why knowledge is so confusing and words are so misused. The more you read, the less you often know. Gemini south-node is a testimony to that. Mental overload, system confused, insight lost, freedom lost.

Our belief system will come under a threat cyclically if we are not grounded in a more holistic (meaning both sides of the brain) approach. The thing is not to reject anything, but find the middle road. A scientific mind can be dry, lacking heart and soul and come off as arrogant and sarcastic.  A mind that hasn’t been trained to think can come off as naive, unaware and simplified, where there is a quote for everything, but not an explanation to anything.

None of those are willing to admit their own limitation. This is a great weakness and the trouble with the Sagittarian archetype, found equally in the charts of hard-core skeptics and over-the-top alternative pollyanna people (ah, the beauty of astrology)

We all have a responsibility to the rest of the world and when you truly serve the world, you take this responsibility seriously. You try to stay away from sensationalism, from glamour and from bombastic statements. You stop dabbling in conspiracy theories and you start to understand the power of a word. It has ripple-effects. What you say has importance and really, none of the thoughts that we have in our minds are truly ours. All the time it is a constant communication with the environment, nature and people that creates the inner mental environment.

Thus, words can create harm and pain. If you take time to listen, maybe a lot of invasion of mental concepts would stop to affect you. Find out for yourself. The thing that really could be releasing is that eventually you realize that you know nothing. Maybe that is a liberated mind..We come from innocence and go back to it, after having developed our minds in between. Richard Tarnas calls the modern man the individuated man. In evolutionary astrology we have a theory about life, from consensus to individualized to spiritual. In the spiritual we go back to surrendering. We understand the limitation of knowledge. But we are still aware.

These nodes will be so much about the mind-games, intelligence, dogma, ideologies, rationality, science (as in the paradigms in science, not actual scientific method) and communication. Due to the hard-core ideologies that Jupiter-Mars, now in conjunction in Aries represents, I am not at all surprised that Osama, a symbol of fundamentalism, the dark side of Sagittarius, was killed.This is the signature of the crusader and we will just see what comes out of this..I am listening, ear to ground, well aware of the hubris of my own perception.

Enjoy and have a learning experience..If you are stuck on a head trip, get a cold shower and release the emotional grip argumentative people are so good to throw out. You don’t owe anything to anyone, be free enough to see for yourself. The alliances often demand loyalty. That is cowardice. That is not being free. That is a subtle emotional grip on your mind that is often called brainwashing.

My yogateacher said today; “if you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at will change” (proverb from some yoga tradition probably)…That is a good way of checking for yourself if you harbor attachments to your belief system, no matter which direction it goes..

Note: About the gif-image I found it on Rickard Wisemans blog. Click on the image. And see for yourself..:)

Retro astro update

My vacation came and went while Mars was in Virgo. It was hard work being away from work. It is really clockwork how these Virgo transits put a fire on all things related to work, they just speed up the tempo and make us eager to get started. So combined with a summer vacation, it was hard to sit still. Let’s just say it was a productive vacation. So in this sense, despite the numerous items lost, I am very glad that the current retrograde phase of Mercury goes through its own sign. I can indulge myself in all kinds of work tasks. Work is a great way to utilize the vital forces. Not working can be extremely draining and gently, slowly eats away your self-respect. Work is not at all about doing as we tend to think when a whole pile of work lies ahead of us. Once one starts to think about “doing”, many people, yours truly included, finds themselves in a tempting situation to but work. Facebook, googling stuff you never actually had any real meaning in googling, watching television, talking on the phone, whatever, but work. If someone employs you, then I guess the initiative to actually work is easier to come to, however if one is self employed or have some sort of ambition to be, one of the most vital capacities one will depend on is the art of self motivation. It takes maturity and structure and ability to go beyond procrastination. And maybe more important, the ability to move beyond one’s bad habits, which very well could be a result of your brain and its neurotransmitters being lazy, dulled or overstimulated. A certain loss of concentration and loss of all previous good ideas might be what challenges you when you finally sit down and become the artist ready to fill the canvas.

We are exposed to so much distractions, now more so than ever, with internet and cellular phone or piles of stuff that has been postponed or even worse, emotional dramas that seem to have no beginning nor end.  We are actually, on an energy level, bombarded 24/7 from all over the place. The planets race over the skies, making conjunctions and squares to your Moon and your Mars, Mercury retrogrades on top of your Uranus and Neptune transits your ascendant. There is always an excuse and to move beyond these vacillations we can be glad that Saturn is in Libra, a cardinal sign. Erin Sullivan calls the cardinal signs “the Willing Heros” (from Saturn in Transit) and goes on to say that Libra was “once the sign of the generals”  because the generals dealt with strategy, organization and fast decisions. Indeed, Saturn in Libra will challenge our ability to be the leader in our own lives and maneuver relationships of all kinds with decision and choice. That would in my world, also apply to the inner dynamic of making choices regarding ones own pattern and habits.

The cycle of Saturn and the Moon are closely related, as the full cycle of Saturn to its own natal position takes 28 years and the progressed Moon cycle takes 28 years. They follow each other , leading to a maturation of ones habits (the Moon) and matures the inner child to , both in form and content, enter the world. Saturn is in this sense an initiator, and with its presence in a cardinal sign, we all feel the need to take ourselves to the next level and leave behind some patterns that seem to be blocking our creative impulse. This could take the form of consolidating a relationship, getting married, breaking up, moving, changing jobs, embarking on a new journey altogether. The famous cardinal cross has been covered so closely by astrologers the last few months, that I wont spend your time going through it once again, although it will continue to influence us for quite a while yet. The good new though, if you found it a tad bit intense, is that it will never go back to it’s former august intensity..yay!

What is more interesting, yet also beyond its peak, is the Mars-Venus cycle that will repeat itself with three conjunctions, one, as mentioned, already passed with a few days. The next will be in october in, with Venus going retrograde just after the conjunction and the last one in Taurus in May. With Saturn in Libra, ruled by Venus, lying underneath these three transits, we are going to feel these influences more strongly than ever. It will thoroughly develop our ability to be in relationships and work on our values related to them. For those eager to learn more about Mars-Venus cycles I leave you the link to Robert Blaschke’s excellent research on them. After reading this article I couldn’t help thinking about the Pluto in Libra generation and their efforts to make relationships meaningful and transformative. They will indeed feel this powerfully, as Saturn crosses their Pluto once or thrice during its stay in Libra. It is bound to redefine a lot of them, making it more clear now than ever what relationships are meant to be and how to live in them.

Pluto in Libra or not, we are all living in crazy, transformative and challenging times. Yet with such incredible potential. Hopefully we will all make the best of this time and be the best we can be. With the retrograde Mercury period that we are in the midst of right now, and has led to the loss of your phone or the total crash of computer or worse, you taking a wrong turn and ending up crashing with a moose, will make you think, rethink and talk it over with some old friends in the meantime. Do not break a leg..Enjoy the ride.

Sun heading for Aquarius, free your mind and your ass will follow

The Sun has finally made it to Aquarius, and I might be saying this simply because I am Aquarian. I seem to have a certain love for this month, this despite the fact that I have to make my own birthdaycake, too old to have my parents make one and too young to have my kiddies throw me a party.

What I am actually celebrating, and no pun intended to the numerous Capricorns out there, walking their walk, is the sweet taste of liberation from Capricorn restriction and relentless nagging about karma and stuff. One thing is facing your karma, another is to be able to set yourself free. The freedompart is the latter part of the process, and a long awaited one as well. There is a time for everything, and now it is time for us to creatively find a solution and hopefully, stick with it. The perspective and clarity that Aquarius brings, may sometimes cause a small shock, however it is all in the name of upgrading it does so. We will shake off the shock after a while, even though it seems to be moving quickly before our eyes. 

And now, the infamous two, Saturn and Pluto, has made it even sweeter to enter into Aquarius. Those two have brought up problems and issues that we might have hidden for ourselves a long time, and stuck it right into our faces. No place to run, little less to hide, especially more so when Mercury found it simply necessary to go retrograde in the before-mentioned Capricorn. That retrograde period is history by now, though it still resides in Cap. However the month that we leave behind, could most likely have been intense and many have met ancient history repeating itself, leaving room for little debate as to what to do, a debate many entertain for years. An inner struggle to live safely and without too much movement or friction battling the inner voice of authenticity. 

A friend of mine finally took the courage to set things straight with her mother, who over the years did nothing to support her in her fight to stand up for her abusive father. In the last degrees of Capricorn, her time of compromise had come to an end, and however terrible it felt, she finally took a step away from what oppressed her. Today was the first day in a new cycle for her. A clean slate.

With the Moon so elegantly conjunct Uranus for the ingress, this month surely has a revolutionary flavor to it.

Fill it wisely. Hopefully I will.

Don’t shoot the messenger, even though he comes from Saturn and Pluto.

So, here I go again, doing the english version. With an exact Jupiter-return and a Mars soon going retro in Leo squaring my own natal Mars in Taurus in the third house, I think the timing was right. I have been blogging for ages about astrology, and lately I have felt that the time has come to shed some skin and start anew. As a little factoid, I could mention that Saturn-Pluto square lands on my ascendant, but I try not to think about it. 

How this new blog will manifest, is still not clear,  but I know for sure,  it will be fun. It has to be with Mars in Leo in the event chart. And Uranus in Pisces on the Ascendant. This wasn’t planned, I just looked it up, and this again states the incredible beauty of astrology. So reflective of the state of life. Which wave we are on. Which cycle we are in. What creative impulse drives us. 

So the question always remains the same, are we the puppets of this Universe, just pretending to be in control. Or do we have a say. ? And the boring answer is as usual: Both. 

So what control do I have over the natural unfolding ? Well, I can refuse it. Deny it. Choose differently. It seems that with Saturn in Libra affecting all our Venus-es, choice is way up there on the list of things to learn. Making good choices. Changing bad choices. Choosing another path. Choosing another response. And of course, lend a voice to your choice. Not always easy, but very necessary with Saturn. Always he leaves us with the feeling that , yes, it is necessary. Ha! Too bad for the flaky, unreliable ones. Those who seem to change every other day. Those who adapts, gaining security this way. Saturn tolerates some flakes from time to time, but if they reappear again and again, he turns sour. And now with his buddy, Pluto, well, aren’t they a happy couple? They surely know how to pull the crap out of the shit and expose it! Poor Tiger eh? He made a few bad choices it seems. Maybe he fell in the “confirm my something something” Venus trap.

And what about the climate change conference?  The need to make some choices and actually stick with them could be an idea. Saturn calls for this kind of integrity and with Pluto so set on digging out all the corruption, well maybe there is a chance for a change here. The astrology certainly thinks so! We don’t want to wait till Pluto enters Aquarius in 2023 and the fullblown revolution/anarchy is inevitable. It has happened before, Pluto in Aquarius is fond of a revolution or two, attempting to break the genealogy of the past, the superiority of a few over many. 

It is now we make these choices. What happens in Copenhagen, will have an impact, even though if it is just a symbolic gesture. People are listening, more and more are growing increasingly worried about the climate, yet still buying all kinds of useless crap. Choices are more than we think. It is choosing to recycle or choosing not to buy make-up that is harmful for us and the planet. And knowing when indulging is just bad, when it is just a short-term release from the pain, anxiety and boredom of being alive. That is simply bulemic, searching for release. Release-disease. 

Venus is all about how you feel about yourself. Do you feel better when you wear a piece of clothing that has a fancy brand on it? Most people actually do. We like to feel exclusive. And rich. When you are poor (and single), how do you feel?  Worthless? Invisible? Ugly? Unwanted?  These are the instincts that the over-the-top cynical banking-industry feeds on. No wonder we feel like idiots. Cos we are. Suckers. Me too. If you just get a real sense of what making love is, you would be ok with a less material lifestyle. I go for “tantra-orgasmic-revolution-paradigm!” Nothing makes you feel more beautiful. It beats phony titties anytime. 

People would rather spend money getting really high or drunk, than to go to yoga and do it the natural way. Seems like Saturn is forcing us to change our priorities is someway or another. 

Yes, I know, boring , eh? We need to shop less or shop differently. And make real love, not just lie there or mastrubating, pretending to have sex (which isn’t boring, but we are still attached to this release-thingy.) Don’t blame me, I am just a humble messenger bringing the news from the Master of Universal Law himself. I am having a bit of trouble digesting what the Master says anyway, I am not sure I can live according to his strict command. But I will try. Tomorrow.