The beautiful celestial pairing of brilliant Venus and the delicate crescent Moon takes place in the western sky at dusk on the evenings of April 15th and 16th. Also look for Mercury - now faint and very close to the horizon - and watch the...
Lunar Waning and Solar Waxing
The last week of this rather explosive lunar cycle delivers both a waning Moon and a waning appetite for other people’s drama and trauma. We are ready to just ‘take care of me and my stuff’ and put everything else in the backseat as we roll along the journey called Life. 
The last two weeks – from the late degree Pisces New Moon on Mar. 15th to the Aries/Libra Full Moon of Mar. 29th, we have been rocked with scandalous news, accusations and testimonies from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects – all of them having to with either sex, violence, abuse or good-old-fashioned outrage. We have seen iconic figures and institutions topple from pedestals and ivory towers tumble to ground zero, where they must fight to survive. Special interest groups spout vehemence and angry politicians rally the disgruntled. Visible Planets: Morning: Saturn Evening: Venus and Mars
Tattoos, Guns and Ammo or Peace, Love and Justice?
The last full Moon of March and the first full Moon of Spring deliver tailwinds of adjustment to our perspectives and environment, both personally and socially. The illuminating quality of full Moon lunations shine light on what we need to see and what we need to deal with before we can move forward. And sometimes we get stuck there; as the information exposed and situations experienced simply stop progress, require time and attention, deeper understanding and new awareness. We are often awakened to conditions that had been hidden from view – intentionally or unintentionally - swept under the rug or simply in the process of becoming.March 18 to 25, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Saturn Evening: Venus and Mars
Vernal Equinox and the Creative Spark of Spring
On March 20th, at 11:32 a.m. MDT, the Sun enters the cardinal fire-sign of Aries and the emerging season of spring begins. We experience a day of equal light and dark, a brief 24 hours of celestial balance and cosmic equilibrium. We are entering the season of increasing light, planting and growth. It’s a time when we instinctively feel renewal and rebirth, intuit the awakening of our Mother Earth and are ready to explore, discover and go forth.
I always think of Michaelangelo’s painting The Creation of Adam this time of year. Mutable Pisces – the numinous, invisible and divine – gives way to primal Aries – the creative spark of selfhood. The gestation period is over. The amniotic waters of winter have broken. Man is born anew.
Look for the delicate crescent of a fresh New Moon as it pairs up with Venus each evening this week in the western sky at dusk. Venus has returned as an evening star and will continue to shine her effervescent light upon us long...
March 11 to 18, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Saturn Evening: Venus and Mars
Mars Direct in Leo and the March 15th 25º10' Pisces New Moon
The big news this week is the return to forward motion of our solar system’s “red” planet Mars. Retrograde since Dec. 20, 2009, this heralds an end to several months of subtle – and, at times, not so subtle - struggle regarding personal motives, desires and intentions. And as the tide shifts, we can look forward to an extended period of step-by-step progress in the most individually prized and precious areas of our life.
Ancient god of war and ruler of all things masculine, Mars energy stimulates, motivates and propels. It is the balancing yang of the feminine yin, complement to Venus, valiant warrior in times of trouble and instinctive life force attempting to get our soul’s needs met. Primitive and primal, Mars is all about battle and survival. It’s where we are willing to fight for what we want, defend what we value and pursue what we love. It fuels our sense of self, sustains our physical vitality and encourages us to take action – especially where personal agendas are at stake.
March 4 to 11, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn Evening: Venus and Mars
Cocoon and Self-Nurture, Relax and Rejoice
Last week’s foot of snow is quickly vanishing here on Wrights Mesa. In its place are fields of matted grass and frozen dirt, which turn to mud when temperatures rise. Today the skies are clear and the wind is strong. I’m alone in the house with my three dogs, listening to the chimney whistle and the fire crack.
I’m aware that Spring is on its way. I’m comforted that we’re facing the seasons of lengthening days and warming nights. This morning I cleaned bluebird houses and prepared them for the returning pairs, with hopes I’d see them soon. Yesterday I drove to the West End and watched newborn calves frolic in the slanting afternoon sunlight, curious but close to their mothers and the rich milk upon which their lives depend.
The Pisces/Virgo Full Moon of Feb. 28th has come and gone, followed by the very recent [Mar. 3rd @ 9:06 p.m. MST] conjunction of Venus and Uranus, also in Pisces. Issues of camaraderie, inter-connectedness, chaos and creation were balanced with the need for order and organization, work and health. Romantic and financial relationships popped up in new shape and form, themes of freedom and variety ran rampant. We were awakened to the overall necessity for and collective paradigms of unity in diversity and liberty in responsibility.
February 25 to March 4, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn Evening: Venus and Mars
“When the gods are crazy, when the world seems to have gone insane, when there seems to be nowhere to turn, we have to look inside our own hearts to find what is true, what matters, and what can never be taken away.” – Stephanie Austin, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #149 Feb/Mar 2010.
Returning from Mexico and jumping in to the process of “re-entry” here in los Estados Unidos – the United States – I am impressed by the whirling, swirling creative chaos of our current cultural condition and conditioning. Living without a television or an internet connection, in a land of swaying palms and breaching whales, I seem to have lost touch with the fast-paced paradigm of American life.
Don’t get me wrong, I'm loving my DSL, satellite TV and gourmet kitchen. Our humble home feels like a mansion after two months in either a camper or a casita with my XL husband and three big dogs.
February 18 to 25, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn Evening: Mars and Jupiter
The Aquarius zodiac month ends on Feb. 18th at 11:36 am MST, when the Sun enters the mutable water sign of Pisces the Fish. The twelfth and last sign of the tropical zodiac, Pisces brings us to a type of culmination and ending, the completion of one full cycle around the Sun.
Characterized by compassion, sensitivity, imagination and other-world creation, Pisces represents that part in each of us that is divine. It’s the mystical and metaphysical, the magical and mysterious, the spirit and the soul.
As I drive through Baja and enter the United States, I’ll be living, breathing and traveling that invisible thread that interconnects and binds us all – land, sea, plant, animal, stellar and cosmic. The One, the All, the Forever and Ever. Where Eternity and Now join hands, where Destiny and Free Will dance. May we walk in Beauty and live in Grace. Happy Pisces!
