This is some week! This is the oth­er “half” of the align­ment I men­tioned on August 9…now it is Plu­to’s turn to call the tune.

Mars is still swim­ming through the waters of Can­cer; dri­ving you to seek nur­tur­ing, to be car­ing and cau­tious, dri­ving you deep­er, homeward…back to your cen­ter. Plu­to the ruler of Will Pow­er and Con­trol is in Capri­corn the sign which gov­erns Tra­di­tion, Insti­tu­tions, Respon­si­bil­i­ty and Order. Plu­to as Will is an agent of spir­i­tu­al devel­op­ment and is now dri­ving the evo­lu­tion of soci­eties and cul­tures towards a great renew­al, to a spir­i­tu­al re-birth; yet those same will­ful ener­gies are being drawn upon by many pow­ers that be to dou­ble-down on the exist­ing order as they seek to per­pet­u­ate their old ways. This strug­gle will play out over the next sev­er­al years. But what are you being asked to face with this align­ment today?

Mars is dri­ving you inward, towards your Core, to your inner val­ues and feel­ings; Plu­to is pulling you out­ward to face the world around you, to deal with Real­i­ty. You will feel a strug­gle, a tug of war, between your inner needs and your out­er respon­si­bil­i­ties, between your home and your career. The ques­tions raised will be: where is your true secu­ri­ty found; what are your duties/responsibilities to the soci­ety around you; are you act­ing too pro­tec­tive­ly of your­self and not evinc­ing enough com­mon or social con­science; or is the order around you fail­ing to pro­vide a mean­ing­ful, sus­tain­able way of liv­ing? These and many oth­er ques­tions are being con­front­ed here. What might you experience?

Per­haps someone/something is pres­sur­ing you, using (or abus­ing) their author­i­ty in order to force you to give way on some mat­ter that is per­son­al, cen­tral and essen­tial to you. Or you feel threat­ened (or you feel enti­tled) and so are attempt­ing to use your pow­er to force some­thing upon another.

Whichev­er it is…it must be stopped! You shall not yield to con­trol, manip­u­la­tion, and intimidation…you must remain cen­tered, strong and res­olute in your spir­i­tu­al integri­ty. Like­wise, you must respect the bound­aries, the spir­i­tu­al integri­ty of oth­ers and not seek to unrea­son­ably sway, influ­ence or in any way “con­trol” another…the only con­trol you need and must have is “Self” Control…everything else is illusion.

Maybe you are being forced to acknowl­edge that some­thing you desired is not right or pos­si­ble any­more; or maybe you real­ize that some new and high­er aspi­ra­tion must take the lead. You and your world are expe­ri­enc­ing major trans­for­ma­tions Now, and you must dig down deep and re-con­nect to Fun­da­men­tal Truths, to the Peren­ni­al Phi­los­o­phy, to the Ancient Teachings…for they are always there to guide you and keep you upon the spir­i­tu­al path of unfold­ment as you seek to become what you will.

The aware­ness that this oppo­si­tion brings is for your spir­i­tu­al advance­ment. To become more con­scious about why/what you desire, to reex­am­ine the nature of your desires, to ques­tion your aspi­ra­tions and to deep­en your expe­ri­ence of what you are and what you are to be.…

Remem­ber you are becom­ing the becom­ing through the prop­er exer­cise of your will with­in a world you con­tin­u­al­ly cre­ate with oth­er will­ing spir­its. You and they have made this real­i­ty that you now con­front as both a ful­fill­ment and obsta­cle to your fur­ther unfoldment.…

The good news is you have made this world; your chal­lenge today (and every­day) is to re-make the world and your­self as you become a ful­ly con­scious shin­ing one, a star among the stars.

Shine on!

Watch Out! This is a chal­leng­ing jux­ta­po­si­tion of ener­gies; some­body is like­ly to get hurt…or hurt them­selves! More­over, this is hap­pen­ing in the con­text of anoth­er pow­er­ful align­ment that cli­max­es on Thurs­day when Mars Oppos­es Pluto.

Togeth­er, that makes this week a warm-up/wake-up call for the grand align­ment of Uranus and Plu­to as they form their Square from 2012 through 2015, (Note well: Their last “big” align­ment, the Con­junc­tion hap­pened in 1965–66)…In oth­er words…This is It! This is a major part of the Great Trans­for­ma­tion that has been unfold­ing and we are now reach­ing a very impor­tant fork in the road, (bet you could­n’t have guessed that giv­en what has hap­pened lately).

We will be expe­ri­enc­ing (and exam­in­ing) the full mean­ing of this pow­er­ful align­ment in 2012 and beyond, so for now let’s just focus upon: What does today’s aspect mean for you?

Mars rules your desires/aims/aspirations, and the actions you take to gain them. Recent­ly arrived in Can­cer, you are feel­ing your way towards what you want now, you are more cau­tious, care­ful and very con­cerned with security.

Uranus in Aries is chal­leng­ing Mars as regards both what you want and how you go after it. Since Uranus reveals what is hid­den in rather dra­mat­ic ways, (it can feel like a light­ning strike with accom­pa­ny­ing thun­der­claps), you tend to pay attention…but what is Uranus “say­ing”?

Uranus is singing the song of orig­i­nal­i­ty, inde­pen­dence and freedom…it is a clar­i­on call to take up the chal­lenge to forge new begin­nings. Mars is in Can­cer, and is focused upon, (or cling­ing to), the proven but old forms of secu­ri­ty, the old ways of cen­ter­ing. What you are expe­ri­enc­ing is The New Age chal­leng­ing the old order.

Uranus is call­ing the tune here; the old ways must be tran­scend­ed if you are to nur­ture your­self or one anoth­er. Yet the truths of Can­cer are “true”, your core val­ues which are what you are cen­tered upon remain the same, always, but the forms they are expe­ri­enced in and expressed through have become worn out. Uranus says you must forge a new path to your cen­ter, you must find new ways to pro­vide secu­ri­ty. It has always been so…

The “trick” or key is not go to the extremes of either/or, of absolute new free­doms or fear-based cling­ing to old forms…Find the Third Way, the way of Integration…the Way of the Spir­i­tu­al Warrior…

That is your way through, through the time of trou­bles that lie ahead, to the New Age that is dawn­ing all around you.

Though it seems to be a time of end­ings, that the sun is set­ting upon this age…Remember, that is always the way the new begin­ning begins…which means you should…

Turn…turn around and face the glo­ry that is rising!

Her­mes moves back into Leo and so you must adjust your think­ing accord­ing­ly. The prac­ti­cal details and finite re-order­ing of your thoughts in Vir­go must give way to larg­er con­cerns; you must now exam­ine the under­ly­ing assump­tions of your point of view.

Where­as since Aug 2 till today Mer­cury’s ret­ro­grade offered the oppor­tu­ni­ty to recon­sid­er your per­cep­tions as reflect­ed through the lens of Vir­go, now you must shift and con­sid­er the ide­al behind the idea as Mer­cury slides back­wards through Leo. Until August 26, when Mer­cury turns direct, you need to re-exam­ine your assump­tions, the prin­ci­ples-ideals-truths, which col­or the lens of your mind’s eye.

Use this oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­sid­er how your need for respect and approval (Leo), may lead you to form “blind spots”, and there­by lose the con­nec­tion you must have with those before you. You must offer that respect and approval to those before you if you wish to receive it. Like­wise, you must guard your­self from too eas­i­ly “waver­ing” on your own truths so as to “please” oth­ers as you seek their approval. All you will affirm by such a per­for­mance is your own lack of self-respect.

Enhanc­ing this oppor­tu­ni­ty for you today, Mer­cury forms an oppo­si­tion to Nep­tune who is now in Aquar­ius. This is the sec­ond of three such align­ments between Her­mes and Posei­don. Dur­ing the first on July 29, the chal­lenge seemed to take place between your­self and anoth­er as regards mis­per­cep­tion, illu­sion or, at its worst, decep­tion. But as not­ed then, the real chal­lenge was with­in your­self, you need­ed to work on your pow­ers of per­cep­tion by re-exam­in­ing your cer­tain­ties, by ques­tion­ing your per­cep­tu­al assumptions.

Here, today, the empha­sis is even more deter­mined­ly turned inward with Mer­cury’s ret­ro­grade motion. Though a disturbance/confusion/delusion will prob­a­bly man­i­fest between your­self and anoth­er, it will most cer­tain­ly lead you to ques­tion those ideals which inform your point of view.

Wel­come the gift of Nep­tune’s Intu­ition­al Inspi­ra­tion, which helps you to inward­ly pierce through that veil of pride­ful-cer­tain­ty, the veil which obscures the deep­er truth about the ques­tion before you. Guid­ed by Nep­tune’s com­pas­sion, you will be able to let go of any one-sided approach and appre­ci­ate the Mul­ti-Verse you tru­ly live in.

Though Nep­tune’s grace may lead you through an ini­tial peri­od of uncer­tain­ty and doubt, yes even fear, know that this is the Path that you must trav­el towards true accep­tance, greater under­stand­ing and divine wisdom.

Com­pas­sion, Humil­i­ty and Love…follow the Path­way to the Light.

Venus style meets proven sub­stance in a grace­ful pas de deux; beau­ty, love and val­ue are ground­ed by and made more pro­found through the gift of Sat­urn’s expe­ri­ence. Pass­ing fan­cies will just not make it today; you need to expe­ri­ence last­ing val­ues, clas­si­cal beau­ty and endur­ing love.

With Venus mov­ing through Leo, and Sat­urn through Libra, their felic­i­tous align­ment affirms the truth that all great val­ue is found­ed upon expe­ri­ences that are shared; that the truth in beau­ty you find before you reflects your inner grace; and that ever­last­ing love is the won­drous real­i­ty which affirms your jour­ney in Life-Consciousness-Spirit. 

Take some time today to build upon the last­ing val­ues between your­self and anoth­er; enjoy the beau­ty around and with­in one anoth­er; and acknowl­edge, embrace and be assured by the force which binds you togeth­er with a great host of shin­ing ones, seek­ing to find your way to the One…again.

When is too much, Too Much?…Today!

Venus and Jupiter are called the “less­er” and “greater” benefics in Astrol­o­gy; today they meet up in a square and that typ­i­cal­ly means you will over­do, overindulge and gen­er­al­ly ere on the side of excess. But real­ly, what does this align­ment mean spiritually?

If Venus rules your wants, and Jupiter defines your social prin­ci­ples, then today you are torn between your per­son­al val­ues and your social sen­si­bil­i­ties, between your needs and your social con­science (or spir­i­tu­al devel­op­ment). You may feel that you have to choose between per­son­al enjoy­ment and social accept­abil­i­ty, between love and honor.

What you may want for your­self may not be good for your rela­tion­ship or vice ver­sa. Maybe you find your­self in a sit­u­a­tion where you are in love with some­one, but the rela­tion­ship is some­how just not work­ing. Or, you are in a good rela­tion­ship, but you do not feel (any­more) the love that you want. Of course you should not choose between one and the other…as always, you need to find the high­er way, the spir­i­tu­al path of inte­gra­tion. What is the nature of the challenge/choice and how do you do that?

Venus is in Leo, so it is speak­ing from those ide­al­is­tic realms of roman­tic love, of respect, appre­ci­a­tion and approval. Venus is enthralled by and act­ing out emo­tion­al­ly in the dreams of great romance, of Princes and Princess­es and sto­ry book end­ings. Jupiter weighs in (lit­er­al­ly, since it is after all the largest plan­et), from the prac­ti­cal realms of Tau­rus. What is the point of “great romance” if your cup­board is bare? How roman­tic is it when those dra­mat­ic ges­tures lead to dra­mas of despair instead of con­stan­cy, trust and commitment?

What you need (and what you want), as the famous slo­gan for wom­en’s rights had it, you must have “Bread and Ros­es”, secu­ri­ty and romance, com­mit­ment and excite­ment. As always, you must find the mid­dle way, the noble path where your per­son­al val­ues and social needs are inte­grat­ed and not torn apart from one another.…You must cre­ate a whole life, where each informs and shapes the other.

Rather than choose between love and hon­or you must work them back togeth­er if you can. One with­out the oth­er is not sus­tain­able (or healthy), for you or the other.

As always, the chal­lenge is not to choose but to take up the task of mak­ing whole what has come apart…

Love and Hon­or one another!