Astrologer Bill Attride

Venus Conjunct Pluto (December 1, 2011)

Are you ready? Are you ready to go deeper?

It's time again to dive deeply into those spaces below, down into the ancient catacombs of your values. Venus, like Persephone, is going on her journey within. Pluto, as Hades, is taking her on this renewal journey, to refresh and restore your experience of beauty, meaning and love.  

Venus rules your values which are formed by, founded upon and express your value of yourself, your self-worth. Most profoundly, yet simply put, this is really a reflection of your experience of love, your love of self...which is really your essential experience of being one of the ones of the One.

Pluto rules your will-power which forms, maintains and protects all of your sacred spaces. It is through the power of Pluto that you can form the boundaries between yourself and any other and most importantly form that essential sacred space, the sacred space you call yourself.

Venus aligned with Pluto creates the opportunity to more deeply understand the mystery and joy, the challenge and reward, of experiencing your love for one another, a love which is formed in and bounded by your union, by creating that shared sacred space, the sacred space of "we".

The depth of that shared love and the greatness of that shared space is set by you and the other...it is determined, formed and made possible by what you each individually bring from the unfoldment of self-love and the integrity of your own sacred space. The more you have come to love yourself truly and unconditionally, and the more you have come to center yourself in your own sacred space...well, then to that same extent can you love and create that sacred space of "we" with one another.

Today Venus and Pluto take you deeper, into the foundations of your love and sacred space. You need to reexamine what you possess within so that you may better share it. You need to understand how you create your boundaries so that you may better transcend them.

Then you can move out again, into that vulnerable but necessary space between you and you, where one heart meets another. You can, having found a greater love within and stronger will to create, you can move into the sacred space of co-creation with all the other ones of the One.

You can come together, you can move closer to home...and it is good.

Venus Trine Jupiter (November 27, 2011)

Now this is more like it! Blessings and more blessings...Today enjoy the gifts of good fortune, because you have earned it!

Yes, good fortune (Venus) meets Greater good fortune (Jupiter)...and all is well in your world. This is your "lucky day", but don't let it go to your head...instead, understand why this is happening and what you need always do.

Venus is moving through Capricorn. What matters now are your traditional values; qualities like elegance, style any and all classical forms are in demand. Jupiter is stationed in Taurus; your principles of relating are wholly focused upon lasting values that are tangible, sensual and comforting. They are both in Earth and forming a beautiful aspect that makes manifest the good in tangible ways.

Their wonderful alignment today means you will be rewarded now. Of course, the nature and extent of that reward mostly depends upon you; because it is your own past actions that will measure out the reaping of your good fortune now. That's right, each and every, one and all are always subject to that fundamental principle of "Cause and Effect" which determines the waxing and waning of your life experiences.

You make your future in all ways...so the extent of your "good luck" is the result of the generosity you have shown to others. Enjoy your good fortune but continue to build a better future for others and yourself by sharing your blessings continuously with those in your life.

For what you give is what you get...

Today is a good day!

Venus Enters Capricorn & Venus Square Uranus (November 26, 2011)

Venus is making her gracious, dignified and purposeful entrance into Capricorn for the next 3 weeks...only to be tripped up immediately by Mr. Contrary himself, Uranus. How are you supposed to observe the niceties, uphold traditions, maintain decorum (and your composure) while you are tumbling head over heels? Really, what is the Universe saying now anyways?

Venus leaves the expansive, exploring and idealistic sign of Sagittarius for the Earthy pleasures (and serious sensibilities) of Capricorn. The Exotic loses its appeal, you want and need what is steady, re-assuring and has withstood the tests of time, what endures is what appeals...No passing fancies now, nothing casual...you're moving from the Sagittarian travelling bazaar to the courtly realms of prestige, position and deference...

What you need to know, where you seek to find and secure your value is by understanding where you stand in the hierarchy of your social order...What is your role or Title, what are your rights, and what are your responsibilities towards one another?...This is what you seek to find in yourself and through the other now...you need to know your social status and you want to be in a position that is worthy of you, a role that fulfills you and bestows honor.

But as you try and get your bearings, to find what (and who) is above and below, to ascertain who is responsible for what and to whom, as you try to walk those ancient, practical paths of duty and tradition, Uranus comes spinning by to add his "outsider" otherness to Venus' sensibilities...Okay, now how do you manage this?

Uranus is throwing down his challenge to the status quo...to those time-tested, reverently held hierarchical positions and powers...he comes along, like a breath of fresh air (or howling wind) and says, "Why, why must life be ordered like this? What is "right" is what is earned...and what is true to growth, to the truth of individual freedom and self-realization."

Before you can claim those rights or privileges, before you can move up in the hierarchy of life, you have to earn it by fulfilling your responsibilities and proving you are worthy...that you are "trust worthy". For whatever your title and position, and the powers that flow from them, it depends upon you understanding, acknowledging and serving the source of that power...it is not yours, it is only yours to exercise faithfully by serving its source.

And remember, behind all such hierarchies there is the One, true hierarchy of the Spiritual family to which you belong and with whom you journey.

Uranus, the Awakener, is only reminding you that you must not be enamored or entranced by appearances, by the forms of position and displays of power. Those outward trappings are here only to serve something greater...

For what truly endures is found within...and is seen to grow as that brightening light of your spiritual unfoldment, your self-becoming ascent in the Hierarchy of Light.

Your nobility and worth are already within you...Uranus is just reminding you to let it shine...

Shine on!

New Moon in Sagittarius - SOLAR ECLIPSE (November 24-25, 2011)

The Ninth New Moon of the Astrological Year is also a partial Solar Eclipse. During an ordinary New Moon you receive a gift of new inspiration, a release of energy to further your unfoldment through the themes of that particular sign, in this case Sagittarius. But during the Solar Eclipse the Moon's shadow (representing the past) crosses over you. This release of new energy requires a trip back in time so that you can resolve something old before you can move forward...Okay, so let's see what tune this Lunar "do-si-do" is dancing to...

In my Overview for 2011 I wrote about this New Moon:

The Solar Eclipse of November 25 is in Sagittarius. The release of a new energy in understanding must first address the need to repair our notions of truthfulness. Do you know where you are going? Oh, then you know from whence you came? Remember.

One of the more important concepts associated with Sagittarius is the process of the development of your Understanding which proceeds mostly in a gradual fashion, but at times is subject to a greater leap through Revelation.

For the most part, Understanding unfolds through the steady accumulation of experience, and that experience being transmitted through Philosophy, Science and Religion, creates the development of human culture and society which can be seen to unfold, develop and become more than it was. But this self-becoming does not happen along one straight, simple and step by step path.

The unfoldment of Understanding is not linear, it is cyclic and more spiral in nature, and certainly appears to move forward and backward, advancing and retreating, around the world and through the ages. Often and for some time advances are seen as incremental, each additional insight building upon what has come before. But there are moments, schismatic bursts of light, which provide an opportunity to break up a set of old assumptions/constraints and create a new, hopefully more inclusive and wiser world view.

Here is where the Solar Eclipse can lend a hand. For in the Moon's shadow light there stand revealed some elements missed in those brighter sun-lit realms. In the shadows you can discern some of the old, underlying assumptions that forms, that truly creates the limited reality of what you perceive. The Moon's shadow reveals, which means to unveil, to uncover what was hidden, to bring into consciousness what has been present but not yet perceived, and so your understanding of whatever was before you has become truer, deeper and closer to what is known as "That".

But there is another possibility present at such a moment of planetary cycling. When our Starry companions align so that the light around is dimmed there can come a turning, a recognition of a greater light within. This inner brightening, this Illumination is known as "Revelation", a Dramatic unveiling often through some external agent like a Divine being (or perhaps your higher self). The veil that you perceived reality through, or that covered reality for you, is lifted, if only for a moment, and you experience the shock of Revelation, the shock of the Unveiling of the Greater Space you truly move through...

It is not gradual, it is not easy (it needs to be shocking), but it is through this agency of Spirit, through this quickening of your self-unfoldment, that great leaps are made in your understanding...and you will be ever grateful for this help in your becoming.

Moreover, this gift of Illumination, this more complete Understanding, brings substantial proof that your journey is watched over by those who have come this way before...and they wish to help...

And it is from this, that you can know, for certain, that you are never alone, never...and that your journey is part of a greater journey too.

Pause at this New Moon, pause at this new beginning in your understanding. Dare to approach Isis who wears for you her Veil of Appearances, (the veil you helped to form)...and dare to lift, if but a little, and look beyond and into the heart of your Universe....and gaze with new-found wonder...

Step into the shadows...and into the greater light of Truth.

Mercury Turns Retrograde (November 24, 2011)

Have things been sort of going awry lately? Missed opportunities (or just things missing), upsets, surprises, confusion, doubts, frustration? ...Uh oh...

Yes, that's right, you know what that means...Hermes has been slowing down and now has reached his pivot point, he's turning 'round for the next 3 weeks and you better go along for the ride...Of course you have no choice, but the opportunity is there if you pivot with him!

Remember, this is just a function of Mercury catching up to Earth and passing us by on the "inside", coming between us and the Sun. He is actually at his closest to us so you could say those Mercurial Energies are stronger than ever!...And, he is not going "backwards", he just looks like that from our perspective...which is really what this is all about or for anyways...Mercury retrograde is an experience and lesson for you about your orientation or perspective...you are being offered a wonderful opportunity to "think about how you think"!

So pivot, pivot now with Mercury and turn your mind's eye back on yourself and reflect on how you think. Question...everything! Seek to root out the less functional or dysfunctional ways you approach the understanding of your life. Question what underlies your point of view, what do you "stand upon", what are your assumptions? Do they lead you to answers...do they take you to a good place?

After all, Mercury is doing his contrary cadence in the sign of Sagittarius, dancing through the realms of Science, Philosophy and Religion...exploring the Halls of Truth, the Temple of Understanding. There is rarely offered a more opportune moment than this!

Turn and open your mind to a greater, more inclusive understanding of how your very approach to reality creates that reality...and you only need shift your focus just a little bit to see the way beyond these dim lit lands, to move beyond your shadows of doubt and fear...and move closer, into the Light.

...and the only offering you need make is your attachment to dogma, to the ordinary, accepted assumptions and answers which can no longer satisfy your need to know, your ever growing need to "Stand Under" and experience the greater truth of your journey.

Open your mind, be humble and self-forgiving (laugh too) and know that this is what it means to move towards Wisdom...that the closer you come to Truth, the more you come to realise that it is even more profound than you could ever have imagined...

Pivot...and open your mind to Wisdom!

Sun Trine Uranus (November 23, 2011)

Quintessence...

There is only one...only one of you...growing, unfolding, releasing...ever becoming more true and perfected through self-realization, through self-unfoldment...

Today the Sun (The Self) aligns beautifully with Uranus (The Awakener) to help you discover and release just a little bit more of that specialness that is you. Today is a day to let your "self" shine just that much brighter and so light the way for those around you too!

You have moved through many stages in your journey, and in each stage moved through many forms of self-fulfillment. Each stage and each form was, for a while, perfectly true to whatever was possible for you at that time...

Yet the fundamental principle, the core of your Spirit, is to become...to move...to Grow. And so your present form, having served its purpose, must be laid aside so that your spirit may be free again to find a more fitting form to continue its journey.

You may delay, you may resist and so hold to an outworn form out of fear, out of uncertainty...But there is no power on Earth or in the Heavens above that will prevent your eventual growth...And today the Universe offers a helping hand, a gentle reminder that there is nothing to fear for it is in your nature to grow beyond the beyond...You are made of Starry Stuff and your home is beckoning...always.

Uranus comes to aid you now, to remind you that there is a greater you to be found within and experienced without. Uranus shines his light of understanding, bending round the corners of your reality so that you may find an undiscovered facet...you see in these refracted rays of your higher mind an illumination, you see what had been merely dreamt of, a whispered hint, and so what was unrealized is seen to be true and necessary because you must...you must continue your journey of self-unfoldment.

You can grow again beyond what had been into what you will become...Uranus quickens your growth by freeing you from forms which can no longer support or contain you.

Uranus, the Avatar of Freedom, is lighting the way...

All you need do is to let go of the lesser...

And move into the greater spaces of Freedom!

Remember, those beaten paths are for the beaten...

Arise, be an example, be true to your self...and be a Soul Blazer!

Sun Enters Sagittarius (November 22, 2011)

You started 9 months ago and you started in Fire...Aries is always your beginning, the time when what was the un-manifest became manifest, where your non-being became your beingness. You, as Spirit Desired to move into the Spaces of Space again, and what you came to be was through Spirit descending and joining with Matter. These were your first delightful steps in this Dance of Life, your In-Spirit-ation...

And your journey continued as Spirit moving into Matter through Fire, Earth, Air and Water, then again as Fire, Earth, Air and Water...and now...

Now you come back one more time to Fire...You make one last turn of this Elemental Wheel before you start again in a new Astrological year...This, your Cycling-Spiral-Dance of Spirit and Matter, is the never-ending journey of your Becoming the Becoming.

Now you emerge, out of the Waters, out from Scorpio where you encountered the Mysteries of Life and Death, of Union and Separation and you experienced, you felt... something Profound...And so you must seek now to Understand..."What, what was That, What Is This?"

So, the Sun moves into Sagittarius, the third and final Fire Sign and you return to the realm of Ideals...to the Halls of Wisdom where you look to Law, to Philosophy and to Religion to explain...You turn to the Ageless Voices that are behind all the of these, the Perennial Philosophy known and passed down from the beginning as the Ancient Teachings.

You seek to relate what you have experienced to something beyond your own experience, to put it into a larger context and so find Meaning. You seek to put your life, your discoveries and mysteries, your triumphs and defeats, you seek to understand it All. You turn your gaze outward, seeking the connection to those who have come this way before you (and they have)....and you find that they have left you guidance, comfort...Wisdom. It is a gift, a blessing and you must do your part too...

And so you can build upon this, upon their gift of Understanding so that you may stand with and lean upon those who came before you...and so advance The Becoming a little bit more. But you also add...you add your experience, your understanding to this Greater Understanding and so it becomes even greater still...This is your story, your Journey of Becoming the Becoming.

So turn 'round now, round that round and acknowledge the great Sacrifices that were made to give this Gift to you. Know, that you must make your sacrifice too as you get closer and closer, closer to the crossing point between the darkness and the Light. And as the days grow ever darker, as the shadows deepen around you, let the Light within burn ever brighter, your Light that will never go out...

Turn now, look at Your Sun who stands in this special part of Space...Then look beyond and know that behind that Solar space you are looking out into the heart of your Galaxy...you look out into the origins of Life and Spirit in this Cosmic Wheeling wonder we call our Milky Way...It is at this time of the year that your Sun is aligned with the Center of your Galactic home.

Turn and know that you are looking homeward...that there is a never-ceasing, streaming of Life-Consciousness-Spirit going out and in from that Center, from the One to all the ones of the One and beyond...

Bow your head down...Feel your Spirit soar...Sing your Celestial Song....Dance...

You are a Shining One...

Shine On!

Sun Square Neptune (November 20, 2011)

"Do you know who you are?"

Yes it's that time again...it's time for another trip through your "Looking Glass" as the Sun (Self) squares Neptune (Illumination).

This is not a time for fixed boundaries and certainties...this is a time to wonder, a time to question, a time to be confused...

So that you may come to realize that you do not yet know, but you do understand that this is the way to move closer...this is the way to let go of a lesser sense of self and discover the greater waiting within you...

It is humbling yet freeing, confusing yet illuminating...and the only sacrifice you must make is your self-limiting sense of separation from the greater reality within and around you....

The only gift you need open is your imagination...

The only path you need walk is to dream again...

You are the dreamer,

you are the Dream...

Dream on Imagineer!

Mars Trine Jupiter (November 16, 2011)

Zoom, zoom! Today is your day for Right Action!

With Mars ruling your Actions/Aims and Jupiter your Principles/Beliefs, today you can effortlessly move towards your Desire and follow your Truth too.

Mars in Virgo is steadier, more focused and purposeful now, seeking to bring order, reason and peace back into your life. You need to act critically and precisely so as to root out the old, outworn and empty patterns that have lost their efficacy and meaning. Not only are they not "working", but they also make no sense. But how do you know, how can you decide which plan of action is more constructive; how can you know which steps will lead to a more complete life, to a life that feels true and whole?

Jupiter in Taurus provides the steady, balancing touch now by standing resolutely upon those greater, broader principles that are to be found at the ever-refreshing fountain of the Ancient Teachings. There have always been certain fundamental precepts, core values and spiritual laws that stand behind and inform the apparent reality around you.

Whenever you have moved through a world that seemed to be unraveling, (a time very like now), the Perennial Philosophy, the teachings behind all Religion and Science, have answered by steering you back towards the noble path that is your true journey. There you find your refreshment, your renewal of spiritual vigor in the undying truths of your origin, journey and destiny in the stars...

There are times when that message seems drowned out, when the journey seems overlong and without hope or meaning...but at precisely such a time is when the Universe, Spirit, moves to fill that void and re-awaken within you this deeper understanding...and you see the path again.

Today is such a day...Action and Truth caress one another in a harmony of meaning and progress...you know what to do and why!

Today is a good day!

Mars enters Virgo (November 11, 2011)

Mars leaves the idealistic realms of Leo for the earthy charms of Virgo, and he is staying there for a very, very long time indeed! Mars will turn retrograde in January and so remain in Virgo till July 2012.

While moving retrograde Mars will come closer and closer to Earth. That means the first four months of 2012 are going to be rather energized by the red planet, especially around those periods when it changes direction or opposes the Sun (January 23, March 3 and April 13). Energy is good, but these periods will definitely call for calmer spirits and steady hands, otherwise events can quickly spiral out of control.

The message of Mars in Virgo is clear...it is time to re-order and simplify your life! Virgo rules the ways and means for healing you and your world. Apparently, given how long Mars is in Virgo, we all need some extra help to organize, heal and make our lives more peaceful! Mars in Virgo brings to focus what works (or who works)...and what is clearly not working.

Aims, desires and actions need to lead to real, substantial improvements now...but you need to be the change you wish to live in...Criticism and sharp words are in the air, but you need to turn this sharper scalpel of discernment inward first.

Virgo is about moving into a space of greater wholeness, to move towards that most sought after treasure...to be at Peace, to have Peace of Mind. The way there is hard and is achieved only by suffering and sacrifice.

The Ancient Teachings say that you suffer only because you are not yet what you will be; you do not understand and so do not live in beauty. To move closer, to get there, you must be willing to sacrifice...to sacrifice the lesser sense of yourself and discover the greater waiting within...always. Now is such a time, to move closer to the beauty within and bring more beauty around you. Now is your time to act, now is your time to be a healer...

Start where you know you can do something real, start with yourself. Projection and avoidance of real and meaningful personal sacrifice will only lead to harder adjustments in the future. Then, after you have put your own house in order, after you have healed yourself, you can move out and help others to re-organize and heal their lives too.

Mars in Virgo is a time of practical activity to heal yourself and your world. There is much work to be done, but that is why you are here on Earth...

Unveil the beauty within you, create with beauty around you...live in beauty...

Mars in Virgo, just in time...now get to work!