Astrologer Bill Attride

Sun Square Pluto (March 29, 2012)

Do you feel it? Something has been building "out there"...and right now the Sun is caught between "a rock and a hard place"...That is right, you are not making this stuff up...it is "really real"...What's it about, what is going on?

Oh, nothing "too big"...It is just that Uranus and Pluto are dancing their Magisterial Dance and coming to the first of their many exact squares for the next few years...that would be Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn. They released a new impulse of their continuing balancing act between Freedom/Individuality vs. Control/Boundaries back in the 1960's (remember what that was like?)...and now, well now we are at the next turning in the unfoldment of their dynamic interplay and we are all going to have to work to resolve, in ourselves and in our worlds, the balance between Freedom and Order.

Last week the Sun passed over Uranus and you got a "jolt"! It was a less than gentle reminder that you need to be constantly attentive to your wondrous journey. You need to work to release yourself from forms that have become limiting for you, (forms that are mostly of your own making). Why must you do this?...So that your spirit may continuously unfold your potential towards greater self-realization...You pour yourself into forms that fulfill you (for a time), but you must also break up and move beyond those forms which have now come to limit your further growth.

And, what about now? Now it is Pluto's turn to call the tune for your Solar dance of self-realization. Pluto is about the creation of the Sacred Space of you...and of all the sacred spaces that surround you...Pluto, through the agency of the Will forms the Boundaries of all the spaces that fill Space.

Pluto is about your Will Power (which is your power to control)...which is meant to be used to direct the self's expansion of its space of self-realization, to create an ever greater sacred space for the self, while respecting the sacred spaces of those around you. When you do not respect the spaces of others, your trespass upon them...and when you do not protect your space from others, then they will often trespass upon you. That is the issue here...it is about Sacred Space and Boundaries.

The issue is about your self-control and self-determination which, you have slowly come to understand, must be lived out ever more consciously, considerately and in mutual respect as you expand your field of self-realization. Yes, you must expand and grow, but you must do so in such a manner that you grow in cooperation with the other willing beings who live in their equally sacred spaces around you.

So be mindful now...be ever mindful of the sacredness of your space and so protect yourself from those who seek to press or pull you away from your center...be wary of those who seek to seduce or by force impose themselves upon you. Your space is sacred...it is your temple, your holy of holies.

Likewise, even with the best of intentions (and those can be very dangerous indeed), you have no right to force another to do what they are not ready, willing and able to do...you cannot violate their space without despoiling your own...and the law of karma will be very exacting in "righting that wrong" you have done to another...

Instead use this Willful energy by turning it back upon yourself so that you might exercise it where it belongs...in matters of self-control and self-improvement.

Seek to better yourself and become an example to others of what it means to live your life within your own sacred space as you equally respect, preserve and honor the sacred spaces that surround you!

Sun Conjunct Uranus (March 24, 2012)

Well...this has certainly been quite a week! It began with the "beginning", the Vernal Equinox as the Sun moved into the first sign of Aries on Monday/Tuesday. Then Mercury conjoined the Sun on Wednesday, followed by the Moon aligning with the Sun in the first New Moon of the Astrological Year on Thursday. Then Friday brought Mercury back for a reprise visit into Pisces...

That is quite enough dancing and skipping in those Starry Spaces for one week!...but the Universe is not finished with you, not quite yet....

Today is the final push in this very transformational week...and it is a "Big One". The cosmos speaks to us in many voices, sometimes subtle, sometimes less so...Uranus, well Uranus is not subtle! After all, this is the planet called "The Awakener"!

The Sun is your pure potential of being, your gateway to all your possibilities. However, those possibilities are immanent but not evident, they are without form, without substance, not yet "real"...You must become some "thing" in order to be substantiated. Through an embodiment, you become "real"; you have moved from the realm of pure potential to that of self-realization. You have fulfilled yourself...after a fashion.

Yet by doing this you have also become limited, fixed into that, but only that, thing. By "Falling into Matter", you sometimes lose touch with the source of your pure potential...You can only see the reality that is surrounding you, your potentials like fading echoes, a distant memory...and so you may become trapped in only that which "is"...  

Your reality is your fulfillment...but your reality is your limitation. What are you to do? Spirit provides an answer, an Avatar who can lead you back to the source, to the eternal wellspring of your potentials. Uranus, the Awakener comes to you in order to break apart those bonds that have you in their thrall...He shatters assumptions and shines a light into the shadows so that you might see truer, freer...He is one of the 3 gifts of the Spirit that drive your unfoldment from the lesser to the greater...

Constantly at work, pushing the boundaries, Uranus is ever at work to liberate the Spirit-energy that has become fixed into forms that no longer fulfill that very spirit. There is no more dramatic encounter than Uranus with the Sun, for here the Awakener meets with the Self.

The materialized, substantiated you sees yourself as something, "I am That"...but Uranus reminds you, reconnects you to the greater truth of your ever-unfolding, unlimited potential so that you understand simply "I Am".

Today you will have an epiphany, an encounter with your truer, deeper, unconditioned, freer self at the heart of your being...today you will feel the Spirit that is you and know that you can and will be forever becoming something more...for that is your destiny.

Uranus, the awakener is here to provide the golden bridge to your spiritual core where resides the Self, your pure potential waiting, who forever walks lovingly beside you as you become the becoming...

You will be surprised, you may be shocked...but you will be freer...

You will be amazed...simply because you are amazing!

Mercury Re-Enters Pisces (March 23, 2012)

You have been reflecting on yourself since March 12; that's right, you have turned back around to look upon yourself, trying to see yourself as if in a mirror, to re-assess your appearance, demeanor and attitude...Why?...So that you might find your better way, a truer way to move forward. Today marks another change...Mercury is still moving retrograde (that is most certainly evident!), but now it re-enters the previous sign of Pisces which it had left on March 2.

You will need to turn away now from at least some of your plans for the future and move back into your past...You will need to let go of your forward focus, of considering your possibilities, so that you might better understand from whence you have come (and so better understand what you are bringing with you).

For it is most certainly true that each and every step forward in your journey lands upon the path you forged long ago. This is your Karma, the effects of which come to you now as the complex matrix of your present Circumstance (the world that surrounds where you stand). This is the world you made...it came from your Dreams and your Fears...This reality is but the consequence of what you forged long ago. So, before you set in motion more of those "causes" that will bring future "effects" upon you (and those who accompany you), it would be wise to take this opportunity to consider what you might have learned from those steps you took before.

From now till April 4 (when Mercury turns direct), you should make the most of this gift, this harvest of your meanings and experience...for this is how you grow and turn your life from an ordinary circle, (what would be an endless and meaningless eternal return) into a wondrous, upwardly soaring spiral dance of life. You do this by confronting what limits your Dreaming Realizations: those Doubts, Anxieties and Fears that deflect your heart's intent. You must clear them all away...but How?

You have done this, you can do this...become fearless and faithful...by coming into a deeper, more constant contact with your ever-renewing fountain-source of faith and meaning...which is known to you as your own higher self.

These Mercurial messages, these intimations of your greater understanding, are bestowed by that higher self...They are gifts from You to you...But they will not arrive with blazing trumpets and big displays. Mercury is sailing through those subtler realms of Neptune when traversing this Piscean space...

Like many matters spiritual, The Way, your path, is paradoxical! You need to focus...and you must be unfocused too! You need to pay closer attention, to catch those whispers and gentle suggestions...and so turn away from all outward distractions. You must also avoid any particular focus or intent. These messages from beyond, these profound meanings, cannot be found where your ordinary attention keeps you, mesmerized by the lesser reality. No, these messages come from the peripheral realms, at the outer reaches of your ordinary consciousness. They come like laughing fairies and sparkling sprites...and if you look too hard or directly upon them, they will vanish!  

You have to be open and let your inner self bring you into alignment with these greater meanings, to help you understand the lessons of life you have just lived...so that you may then turn to your future with greater understanding and acceptance.

So turn back now...look and listen carefully...

For the Light in the Darkness...for the Voice in the Silence...

Your Faith, Your Future...and without fear.

New Moon in Aries (March 22, 2012)

A New Year...and a New Moon! Spring has sprung and you are all fired up and ready to go...or are you?

It's "Déjà vu", (just like last year)...Although those Aries energies are pouring in and propelling you forward, the outcome might not measure up to your expectations. This may seem vaguely familiar and you would be right...you had this "semi-start" last year too when the New Moon in Aries took place while Mercury was retrograde, just like now...What is the universe saying? How do you move forward when your mind is moving backwards?

Each New Moon releases seed-forms of energy from that Sign. With Aries these seed-forms are offered in order to help foster a resurgence and re-affirmation of self, of your profound need to be "I". You feel the need to step up and step out and boldly go forth...to stake your claim and simply be yourself. Yes indeed, your spirit is ready, willing and able...But what are you going to do about your mind?

Actually, this is rather helpful. If there is one sign of the Zodiac which could truly benefit from a little more patience and some greater reflection...well, that would be Aries! There is such an urgency in Aries to resurrect the self (after the sacrifices in Pisces) that you might over-reach, become impatient and then, well, lose it.

Having Mercury moving retrograde provides a nice counterpoint of reflectivity, of self-control and deliberation. Sure, it feels fine to be bold and take that big leap...but it would be awfully nice to have some idea of where you might land!

This New Moon reminds you that in order to go forth, you must also go in.

This New Moon inspires you with the power of new beginnings, while reminding you to tie up your loose ends.

This New Moon begins your building of brand new futures, while helping you to honor your past.

This is a good New Moon!

Mercury Conjunct Sun (March 21, 2012)

Your wait is over... (At least for now)

You have been seeking for an answer, you have been searching through your inner (and outer worlds), wondering, questioning...Considering...

Today, well today you get your answer! (However, it is probably best if you do not "act" on it yet...it would be far better to wait until Mercury turns direct on April 4).

Since March 12^th Mercury has been moving retrograde, you have been reviewing and sifting through your thoughts, ideas, facts and theories, pondering the very nature of your consciousness. You have been turning your mind back on itself, using your self-reflective capacity to Consider (or reconsider) your path ahead.

What does that word mean, "Consider"? The English "consider" comes from the Latin "considerare" which means to examine carefully, and was originally a term used in Augury. It derives from "sidera" which means "stars". The word "consider" is a combination of "con" or "among" and "sider" "the stars". "Consider" literally means to be among or with the stars!

When you consider anything, you are repeating what humans have done since the beginning of the dawn of our self-awareness. You follow in the footsteps of what your ancestors did long, long ago when they first became conscious and began to consider who they were or what life was all about...they literally looked up to the stars for guidance and answers.

They found meaning in that majestic pageantry above which provided reassurance...that there is an order to the universe. There was this essential sense, this "knowing" that what happened "up there" provided context and meaning for what transpired "down here", so the saying became, "as above, so below".

As much as those planetary circulations release powerful energies...as much as your planetary companions dance their dance which elicit as well as depict the wondrously comforting eternal truths, as much as this takes place in those starry spaces around you...it is equally through and through to be found within you as well.

For you are made from, you have come from, that very same "star-stuff" as your planetary cousins. Within you, in your holy of holies, at the innermost of you, there is a spark of the Divine Flame. It is this, your immortal core, which provides your bridge to the everlasting Truths; your sacred center has an unbreakable bond, the fountain-source Truth of your essential oneness with the One.

So that is why...and you need remember this, ever and always, that the answers to any (and all) of your questions...the answers to the riddles of your life are to be found within you...always. Because your own higher self, (the watcher who is ever by your side), is waiting to guide you.

However, you often become distracted, mesmerized by all that takes place around you. Life seemingly leads you from this to that, up and down, in and out, until you find yourself at a loss, turned around and confused...So you pause, you look for guidance...You look up...and you look within...

In the current period with Mercury retrograde, in order to forge ahead, you have been casting a glance backwards upon the way you have already come, seeing how true or not your path is...because you need to make sure you are in Alignment. To be aligned with what? It is your ever-present need to be in alignment with yourself and so align your purpose with your path...

Today your Mind (Mercury) aligns with your Self (Sun). Today you will have an answer...from within. It may come in a burst of insight, one of those "Ah-Hah!" moments...and those are truly memorable. However, it is true that often an answer will come in more subtle forms, as a whisper or like the gentle brush of a feather; and that contact will elicit some newfound awareness for you.

Since your conscious mind is usually preoccupied with normal and everyday necessities (and distractions), you will find that your higher self must patiently wait for this opportunity to reach you. But you can help, especially at this time with Mercury aligned with the Sun.

What can you do? You must create a space for You to contact you! Find a quiet place and still your mind, calm your spirit, then ask your question...and wait. Or, you can think of the issue before going to bed, then ask for help or guidance...and it will be given you.

Your higher self is ever seeking to have a more constant, consistent relationship with you...but you have to open the door, you have to make your space sacred.

With Mercury conjoined with the Sun today, you can mirror their outer alignment with a personal alignment of your own.

Listen carefully now...the beloved is calling to you...

Listen.

Sun Enters Aries, Astrological New Year (March 19-20, 2012)

It is Done!

From Alpha to the Omega, from the Beginning to the End...You have rounded round that ever upward Spiraling "Circle of Life"; you have visited for a while, in each of the Twelve Mansions of Being, the Sacred Spaces through which winds your path towards Self-Mastery...You have moved from Fire to Earth, in Air and Water, you have Dreamt and Touched, Thought and Felt your way along that Starry Path...

Now you stand ready at year's end, your soul trembles with anticipation, for the "Dawning Day" is beyond the threshold that you now cross...Yes it is time to turn, turn and face the Rising Sun and give your hearty welcome to the next New Astrological Year...It is time for a New Beginning, a new chance to take yourself higher, towards greater self-realizations and deeper accomplishments, to clearer thoughts and peaceful feelings...

Aries is the First Sign...the sign of Embodiment, of Spirit moving back into form. Having come during the past 30 days to feel more your oneness with all the worlds around you, having deepened your feelings for selflessness and compassion, having searched within and harvested the meaning of the year just lived...Now, now your soul yearns and must experience itself for itself again! You must begin again, at the very beginning with that most simple affirmation, "I Am".

This is your first lesson, the experience of "Presence". How do you see yourself, and how do others see you? Your personas, your masks that you wear in the various roles you live through, of Creator, Lover, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother and all the ways of your being...in each of these you release some greater or lesser part of your true inner self as you seek to become...Fulfilled.

During these next 30 days look in that mirror of your life and ask yourself, "How do I look, how am I presenting myself to my world? Do I come around the "corners of my life", all those spaces that I enter, and bring to bear the just-right combination of elements that each situation requires? Or am I leaning forward to much, am I over-bearing? Or do I go in with too little, my presence is an absence, am I under-whelming?" Or, or do I have it right? Do I enter the space and bring to bear what is just right, my presence poised so as to bring life to what is dull, healing to what is hurt?" And, if you can do this, then you will find your presence is aligned with the Greater Presence within and around you.

First things matter. Each of these beginnings, of moving into the spaces around you, each and every thought, feeling and action changes you and your world too. These moments, these Alphas, are your precious seeds that you release and they radiate out into the Ocean of the Universe, forming, changing...making the reality that Is.

This is how you create your Karma, every action resulting in a consequence that eventually comes back to you the creator. It all starts with your self-awareness; with "I am!"...You stand upon your self-understanding and the projection of your Presence into each and every moment. It is in the Now where you are the Creator, where you are free to make a better beginning and move towards a more perfect tomorrow.

The Past you have made... and hopefully made your peace with. The Future is unknowable, for you (and everyone else!) are continually making and re-making it from the harvest of what you were as you forever live in the now, standing at the threshold of all possibilities...

Turn now and Face the Rising Sun, a New Year, your new beginning...

All Hail the Rising Sun in Aries, the Dawn of a New Day.

It all begins with you! It all begins with your Attitude.

May you be Hopeful, Loving, Creative and Peaceful...

May you continuously strive to better yourself and your World each and every day...

Arise! Arise! It is the Dawning of a New Day!

And your better world awaits You!

Mercury Conjunct Uranus (March 18, 2012)

You are brilliant...yes you are! No rigid, hard lines for you; no corners to paint yourself into! Your mind is free, contrarian, intuitive...you are thinking "outside the box"! Why? Why, you've got Uranus by your side...and you are thinking beyond your self-cast shadows!

Uranus brings you the gift of Manas, your radiant higher consciousness (which is in reality the higher-self's mind, a much more evolved "vibration" of Mercury). Mercury is your lower mind which observes, categorizes, compares and contrasts in order to build up information about what you have to come to know as "Reality".

It is through Mercury that you build up your knowledge of your world...but Uranus leads beyond mere knowing, Uranus leads you to your Greater Understanding.

Your Mercury delights in puzzling through the phenomena you encounter day after day, finding appropriate connections between one thing and another, forming a body of experience that provides you with your tools for navigating "Reality". You form specific windows or points of view to look at your world through, and make sense of, the chaos of the multi-verse. You have your answers to life's daily challenges and you can dip and weave through the normal maze of everyday life.

And, whenever you encounter something that has changed or something entirely new for you, a puzzle or problem that you have no solution for, your lower mind engages its greatest gift of Intelligence. Your mind soars as it displays it marvelous adaptability and nimbleness, it tries one approach after another, looking through one window or facet after another to see how this matter might be understood by you.

But even so, you can and will get stuck at certain junctures of your life. You will try to imagine and look at the problem from alternate points of views, shifting your assumptions...but you will always be (unconsciously) confined within your larger paradigm which determines the possible from the impossible to you...and so you will not even consider or comprehend the Greater Mystery that lies before, nay even surrounds you...

Uranus, the Awakener, provides the answer! Uranus breaks through those paradigmal self-cast shadows, lifting you out of those dim-lit realms so as to bring you into your higher consciousness. Through releasing the Intuitive Mind Uranus reveals the larger cosmos within which your smaller reality exists. Flashes of insight illuminate what was not visible, even inconceivable, because you had no frame of reference, no way or means to perceive that dimension of reality.

Problems that seemed unsolvable find elegant solutions...and many problems, many problems are no longer "there" because the dilemma or dichotomy, that either/or and black or white, which formed the very problem in the first place...well, they have all vanished like the fog of Maya from which they held you enthralled. You will often find in these Epiphanal Elicitations that the world you had been moving through, what you had experienced as Reality was truly deceptive (or delusional)...at least that is how it appears now...

But, of course, it was/is real...at that level of awareness, at that level of consciousness it was Reality for you. What Uranus provides is a means to quicken your spiritual awakening so that you might more easily move into a higher level of perception, into a greater comprehension of the majesty and beauty of the Cosmos you journey through.

Let us give thanks to Uranus, the Awakener who comes bearing gifts for his cousin Mercury...

Arise, awake...there are new Vistas to Amaze...

Brilliant Worlds of Wonder to behold!

Open your eyes...Free your Mind!

Hail, hail Uranus who leads you from the darkness into the Light!

Venus Conjunct Jupiter & Venus Trine Mars & Mars Trine Jupiter & Mars Trine Pluto (March 14, 2012)

Well...this is just quite simply Beautiful...Beauty to Behold!

Astrology seeks to understand the energies that influence our existence by observing our heavenly companions who circle with us around our Star. As they orbit the Sun they form alignments and patterns with one another that release and mutually modify the spiritual energies that truly create the story of all that unfolds within our parent Star's family, our solar system.

Today you are blessed by a beautiful alignment of several planets with one another, forming what is called in Astrology a "Grand Trine". That is when 3 or more bodies are arranged and spaced apart from one another so as to form a perfect Triangular relationship to one another. Today, this beautiful formation begins with Venus and Jupiter conjoined in Taurus, which connects to Mars in Virgo, which then goes on to connect with Pluto in Capricorn, and comes back finally to complete the Grand Triangle with Venus and Jupiter.

The "Stars" of this starry triangle are Venus and Jupiter, who have been drawing ever closer these last few days, burning brightly in the western evening sky after the Sun has set. They shine like two resplendent beacons that come bearing gifts for you. Gifts indeed are offered here for these two planets are called the Lesser (Venus) and Greater (Jupiter) "Benefics".

With Venus ruling Value, Beauty and Love, and Jupiter ruling Principles, Truths and Expansion, their coming together signals great, good fortune to you and yours. You relate well to what you want; your appreciation of the beauty within and around you bestows blessings upon your enjoyment of your physical world and your social life too...

Today is a day that you are truly Beautiful...

Providing energy and focus, Mars is next in your luminous triad today. Mars in Virgo adds just the right and reasonable focus or mindfulness to the day's beauty. Sometimes when Venus and Jupiter combine you get so enamored with beauty (and with your taste buds!) that it can lead to too much of a good thing. Mars provides the requisite discrimination to enjoy but not over-indulge. Moreover, Mars in Virgo brings you to that alignment which affirms that for there to be Beauty (and Love) there must also be a meaningful order to your life. Mars in Virgo provides the way to a life that is whole, integrated and beautifully proportional.

Today is a day you are truly poised, measured...you are full of Grace...

Completing your "Triune Attunement", you turn now to the outermost planet, to the planet of Will and Transformation, to the planet of Boundaries, to the planet who rules the Sacredness of Space...Pluto.

Pluto in Capricorn is steadily working to bring you into a closer relationship with the Fountain-Source of Archetypes, those Eternal truths of Spirit which stand behind your shadowed reflection, what you call "Reality".

Today Pluto steadies and brings your will to bear so that you may be guided in your actions (Mars) so as to strengthen your determination to find and walk the path of Wholeness; and Pluto provides the power to stay true to your Values & Truth (Venus/Jupiter) while equally observing the Teaching to never impose them upon another...for your Journey is the unfoldment of Spirit, your path is the path of Self-Mastery.

Today is a day you are truly Masterful...

Make today (and everyday) the day you walk your path and live the Ancient Teaching of Beauty, Grace and Mastery:

In beauty I walk.  

With beauty before me, I walk.  

With beauty behind me, I walk.  

With beauty below me, I walk.  

With beauty all around me, I walk.  

It is finished in beauty.

Today you are Beautiful...

and you are surrounded by Beauty...

Today and everyday...

Live in Beauty!

Jupiter Trine Pluto (March 12-13, 2012)

This is the third and final (for now) alignment of Jupiter Trine Pluto. This is what I wrote about this aspect in the 2011 General Forecast:

Jupiter Trine Pluto (Jul. 7, Oct. 28, Mar. 13, 2012)

The cycle of Jupiter and Pluto moves into this more positive phase for the next 9 months. Having faced the challenge in late February, we will find ourselves able to expand more effortlessly now in our material life and spiritual understanding. Because Jupiter has moved into Taurus (Earth) and Pluto is in Capricorn (Earth), this creates very positive conditions for real economic growth. Though there are always expanding and contracting forces at play in any year, this is certainly a strong factor supporting those areas that are capable of growth, especially those which have read the signs of change and adapted. Spiritually, to the extent the right choices were made in February, the opportunity now is to bring about a real evolution in our moral affirmation of one another. We are willing to seek accommodation with each other as an expression of our understanding for one another.

I would add what I wrote about this during the second passage on October 28:

Jove meets Hades and the archetypes are stirring in your soul. Jupiter rules your Truths and Beliefs; Pluto rules Will and the Power of Transformation. This Plutonian power is part of your Tripartite spiritual potential; and this most precious Triple Gift of Spirit is the fountain-source of you becoming more than your conditioning. These gifts of the Spirit, exemplified and carried by Uranus-Neptune-Pluto, create a quickening through planetary initiation, and offer you a steeper and surer path as you journey in Life-Consciousness-Spirit.

It is has been said, passed down from "mouth to ear", that the real unfoldment of your soul's journey, your real and True Evolution, does not proceed from or originate in the physical plane. It does not come from the cell and its mutations, or from some competition of life forms with each other. The Ancient Teachings affirm that your unfoldment, growth and journey from unconscious spark of the Divine to full Divine Consciousness, comes from, originates in and is driven by Spirit and the unfoldment of your essential nature. All these other agents of change and transformation are derivatives of the power that surges through each and every one of the ones of the One.

Today is the second of the three alignments of Jupiter trine Pluto. The first alignment was in early July, and the last will occur in March of 2012. You are always experiencing these gifts of the Spirit bestowed by your planetary companions. Today's offering is here to re-energize the Immortal Bridge between realms temporal and sublime, between what is and what will always be. That shining arch, like a bridge of light, will burn brighter and span the space between your present principles and truths to those ever-present, ever-resurgent Archetypes which underlie the All.

The present truths that you have come to embrace, that give your life meaning, form and guidance, your Laws of Life, your philosophies, beliefs and religion were forged from a mighty golden chain of experience that connects you with every other one who has walked this path of becoming the becoming. The source or core of all those lessons learned and re-learned are the ever-renewing, ever-resurgent Archetypes of Spirit that have been named by some as the "Collective Unconscious".

These seed-forms are ruled by Pluto which serves to create the boundaries, the spaces of space for Spirit, Mind and Matter. In cycle after cycle the great truths are released and become manifested in the Teachings, Philosophies and Religions that form and guide your journey. But over time those forms becomes rigid, truths become dogma and the Ancient Wisdom becomes obscured as the shadows deepen.

It is at such a time as this that Spirit answers, moving to fill the void by a release of renewed Archetypal meaning. Pluto brings to bear those Seed-Forms which burn away the accumulated dross and reveal again the Spirit behind the form.

And, at the most important turning points, in the darkest of hours, a teacher is always sent forth, an Avatar whose task it is to repair the bridge between heaven and earth. And for a time it is a Golden Age once more...but then you forget, as we have forgotten...

Many look now for a sign, for the Emissary...you look for the turning and seek to find your way out of the darkness...you look for the crossing into the light.

It is here, it is now...

Mercury Turns Retrograde (March 12, 2012)

Oops...have you forgotten something, or someone? Misplaced something, or wondered why you went into this room anyways (it was to get something, or someone, right?)...Yep, you guessed it, there's been a change coming in the last few days, a shift of energies...Your guide "down here" has been slowing down and today goes into "reverse" for the next 3 weeks. That's right, welcome to the first Mercury retrograde of the New Year from March 12 till April 4....

Of course Hermes never "really" goes backwards; he's just passing Earth on his inside orbit and so coming between us and the Sun. Those Mercurial energies are waxing now, but they are turning inwards...towards re-examination, reviews and revisions. Ideally, if you could make it so, you would take the next 3 weeks and go on a retreat, to take an inner journey, into your space for reflection and so use this wonderful shift to better understand you!

But, of course, for many if not all...life goes on! (But do set aside some extra time for reflection). As your seemingly ordinary life unfolds, make sure to be more aware of the pitfalls of Mercury as he does his "Moon Walk". Since everyone is experiencing this reversal, this predisposition to be "inward", you have to remind yourself to pay more attention to all communications, both the transmitting and the receiving. Because your attention to the here and now may not be what it should, you are more likely to make a mistake (assuming too much, not being clear or distracted) so you fail to make your point...and, the receiving end is just as impaired because of the same deficit of attentiveness...

But do make use of this gift to bend your mind back on itself and use your wonderful self-reflective faculty to better know yourself. The first period of Mercury retrograde will be in Aries till March 23. During this passage use this Mercurial Mirror to see how you present yourself to the world around you...how do you appear to others? Are you leaning too far forward in your bearing so that you are over-whelming? Or, are you so pulled back that you pass un-noticed by the world because you are under-whelming...Or maybe, just maybe you've got it "just right", you are in that sweet spot...You are Strong and Sensitive, knowing when to take a stand... and when to yield...so that you walk on Earth with the right amount of presence and your influence upon those who accompany you is beneficent.

Then from March 23 till April 4 Mercury will make a return visit to Pisces, and you will truly need to go deeper, down into the mysteries of your Imagination and reexamine those well-springs of your Faith. Your awareness then will call for more subtlety; you will need to be more open and aware to the less apparent but underlying reality you move through. Whereas Mercury in Aries is all ideals and excitability, Pisces calls for a softer more receptive approach, to the worlds within and without.

To enter these subtle realms, to move into your intuitional knowing, you will need to let go of certainties, to the fixed geometries of your outward reality as you open yourself again to wonders, mysteries and the deep, deep waters from which all life springs...

Remember, as before, the inspirations of Mercury in Pisces will not come in the obvious forms...your higher self, your truer self will not shout or declaim...The gifts will come in that gentle whisper, in the hint of something profound but so familiar too...And then you will know that you have been touched, you have been graced by the mystery that is within you.

Yes, it is going to be an interesting 3 weeks...

All hail Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods who brings you the gifts of Greater Awareness...

The Greater Awareness of You!