Astrologer Bill Attride

Venus Enters Aquarius (February 1, 2013)

As if Mars moving into Pisces were not enough, the Planetary Lords have another gift for you today...Venus, the Goddess of Beauty and Love moves into Aquarius...and you will find you want nothing more than to form and share your hopes and dreams, to make and live your better tomorrows with your companions and friends...You find your true happiness in being yourself, of being free to be you with your merry band of brothers and sisters.

Venus in Capricorn held to the principle that values are good and true which have stood the tests of time...Those classical tastes and values are timeless, formed by honor and kept in tradition, and they will never fade away...and yet...

Venus takes up the Urn of Aquarius to offer you the healing Waters of Enlightened Awareness...Now Venus sings a different tune while dancing through this Airy sign...your better days are not to be found behind, in some distant golden age. Venus in Aquarius swirls and dances to the delights and many wonders that still lie within and around you too. They are waiting to be unfolded and shared by you and yours...for this is the dawning of a new day...

No, you have not seen the best, nor will you find it by looking to the past...for your future beckons, New Worlds await, and your New Golden Age is waiting for you and your companions...and together you will be the fountain source of brighter tomorrows!

Love is now love that finds delight in being you, precisely because you are with those who only wish for you to be exactly more of that! To be true to oneself and to accord to them this same space of freedom too...This is the unconditional Love of Aquarius.

Be yourself, be free and be amazed...

Then turn and hail the Light as a new Day Dawns.

Mars Enters Pisces (February 1, 2013)

Your Desires have come around, from that ever-renewing Inception point of Aries to this moment of Apotheosis in Pisces, yes from Alpha to Omega you have travelled with Mars on a two-year journey through the Zodiac. As you made your way together, the shining Red one pushed and pulled you towards what you wanted, guided you through the veils of what you seek, all the while lifting you up towards what you aspire to be.

And so it comes down to this, to this final phase of your self-realizations formed by those innumerable self-assertions, and now you have before you what has always been your greatest longing...to be fulfilled, to be complete, to realize the wonder that is you. Just one final step, one last lesson and you will pass beyond and rise above this world of shadows and illusions...at least for a little while.

But what is this lesson? What must you now bring forth from within yourself in order to reach this Promised Land?

All your efforts to this point have been, of necessity, focused upon your need to assert yourself...to strive, to compete and win...all so that you might fulfill your fundamental need which is to Grow. You have made yourself strong, fine-tuned your purposefulness and determination...but now Spirit has one more thing to ask of you, and it is profound....It has all been leading to this:

Now you must learn how to be self-assertive in Selfless Ways.

This has been the whole purpose since your beginning, all those steps and challenges, all those triumphs and defeats, all were there in order to make you both strong and sensitive, to know when to be forceful and when to yield...all to acquire the wisdom so that you might discern how and when to do the one or the other...all in order to find the Middle Way, the royal way of the Spiritual Warrior...to find and walk the one true path of balanced integration.

Mars in Pisces calls for you to be guided by your understanding that all of creation, that every single particle and iota that forms the very vastness of this universe...every one of those is your Brother and Sister too...for the fundamental Truth is that there is but One Spirit, one fundamental energy that binds each and every spark of the Divine to one another.

So Mars in Pisces turns your striving to become more one with that, to devote yourself to fighting for and with Unconditional Love, Empathy and Compassion for all the forms of life that thrill through the Cosmos, that form this Cosmos...for this is your Origin and your Destiny.

Now is the time for sacrifice, to give up the lesser as you honor the greater within and around yourself...

Now is the your time to Make Sacred your daily life, to be strong and sensitive, to be passionately compassionate...

Sacrifice your ego...

Surrender your lower self...

and behold the New World revealed.

Jupiter Turns Direct (January 30, 2013)

I wrote about this turning in my 2013 General Forecast:

Jupiter Direct (January 30, 2013 until November 6-7)

Jupiter, who guides you upon your Path of Understanding, turns direct and you must shift your search for meaning away from your inner pathways of growth to focus upon the realms of life around you. You have revisited, revised and renewed your outlook on life for almost four months now...time to put it out there and build a better world!

Jupiter rules your Principles, Truths and Beliefs. As such, Jupiter is ever-seeking to guide you towards a more inclusive and deeper Understanding about yourself and of your world.

For four months you have been on an inner journey of re-discovery as regards the foundations of what you believe to be true, what shapes your views of yourself and your world and so determines how you relate to the world around you.

Now comes your opportunity to go out again with this deeper understanding and build better pathways of growth and understanding into the world around you.

You have sought the Truth, now it is time to Be that Truth!

Open-minded and curious, you seek the Greater Understanding...

Let Jupiter in Gemini lead you now into a more inclusive experience of yourself and your world...

It is time...to experience your fundamental Truth...

It is time to Grow.

Full Moon in Leo (January 26, 2013)

She is out beyond there again, in the boundless space between you and the Universe. She is the Weaver of Energies, circling around your home here on Earth, sweeping high and low, in and out as she brings you messages from your Starry Companions. Luna has reached her Far-Point again, you see her there, burning brightly in the Heavens, in this Eleventh Full Moon of the Astrological Calendar.

At each New Moon you receive a gift of new Spiritual Inspiration, an infusion that uplifts and guides your journey through the Stars. And, at each Full Moon you receive another gift, a Spiritual Revelation about the relationship between two Great Truths about your journey, Two Truths that may seem to be at odds with one another... but actually each can only exist, thrive and become fulfilled with and through one another.

The Sun is sailing through Aquarius now, and your attentions must be focused upon your Hopes and Dreams, your Brightly beaming future visions of a world that is yet to be. You seek to live in and bring about a world for you and yours, for it is in your Companionships, Fellowships and through your Friends that your better days will dawn.

But it is in those friendships and companies, in joining with your bands of brothers and sisters, that you may sometimes bend too far along this path of belonging, of being part of one like any other, so that you lose your way of being the special one you are...

So Luna rises, burning brightly in Leo, she rises to Light the Way. As always, Spirit moves to fill the Cup of Life, to bring about "The Balance", and what you most need now is to be reminded, to be reassured, that it is right and proper, and most necessary for you to be...Special.

For you are like no other, you are a dazzling, wondrous Spark of the Divine. And as much as you belong to and are part of these Greater Wholes, these Fellowships and Bands, countless collections of sparks in this Universe of Light, you are equally a distinct, special and important one of the ones of the One.

Luna rises now, to remind you of the other side of your story, you must always remember and honor: "This above all: to thine own self be true"**. For if you give too much, surrender too much of you in order to part of your companionships, you will deny your own true self...and you will deny to them too, the benefits that would have come from knowing that truer you.

Luna in Leo urges you to reveal that greater you, to stretch, to reach, to become what you were meant to be...and precisely because you are with your friends, who share what you dream of too, they will thrill to see you as you are, a truly Shining Star in a dazzling company of Stars.

**William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"

Sun Enters Aquarius (January 19, 2013)

Here in the Fourth Turning of the Astrological Year, you have reached the middle passage and you enter the fullness of this final season of the Circle of Life.

The heartbeat of your Starry journey, day after day (and life after life) comes in threes: There is a time for new beginnings, a time to hold and be steadfast, and a time to prepare for what lies ahead. These natural rhythms are what divides the Signs into Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable qualities...it is all part of this wondrous sweeping of Zodiacal energies that form and fashion these seasonal Cycles of Life. They lift you, guide you and inspire you to do what you must do as you seek "The Way"...as you journey as a spark of the Divine, winging your way in Life-Consciousness-Spirit.

You have just spent the last month climbing, up and up, seeking the summit of your Mountain of Meaning. You sought to reach ever higher and go ever onwards, for your eye was on the prize, the promised land of the next higher realm in your experience of Self-Fulfillment and Destiny. This is what you experienced in your time of Capricorn.

(Of course, you must remember, that any and all of these Twelve Energies are working in your life each and every day, as they must. For these are the Twelve-Fold energies that thrill throughout and form the Spiritual-Essences and Substance-Forms that sustain this reality, that are this Reality, that are you).

You must consider now what is the value, to what end were you reaching ever higher. What is it that beckons now beyond this achievement, what is left after you have reached your Plateau of Plenitude? Beyond yourself and your achievements, beyond those rewards and recognitions, you may ask what is this, what yet remains?

To answer this you need to know, what is your journey really all about? It was right and proper to bring yourself to some form of Fulfillment in Capricorn, for it is an Earth sign whose purpose is to make manifest your gifts in those oh so real, substantial and tangible ways...which is, after all, quite the point of your entire Earthly journey.

The Wheel of Life has turned again, and now you enter Aquarius. Energies are shifting now, moving beyond the ordinary and towards the unexpected and exceptional. You have entered upon a different realm, an Airy Realm of Mind and Thought. For here in the land beyond what forms the familiar and the status quo, you are asked to move away from convention and revel in what makes you different and special (and that makes everyone else special too).

For what you have always wished for, dreamed of and now yearn for is before you...you understand the meaning behind your life...it is all about your Individuality. It is quite simple, yet profound, you just want to be "You", to be true to your unique self and to abide in Freedom...

Yes, your passage through Aquarius is about this most fundamental point of your whole journey, which is that you need to become, to keep striving to realize even more truly, what you already are within yourself...a shining spark of the Divine. For everything comes from this, your self-becoming is what drives this story of Creation.

Yet, it is not enough nor possible for you to do this by yourself, for how could your self-realization or freedom be complete if it were not also true for those with whom you travel? For your dreams are their dreams, their fulfillment is yours too...

This is what calls to you now, this realm of brotherhood and sisterhood...it is your life of "All for one and One for all", it is your fellowships and communities, your companions and stalwart band of believers, your friends who are forever.

Your dreams and hopes for a better tomorrow are made of this.

For only together, as dreamers, believers and doers, will you make the New World.

This is your time to dream together...

This is your time to believe together...

This is your time to make a Better World...together.

2013 GENERAL FORECAST - Part 2

OTHER MAJOR ALIGNMENTS and PHENOMENA

I will note and comment upon some of the remaining major astrological movements and alignments for this year, and I will offer more detailed analysis for when they actually occur. I will then examine the alignments that are present this year in the chart of the United States and for President Obama.

Jupiter Direct (January 30, 2013 until November 6-7)

Jupiter, who guides you upon your Path of Understanding, turns direct and you must shift your search for meaning away from your inner pathways of growth to focus upon the realms of life around you. You have revisited, revised and renewed your outlook on life for almost four months now...time to put it out there and build a better world!

Saturn Retrograde (February 18 until July 7)

Saturn turns your attention inwards to consider the nature of Union in your world...You have been delving deeply with Saturn in Scorpio, into how you can overcome your pains of separation and join with one another more completely. Now you need to look within to see what is there, what you hold to, or what holds you back from the deeper experiences you profess to desire. The shadows of the past, your fears about rejection or loss have to be faced and released here within yourself, for only then will you find your joy out there.

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces (February 23 until March 17)

The first of three Mercury retrogrades this year and there is something special...all three retrogrades will take place in one of each of the three Water signs, Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio (in that order). It looks like the universe is bringing you an intensive opportunity to work on your Mind/Feeling integration.

This first retrograde is in Pisces, so it is time to pay particular attention to your dreams and imagination in this one. You need to re-consider what you dream of, what you imagine will be and how to make it so. As usual, many issues in your present day life may be put on hold as you go back to finish something left behind.

Mercury Direct (March 17 until June 26)

You have reconsidered your hopes and dreams for three weeks, now you go forward to bring them into your reality. What was held up or delayed for a time should now be back on track...but you needed that step back to revise and regroup before you could leap ahead.

Pluto Retrograde (April 12 until September 20)

Pluto takes you inwards to re-consider the nature of your will. Before you can forge even deeper meanings between one another, before you can make the magic that comes from the joining of spirits one with another, you need to secure your own sacred space again.

Full Moon Eclipse in Scorpio (April 25)

The five eclipses of the year begin with the Buddha Moon! The ancient teachings say that Buddha was born on, achieved enlightenment under and left his physical body on the Full Moon in the month of Taurus. This Full Moon is about understanding the dynamic relationship you must experience regarding the question of Value. For in your very being you experience this truth, that you are an immortal in a mortal frame. Values are "eternal" (or timeless), yet their physical manifestation is only for a time. The key teaching of the Buddha concerned this way of understanding the journey you must take as a spark of the Divine...that you must learn the way, in fact become the way of Non-Attachment.

Here is a map of where the Eclipse will be visible. It will be passing over Europe, Africa and Asia mostly.

Solar Eclipse in Taurus (May 9)

The first of two Solar Eclipses this year as the Moon crosses the face of the Sun, but because of the Moon's distance from the Earth, it will not completely block the Sun so that there will be a "Ring of Fire" of the Sun's light around the Moon's shadow. This type of alignment is called an annular eclipse (annulus means "bright ring"). This nearly total eclipse will be visible in Northern Australia and the South Pacific and here is a map of its path. Here is an animation showing how the Eclipse will move across the Earth.

The message of the Taurus Solar Eclipse is centered again upon the question of value, but this special New Moon will release a deeper understanding as regards your understanding about  the nature of true value, how it arises, grows and is sustained...The answer, quite simply, is that it is to be found in your experience of your Self. It is this, your "treasure in heaven", that you take with you from life to life, and all the efforts you put in to better yourself today will be there as a gift to yourself in this life and in life after life.

Uranus Square Pluto (May 20)

The first of the two exact alignments these great Lords will make this year. Please refer to my 2012 General Forecast for the overall meaning, and to the first part of this 2013 forecast to see my thoughts about this.

Full Moon Eclipse in Sagittarius (May 24-25)

The second of three Lunar Eclipses moves the topic from Taurus/Scorpio to Gemini/Sagittarius. Here is a map of where the Eclipse will be visible. It will be seen in North and South America and Southwest Europe and Western Africa.

This Lunar Eclipse concerns the relationship between your lower mind and your higher mind, between your inductive and deductive ways of comprehending your world. The Sun in Gemini has been extolling the virtues of your Inductive Mind, and the Full Moon would normally be able to offer a balancing point of view of Deductive Reasoning. But the Earth's shadow is getting in the way, so something in your present assumptions, something in regards to your Truths, Beliefs or Principles is obscuring the message. It is time to challenge yourself and question your assumptions so that you might become less blinded by your self-cast shadows.

Neptune Retrograde (June 6 until November 13)

The Lord of Dreams and Imagination asks you to go within and consider what lies at the heart of your power of creation. It is time for deeper contemplations, you need to meditate and take more of those quiet walks in forests or sanctuaries. It is a time of ego-transcending, true self-seeking acceptance...You need to find a more trans-personal way of believing and being.

Saturn Trine Neptune (June 11)

Saturn is making his second of three passes over Neptune (the first was on October 10, 2012, the final will be part of the Grand Trine in Water in July-August). I discussed the larger significance of this aspect in the first part of the 2013 forecast. Here is what I said about their first alignment in October 2012. Dreaming and Reality-making have aligned here...and it is beautiful!

Jupiter Enters Cancer (June 25 until July 16, 2014)

The Lord of Truth and Principles moves into the sign of Cancer, and your journey of discovery brings you home again to consider the root nature of what you hold to be true. Your steady growth is founded upon starting with a good foundation, and Jupiter in Cancer will help you deepen your experience of being centered upon what matters most. I discussed this in the first part of the 2013 forecast, and I will have more to say in June.

Mercury Retrograde in Cancer (June 26 until July 20)

The second of three Mercury retrogrades in Water, and now it is time to renew your thoughts about home and family. For three weeks Mercury will retrograde through Cancer and you will need to look within to see how securely rooted are the ideas that you hold (or do they have their hold on you?). You need to examine how well you have learned to integrate your thoughts with your feelings...For it is only then that you will communicate with your head and your heart as one...and then your world will listen with wonder and appreciation. As always, present day matters may need put on hold as you go back and tidy up some items left behind.

Saturn Direct (July 7 until March 2, 2014)

Saturn turns Direct in Scorpio and you must face the challenge of forging deeper unions with one another. You have re-examined where your fears regarding this have come from. Now the question put to you is this, do you and do they have the courage to rise above your fears of rejection and loss and take this next chance to join together in more meaningful unions?

Uranus Retrograde (July 17 until December 17)

The Lord of Individuality and Freedom takes you within to consider how you must free yourself from your shadows if you are to be your true self. You often think of Freedom as being all about your experience of relationships, the joys and demands that others bring into your life, of how much you must give of yourself, or give up, of how much you will gain, by joining with one another. But before you can create that greater space of Freedom for you and them, you have to Free yourself from old patterns that reside within yourself, for it is from these that you go out and form those manifested relationship patterns with those around you. Uranus calls upon you here to become more truly you, to become more individuated, to take the next step in lifting up your lower self as you become more attuned to your constant guide and companion, your soul and conscience, your beloved Self.

Jupiter Trine Saturn (July 17, December 12 and May 24, 2014)

The planet of your Meaning (Jupiter) aligns beautifully with the planet of Reality-Making (Saturn). This is one third of the Grand Trine in Water analyzed in the first part of this 2013 Forecast. Two times in twenty years, Jupiter will form up this beautiful aspect with Saturn, which should help you hold to that noble path between being too optimistic or too pessimistic, as you find the royal road, the middle way of reasonable and optimal growth.

Jupiter Trine Neptune (July 17)

Your Principles meet your Dreams in the second of the three alignments in the Grand Trine of Water. This is the second third of the Grand Trine in Water that I analyzed in the first part of this 2013 Forecast. The beliefs you hold with those closest to you, those with whom you share a greater history, those beliefs will be modulated and uplifted by a gentle elicitation...it is Neptune's gift of a deeper experience of compassion. What can be often experienced as that more narrow sense of caring for just one's immediate circle of companionship will become elevated beyond these confines to a concern for the many or for all who journey on this Earth. This is a beautiful alignment, truly heaven-sent, as it fosters Growth through Compassion.

Saturn Trine Neptune (July 19)

The final piece of the Grand Trine in Water, the Lord of Reality aligns with your Imagination. For it is not enough to Dream of a better world, you are here to take your dreams and bring them to life here on Earth. When Saturn makes this alignment, which occurs only two times in about 36 years, you will experience the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, your dreams can really come true. But that may also be true because you may have tempered your hopes through the pragmatic prism of Saturn...you may not reach that perfect world of your dreams, but you can make a better one.

Mercury Direct (July 20 until October 21)

You have reconsidered your experiences of Security, Nurturing and Home...so now you need to act upon those discoveries, it is time to act on your greater understanding and so create and preserve those deeper foundations of your world.

Jupiter Opposition Pluto (August 7, January 31, 2014 and April 20, 2014)

This is the first part of the Grand T-Square of Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto, analyzed in the first part of this 2013 Forecast, and it will be the story for August. It has been building in since the end of July and will "finish" sometime after August 21. But remember, this is only Act I of a three-act drama and the full implications of what you face in August will only be known in 2014.

Jupiter Square Uranus (August 21, February 26, 2014 and April 20, 2014)

This is the "other half" of the Grand T-Square, so perhaps it would be best to see the aspect as forming up in early August, reaching a "maximum" around August 14 but holding forth until this date, and then fading away. As I said above, you will have to deal with this challenge again in early 2014.

Pluto Direct (September 20 until April 14, 2014)

The Lord of Will and Boundaries leads you out from within...you've spent months improving the sacred space of you, of employing your willful insight to remove your fears...now it is time to see if you are ready to join with one another in more meaningful and fulfilling unions.

Full Moon Eclipse in Aries (October 18)

The third Full Moon of 2013 brings a new theme as it moves backward into the sign of Aries. Here is a map of where the eclipse will be visible. It will be seen in most of the North and South America (though not the entire event), Europe and Africa and most of Asia.

The Earth is casting its shadow upon the message of the Aries Full Moon. This Full Moon would normally offer a counterpoint and balance to the current dominant theme of the Sun moving through Libra. But the message is hidden by something in your present circumstances. You would normally need to re-assert yourself a bit more to counter the Libra trend, but perhaps those webs of collusion are making it difficult to parse the "I from the Thou"...

Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio (October 21 until November 10)

The third and final of the three Mercury retrogrades in Water will take you to your depths to consider the nature of your unions. Many plans will be put on hold now, as you should re-consider what you are gaining versus giving up in any venture. The question is are you making the right sacrifice...or are you in fact the sacrifice itself.

Uranus Square Pluto (November 1)

This is the second of two exact alignments these great Lords will make this year. Please refer to my 2012 General Forecast for the overall meaning, and to the first part of this 2013 forecast to see my thoughts about this aspect as it formed and shaped by the Grand Trine of July and Grand T-Square of August.

Solar Eclipse in Scorpio (November 3)

The second of two Solar Eclipses this year, and it is putting on a rather unusual show...in fact it is for this reason named a "Hybrid Eclipse". What is that? It is sort of a total and partial eclipse combined. Here is the scientific analysis. Here is an animation of the eclipse moving across the Earth. It will be at least partially visible in eastern North America and northern South America, and crosses over to western and central Africa by the end.

The Eclipse in Scorpio will more starkly reveal an awesome challenge and opportunity that is to be found in this seeding of meaning. There is no greater struggle and no higher reward than what you will find here...But first you must confront your greatest fears that now will stand revealed to you. For it is always in these darkest hours that you will find your answers...and you will see that from the shadows a presence veiled reveals its wondrous Light.

Jupiter Retrograde (November 6-7 until March 6, 2014)

Jupiter, who ever encourages you grow beyond your former frames of reference, takes you on another inner journey of growth, to explore your beliefs and truths as you listen for those whispers from your higher self. This time he is in Cancer, so you need to reexamine the root beliefs that nurtured your beginnings and may still inform, inspire and guide you now. Ponder a piece of wisdom in this very old saying, "That it is a very good fortune to be born and brought up in a belief...but it is a terrible misfortune to die in that belief."

Mercury Direct (November 10 until February 6, 2014)

The third and final of the three Mercury retrogrades is over. Time to put into motion the purposes and plans that you had to put on hold for the last three weeks. You have cleared the way for deeper, truer Unions and it is time to see how much more you can grow...together.

Neptune Direct (November 13 until June 9, 2014)

The Lord of Faith and Imagination bids you bring your dreams into Reality...You have been travelling upon those inner pathways of Inspiration, but now Neptune will show you the ways in which you can weave those numinous webs of what might be into your Reality.

Jupiter Trine Saturn (December 12 and May 24, 2014)

This is the second of three alignments of these two most important planets and a real blessing for you and yours. See my entry for July 17...

Uranus Direct (December 17 until July 21, 2014)

The Lord of Individuation, of you becoming more truly you, takes you out there to create better spaces of freedom for yourself and your companions. You have spent the last several months freeing yourself from your own patterns of self-denial...Now it is time to go out and experience a truer you, a freer world for you and your friends.

Venus Retrograde in Capricorn (December 21 until January 31, 2014)

The year concludes with the planet of Love and Beauty going retrograde until the end of January. Yes, it is time again to re-consider what you have, what you want and the nature of Love in your life...

Up next will be the analysis of the chart of United States of America and President Obama.

New Moon in Capricorn (January 11, 2013)

It is your first New Moon of the Civil Year, but it is the Tenth Moon in the Astrological Calendar. For know this, the Stars take little notice of your attempts to find order in your world. They dance and weave through eternity, and their melodies and motions form the real foundation for marking "Time" in this Universe.

All human attempts to discern and demarcate the rhythms or life must ultimately bow before this, the Master-Maker, the dancing, whirling Luminous and Eternal Clock of Life. It is these, your constant companions, the Stars and Planets, who will ever light the path as you draw closer and closer to understanding your journey through these spaces of Space.

The New Moon in Capricorn is certainly all about time, after all the planet of Capricorn is Saturn, the ruler or marker of time in your world. At this New Moon, you need to consider this most precious gift, which is your time here on Earth. The questions before you now are quite simple but most profound...Have you made the most of the time that is allotted to you, "Have you done your Duty, are you living Responsibly, and when will you ever experience true Fulfillment?"

The Moon has slipped between you and your Sun, it is her time of darkness now and you cannot see her. She has come around again, to fulfill her mission and purpose, which is to weave this web of energies that come to you from your Starry Companions, she gathers them, brings them together and bestows them here for you upon the Earth. Today, the Moon and the Sun have come together to offer you a new dispensation of Spiritual Hope, a gentle reminder to help lift you up on your journey of discovery and self-realization.

For this is the message behind this release of potent spiritual inspiration, this is the gift of the Sun and Moon to you now, here at this Tenth Hour of Life. These Lights of your Life align to remind you to focus upon the one sacred point...

That you must consider to what end, what is the purpose of your life. They remind you that you must take yourself seriously, that you need to truly understand what you are made for and capable of...and then to simply go forth and do it!

For this is why you journey here, this is what time on Earth is for.

You are here to become a Master...and you path is Self-Mastery.

You are here to be Fulfilled...and your path is Self-Fulfillment.

You are here to be Responsible...and your path is to take Care of one another.

It is your time to be a Star...

Venus Enters Capricorn (January 8, 2013)

To Love is to Care...and to be Careful too!

Aphrodite slips into the Sign of Responsibility and you need to look within and around yourself too as you consider what this means for your experience of value, beauty and love.

Venus in Capricorn reaches for Love, and she will take this experience as she should, she will take it very, very seriously. For there is nothing more important to your life journey, nothing at all...there is nothing more important than to love yourself and to love one another too.

For three weeks with Venus in Sagittarius, you have explored worlds with one another, extending your range of sensibility and taste. It was a time to find your joy in the moment of discovery, and find again what truly makes you, you.

Now you need to take those ideals, visions and truths, you must bring them down to Earth and learn to live by them too. It is not enough now to say that, "I love you", no that just will not do. You must show that you truly mean it by demonstrating it too.

Venus is in Earth, and you must make this Real, you must live your live of value, beauty and love in tangible, delectable and sensual ways...it is time to taste and touch and look upon one another...and smile.

You must honor the great traditions, whose forms carry well-earned meanings, because they stand as testament of a life that is true. You must stand for what is good and noble in yourself as you honor one another too.

You must be faithful, respectful and responsible for one another...

For this is your Holy of Holies...This is the core of you.

This is about Love.

2013 GENERAL FORECAST - Part 1

Major Phenomena

Introduction

Everything Changes...Nothing Changes

The General Outlook for 2013 continues to resound with the larger elements that arrived upon the world stage in 2012, and they are still bearing their messages and greater influences into this year too. Yet within the overall panorama of the planetary dance, there are more than hints and whispers of new themes and delightful melodies, perhaps a quickening brush of spiritual meanings that bring with them a renewal and a promise of brighter hopes and dreams.

I will do a more extensive analysis for each Astrological event when they occur. For this General Forecast I will attempt to give a brief overview as to how the year's major events may shape our lives and fortunes.

The fundamental theme driving the Astrological story this decade continues to march on as Uranus in Aries continues to square Pluto in Capricorn in 2013. This transformational release of spiritual potency will continue into the following years of 2014 and 2015, and I devoted most of last year's general forecast to this ongoing aspect and you can read about that here.

In this General Forecast for 2013, I will consider this multi-year alignment in terms of what another planet's contact will contribute during this year, the great Lord Jupiter will add another melody to this multi-year spiritual quickening in August, (and twice more again in the first quarter of 2014).

This challenging elicitation will come right after the other major alignment for the year arrives in July, in fact this July harmonic will carry over and be woven into Jupiter's alignment in August. For it will be in July that the world receives a beautiful, magical alignment of three great planets with one another...Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune forming a Grand Trine in the element of Water, and their wondrous power will still be in force as you move through the August challenge and epiphany.

For the first time in a number of years, there will be no great shifts of Astrological sign positions for the planets in 2013: Pluto will remain in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, Uranus in Aries and Saturn in Scorpio. Jupiter, circling through the zodiac in about 12 years, will move from Gemini to Cancer in late June. Mars will move from Aquarius all the way to Libra. The outer planets will turn retrograde and direct as usual, there will be three Mercury retrograde periods as usual, in late February into March, late June into July, and October into November (and all of them will occur in Water Signs), and Venus will begin her retrograde right as the year concludes. There will be two Solar Eclipses and three Lunar Eclipses this year in April, May, October and November.

2013 will not be an unremarkable year, one could hardly call it that as we experience the awesome spectacle of the Uranus/Pluto transformations sweeping across the world, yet you and your world may have some time offered here to pause, to get your bearings again before the tempo of change becomes more thrilling in 2014 and beyond.

 

Uranus and Pluto Square, May 20 and November 1

The fundamental transformational influence of this decade continues to weave its way into your life as Uranus in Aries continues to form a waxing square to Pluto in Capricorn in 2013 (and on into 2014 and 2015). The dates above are merely when the aspect is exact, but the influence that it bears continues throughout all the year. Having already laid out the influence this aspect has brought into focus in the overview for 2012, I thought it would be best to describe the modulation of this aspect by a third planet this summer and in the first part of 2014.

Uranus is in the first Cardinal Sign of Aries while Pluto is in the last Cardinal Sign of Capricorn. Now the biggest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter, slips into the second Cardinal Sign of Cancer in late June 2013. During the month of July, Jupiter will form up with Uranus and Pluto creating an aspect in August known as a T-Square, wherein three planets form up into one opposition bracketed by two squares, one on either side of the opposition. In this alignment, there will be Uranus square Pluto, while Jupiter moves in to square Uranus and at the same time oppose Pluto. This is a most powerful, compelling and transformational aspect indeed!

The principle articulated by Uranus and Pluto concerns your constantly self-unfolding, self-realizing efforts to achieve a balance between Freedom and Sacred Boundaries. Uranus declaims the urgent need to liberate the spirit into ever-widening reaches of self-determination, challenging the status quo and static structures that formerly fulfilled but now deny individuality. Pluto holds the position of equal necessity to use the Will to define and protect the sacred space you reside within, and hopefully to honor those around you too, to preserve the Sacred Spaces of spirit within which all reside, and from and through which Spirit seeks the ever-unfolding, self-realization (freedom) of each individuality.

But if pushed too far, if Uranus gains too much for itself then there is the danger of unbridled freedom tipping into anarchy where all structures are overthrown but may leave no clear path toward true self-restraint, tolerance and love of one another. If Pluto overwhelms, then all will be bound to the greatest Will, and there will be no space for Freedom or Sacredness whatsoever. So these two Lords must be bound and balanced by one another, each finding their true melody in harmony with one another...and perhaps, just perhaps, here is where the great Lord Jupiter may lend a hand...or could tip the balance the other way, it really is a choice for each and every soul to make.

During the month of August, standing betwixt the two great passes of Uranus and Pluto with one another, Jupiter will throw his weight into the great decisions that face one and all, and you will see how the world and you will choose to turn towards greater integration or not.

 

The Great Cardinal T-Square, Uranus, Pluto and Jupiter August 7-21, 2013

In the month of August, coming between the two exact alignments of Uranus and Pluto in 2013, Jupiter will bring to bear a message from the Foundation-Source, the ever-renewing wellspring of life that flows from the sign of Cancer. Jupiter ruling the Principles, Truths and Beliefs that give and form the meanings of your life journey, that form the steady guide for your self-unfoldment and purposeful growth. Jupiter is offering this spiritual message from the heart, from the source, from the roots of your life. For as you struggle to find your way between Uranus and Pluto, between Freedom and Order, between self-assertion and self-sacrifice, you will need this cooling, calming and refreshing reminder of what you stand upon, from whence you have come and what holds you true to one another.

Jupiter in Cancer serves to restore and renew your feelings of security that originate in your most intimate and profound experience that you are connected or part of something greater than just yourself. As you grow and develop, in life after life, you will find your own true center by being and belonging with one another. It will usually begin in your affections and bonds experienced in your immediate family group, and it will slowly and increasingly extend itself in any life, (and over many lifetimes, in life after life), into your ever-unfolding expansion of consciousness and spiritual connectedness.

This sense of belonging, of rootedness and security, expands from your immediate family outward to your village, and then perhaps it may move out further to a local area of several communities. Then it continues to grow outward even further in your belonging to some grouping perhaps grounded in your identity with an ethnic group, and then perhaps into some greater grouping of many ethnicities. Eventually you find an even larger sense of identity and meaning within an ever more complex culture and society, until you finally experience your profound familiarity with all who journey in the family known as "human".

This fundamental spiritual truth of connectedness will finally blossom forth, as you reach the "promised land", the profound spiritual epiphany of understanding that all life is one, all beings are one with one another, that everything in this cosmos is a spark of the one Great Spirit in whom we live and love and find our true being.

As Jupiter forms its Square and Opposition, it will bring to bear these influences upon the dynamic struggle of Uranus and Pluto. The challenge for every person and for all groupings of people will be to hold to the highest levels of inspiration that Jupiter can provide here, reminding one and all of their common bonds and interests, eliciting a desire for greater inclusiveness and generating greater considerations for the well-being of one another. If they can do this, then the struggles of Uranus with Pluto can be modulated and even mitigated by finding that deeper center where all can join together, founded upon these shared feelings of belonging.

With Jupiter's influence the fervent drive for freedom by Uranus can be soothed, with a gentle reminder that as much as you must assert and be freer yourself you must equally acknowledge your need to care for one another too. The Plutonian drive to create, maintain and extend your own sacred space must be equally balanced by the consideration you show for the sacred space of one and all.  

But there is also the very real possibility of individuals and groups reacting in a more parochial way to this challenge, and out of fear-formed echoes of their past be steered by the emotional ties of Jupiter in Cancer to react in more exclusive or defensive ways. They will act more narrowly, and identify with whom they belong, whether family, tribe or culture by building walls not bridges and so create an even greater gulf between "us versus them". Then this opportunity for growth and self-transcendence could be lost in those ego-driven fears that have echoed throughout other historical periods faced with similar demands for self-transformation.

The challenge will be laid down, either to rise up to a higher understanding and conduct with one another, to make some mutual sacrifice and unite...or to face the divide within and between us by refusing to join in a greater whole, to give into fear and so increase those separations from one another. And this fear-based failing would most certainly quicken the descent to a more difficult destiny for one and all. The choice will be there, and each must decide...but there is hope...

Yes, it is from Jupiter's meanings as modulated by the Sign of Cancer that you can find the first of three offerings to help you navigate the year ahead. But there is much to be hoped for here, because Jupiter is but one part of a gift of inspiration and meaning that comes within a three-fold blessing from your Starry companions this year. For what Jupiter is anchoring and carrying forward to you in August is the meaning and message of the other great alignment this year, and which will most thankfully still be in force during Jupiter's August alignments with Uranus and Pluto...it is the radiant beauty of the year, the Grand Trine in Water of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune.

The Grand Water Trine, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune July 17-19, 2013

We can forget as we go about our busy lives "down here", we can forget how magical and how full of meaning were the patterns discerned by our ancestors. How they marveled at what stood revealed in this great pageantry that sweeps before us every day and night by our Starry company, those constant companions who dance and form beautiful, intricate and meaningful patterns all around us. Yes, we can miss the signs and portents because we do not see them or even look for them anymore, but they are there...these Guardians of Life continue their wondrous weaving, helping us to understand our great unfolding journey through the spaces of space, our walk among stars.

Sometimes these planetary patterns are harder to discern, and their true significance and meaning even more hidden from you. But this mid-summer alignment of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune will, even if not seen, be felt by many...it will be beautiful to behold and its message is sweet and deep.

The aspects between planets, formed by their angular separation from one another, can be understood by dividing the Circle of Life by a particular number. The division of the Circle, which is 360 degrees in circumference, by the number 2 creates the opposition of 180 degrees. The division by the number 4 creates the square aspect of 90 degrees. And for our purposes this July, the division of the Circle of Life by the number 3 forms the Trine aspect of 120 degrees.

Whenever three planets line up equally spaced from one another, it is called a Grand Trine because the pattern is formed by dividing the circle of space around you into three equal portions, and finding that at each dividing point there stands a planet equally distant from the other two along the circle. This division by three resonates with a harmonic that represents a poised balance of energies that are being focused through three distinct avatars, in this case by Jupiter in Cancer and Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces. The Grand Trine of July is all about the Meaning and Power of the element of Water. It is through these three Avatars in Water that you will receive inspiration to help you walk your path of destiny in this time of great and transformational change.

Having already observed the contribution of Jupiter, let us turn our attention to the other two Lords, and then turn and see how all three avatars will combine and contribute to a greater influence too.

The message of Saturn in Scorpio resonates with the strength, power and depth of feeling that abides in the experience of Union. For as much as Jupiter in Cancer upholds the truth of finding your connection to one another by looking to the past, to what you and all around you have come through and from, Saturn in Scorpio holds out the necessity of dealing with your ever-resurgent need, your yearning necessity to cross the divide that seemingly separates you from one another and so find your greater strength in joining together in your sacred unions. For when two or more are gathered together, united in a common purpose for which each has made a rightful sacrifice, it is from such acts that the magic and power of spiritual growth is in fact realized and released. For it is not enough to remember and honor from where you came, it is equally important to work together, to forge deeper understandings, to share in the joys and burdens of life and so continue to walk this spiritual path of your self-becoming, self-unfoldment...together.

The message of Neptune in Pisces, like bells pealing in a dew kissed morning, thrill with the third and final form of Water-Feeling, which is that numinous force that resides within each particle of this creation, providing the impetus that inspirits the lives of all who journey within this cosmos. The creative force that is behind all of the phenomena in this universe is known by many names. For many it is called Faith, some would say it is their Dreams or the power of the Imagination, but none can truly capture the mystery behind what flows through each and every being, that leads them out from within, as they unfold as the sparks of the Divine, these self-becomings who ever strive to grow, to become something more.

For it is this feeling that binds all as one and one to the All, and that leads all out so as to grow beyond what they have so far created, to walk the pathways of light and love outward into the spaces of space, out upon their wondrous, spiraling journey. It is this Great Journey which will eventually bring them back to return as something more, having become so much more than what they were, when they return home again.

For as much as Jupiter in Cancer will provide you with your foundation of feeling, and Saturn in Scorpio will teach you about the courage you have within you to reach out and join with one another, it is Neptune in Pisces who completes your circle of life, Neptune brings it all together by singing to you of your ever-renascent power, forged in your beginning by your nature as a spark of the Divine and that holds you as one of countless creators who need but dream of a better world...and it will be so.

For this is how the Universe came to be and continues to become, because your Spirit is the very essence of it all, the power behind your Imagination, Dreams and Faith...The Power of your Becoming, The Power of your Self.

Together these three, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune can show you once again that you are the maker, you are the Creator of what you face now. That you can feel more truly the roots that hold you all together, that you can feel the greater joy that comes from joining with one another, and that you can love and create a better world by believing and dreaming for one another.  

Yes, this will be a year to remember, and quite a summer indeed. The energies delineated above will be building in towards the end of June, growing through July and climaxing in August. The continuing challenge laid down to you by Uranus and Pluto may be somewhat eased by these spiritual emanations that come from this grand alignment of Planetary Lords, and equally and most challenging activated by the T-Square formed by Jupiter too.

There is much to be hoped for here. There is the hope offered in the Grand Trine that perhaps the things which divide the many from one another will be surpassed by this greater understanding of our mutual need to sacrifice for the greater good of one another.

Let us hope, may we dream...and it shall be...