Since February, the inner celestial bodies have been taking on the paradigm-busting energies of the Saturn/Uranus opposition. One by one, the Sun, the Moon, Mercury and Venus have challenged Saturn’s rules and met Uranus’ liberating touch. These contacts have reshaped our relationships with ourselves, each other and money, our emotional flow and our thinking. Mars, ruler of our inner drive and actions, is now on the task. He completed his showdown with Saturn last week. This week, he joins Uranus, by conjunction on Wednesday and by declination Thursday. This meeting is a call to action. Whatever happens, it won’t be subtle.
Prepare for movement, likely when you aren’t expecting it, and possibly not in the manner you’re anticipating. Because fog-bound Neptune rules this conjunction, there might not be a clearly visible path between cause and effect, provocation and response or motive and result. Long-simmering resentments, confusion and misunderstanding will steer some events. Some things that fall apart under this conjunction will have already been significantly destabilized, even if you couldn’t see it. In the same way, some of the breakthroughs that occur this week will spring from soil that has been prepared for them, whether you were aware of the groundwork or not.
It’s important to go into each day grounded and with your boundaries intact, so that you are acting in alignment with your own values, priorities and goals and not sponging up someone else’s agenda. Tread softly, too. With Uranus backing Mars, gentle action can have far-reaching effects, like the proverbial flutter of a butterfly’s wing setting off a tsunami on the other side of the globe. Use a defensive driving mindset: Keep your eye on the road and watch out for everyone else on it. Don’t tense up in anticipation, though, and by all means do not hold on tight if something starts to give way. Staying flexible is essential for navigating this week — if not with ease, at least without damage or drama.
The volatility of this week will be invigorating and thrilling for some people, uncomfortable-to-painful for others. A lot’s in the process of breaking loose, breaking apart or breaking open. Every break is, ultimately, a good thing. Whether the experience is easy or uncomfortable depends entirely on your perspective.
Anchor your perspective in the knowledge that your outer life is now reshaping itself to the contours of your inner life. Everything that changes this week reflects that process. Keep in mind, too, the beneficial backdrop to the volatility: the ongoing Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron conjunction, which continues to provide emotional and spiritual healing to those who can receive it. In most manifestations, it is not a loud, attention-getting influence, although the spate of public shootings in the past week has demonstrated what can happen when this trio whips up delusional thinking. For many of us, the conjunction is a conduit to higher guidance and a reassuring, gentle cushion to the volatility that is otherwise in store. Personal healing and forgiveness are highest Wednesday, when the Moon conjoins and the Sun sextiles Neptune and Chiron. On Friday, when Mars semisextiles the pair, we are invited to push ourselves forward in a manner that reflects the maturity into which we have grown.
As the dust begins to settle, Venus goes direct on Friday at the last degree of Pisces, where she has been for less than a week. She reenters Aries next week, on the 24th, and clears the retrograde shadow on May 21st. Her six-week retrograde has invited us to re-examine what we value in relationships, money, possessions and ourselves. It’s almost taken a scorecard to keep track of all the longtime bachelors who’ve done an about-face and married under this influence (not to mention states that have sanctified gay marriage); your attitudes have changed in some way since early March, too. Their evolution is part of the ongoing process of personal and collective growth and change. How convenient that this retrograde should come at this particular time, offering the chance to do some intermediate sweeping and tidying up while we are all undergoing such primal restructuring.
Venus’ retrograde time in Aries triggered issues of pursuit and conquest; her brief return to Pisces has stirred specters of what we have defined and accepted as love in the past and — if you’ve been looking — the sacrifice or cost we were willing to bear. A lot of what has resurfaced in the past six weeks no longer has any resonance in the life you are currently living. If you haven’t paid conscious attention to this process, it may be useful to think about how you have been treating yourself lately and compare that to what you have done before in similar circumstances. The fundamental difference is that you’re taking yourself more seriously now.
You can also, if you’re open to it, do some revisionist history writing on old relationship and money arrangements and see all the players — yourself included — in a different light. Neptune and Chiron are making it possible to see the bigger picture in all these arrangements, to neutralize any lingering resentment or emotional charge and to forgive everyone involved — again, yourself included. You can do this with every person and every memory that has come up in the past six weeks. In fact, it’s helpful to look at each of them as returning specifically for that purpose.
Whether you’ve taken this approach or not, much of the internal clearing has already happened. Some patterns and definitions that no longer fit went out the window when Venus squared Pluto last week, on her way out of Aries; more can fall away after she turns around and moves into her third square with Pluto at the beginning of May. For now, simply take note of the issues that are and have been surfacing inside and out. Engage in some contemplative clearing/forgiving, too, but don’t force any showdowns. As she stations direct, Venus is so close to Mars that they can almost touch — but not yet. They will not actually meet until May, when feminine and masculine energies will merge (and so will desires and drive).
Finally, the week ends with the Sun entering Taurus, where Mercury has paved the way for considered, contemplative living. There will be time aplenty to take in and chew on all the developments of this week. While you’re doing that, feel the spring breeze on your face, inhale the scent of blossoming flowers and wiggle your bare toes in the grass. Enjoy the physicality of this existence. It’s part of why we’re here.
Kathy’s overview of 2009 and Saturn/Uranus talk are now available on CD or in an mp3 from FortunaWorks.com. To join her mailing list, send e-mail to kbiehl@fortunaworks.com.