As I write this column, workers are ripping all the shingles off my roof and preparing to install new tiles and skylights. The activity mirrors what is going on for so many of us now. After the summers’ eclipses, we have a new connection to spirit and our higher selves. We have a new and brighter perspective on our lives. The sun is shining in, and our individual Suns are shining more brightly, too.
Some dismantling and refurbishing does remain to be done. Last week, we wrapped our minds and conversations around practicalities that put some situations to rest and invited in new ones. This week, a lot more happens than talk. The next phase begins in earnest, and there’s no soft launch. The air crackles with dynamic energy all week. Your mind will gather and gain much information, but it doesn’t have to steer or strategize or scheme anything. In fact, it shouldn’t do any of that. By this point your mind should be part of an integrated team and no longer the sole or driving force in your guidance system. A very clear line has developed between what is coming along with you from this point forward and what isn’t. Your mind has already completed the critical task of recognizing the existence of the line. It has even identified some of elements that are falling on one side of the line or the other. Don’t worry about categorizing everything else. The sorting will happen piece by piece, at appropriate moments, and probably with every aspect of your being erupting into a “yes!” or “goodbye!” when the time comes. Just keep your priorities — which is to say, your passions — in focus and lead with your heart.
Awareness of your priorities should come easily. Mercury and Venus contact Saturn this week, and developments with long-term ramifications and commitments occur. Mercury confers directly with him on Monday and serious talk ensues. There are details and practicalities to work out from saying yes to yourself. Expect conversations and messages to involve shouldering appropriate obligations, boundary setting, committing to personal well-being, taking responsibility for yourself and leaving others to manage their own business. Mercury’s in charge of this conversation, since he rules Virgo, the sign of Saturn’s residence, so discernment and nonemotional analysis are on tap for everyone. If you hear a “no,” consider how dedicated you are to the subject involved. And if you run into a nitpicker, check your boundaries — and also the dividing line between past and present. The conversations set the stage for Venus’ follow-up on Wednesday. The clearer you are on Monday, the more obvious the opportunities on Wednesday for grounding and bringing your concepts into physical being, particularly where warm hearts and cold cash are involved.
Despite the air of permanence and commitment, many aspects of Monday’s conversations evolve in an ongoing manner. More will be revealed throughout the week, as Mercury stares Uranus down on Monday (by declination) and Friday (by degree). Be open to revelations and new information that blow your frame of reference open. Tuesday is highly active in the breakthrough department as well. The Sun makes an adjustment aspect to Uranus and we are awakened into the need to choose one direction or another. Mars squares Uranus the same day and walls explode. Bridges can, too. It’s a Humpty Dumpty moment. Whatever shatters in your thinking, in your communications and in your greater connections may never be put back together. Drive with extreme caution. Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye under this influence, so put down that cell phone and concentrate on the road, please. The changes are good, ultimately (yes, possibly any vehicular damage and enforced down time, odd as that sounds), and facilitate emotional and financial breakthroughs by the time Venus trines Uranus on Sunday. If nothing else, more effortless sorting will occur, jettisoning some situations and depositing others on your side of the dividing line.
The Aquarian triple conjunction gets a lot of visitors this week, too. The Sun, Mars, Mercury and Venus (in that order) all contact Neptune. The Sun’s opposition to the planet of transcendence on Monday provides the distance for us to perceive our connection to spirit. Treating yourself with love and compassion would be an appropriate response. If you’ve been fooling or not being honest with yourself, the distance could show that up, too. Mars’ Monday trine to Neptune facilitates right action and pushing dreams forward. Mercury and Venus make adjustment aspects to him on Thursday and Saturday. Finetuning thoughts and words and making conscious choices before speaking may be in order; so may a recalibration of desires. The higher octave of love is the path to follow, in either situation.
More crossroads requiring choices are in store this week. Mercury and Venus each make an adjustment aspect to Jupiter on Monday and Tuesday. Look on Monday for the path that expands your thinking, on Tuesday for the one that expands your heart or opens you to greater expression of love. Jupiter and Saturn hit a crossroads on Tuesday, too. The supersizing god is the first of the retrograding Aquarian triple conjunction to contact Saturn this way. Their contact may make choices more aggrandized or dramatic; they may involve groups of people and possibly leaving one group behind. Cast your lot with your own well-being, even if that means acting more outrageously and extravagantly than you have allowed yourself before. If you act from your heart and with integrity, other people’s reactions are not your responsibility and are none of your business.
Mercury and Venus also make adjustment aspects this week to Chiron (on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively). A shift in thinking and in definition of values, even if tiny, makes it possible for you to relegate a longstanding thorn in your side to the past. The history and the so-called facts may still exist, but your relationship to them can change for the good. At each of these crossroads, watch for that dividing line to light up again. Don’t try to force anything to one side or another; choose according to your new vision of life and watch how things fall.
Much begins to lock in after Thursday, which brings the first New Moon since the eclipses. The New Moon in Leo coincides with the Sun’s last few days in that sign for this year. We now move firmly into the next stage of life. It is time to be you, absolutely, unequivocally and passionately. It is time to let your light shine, to express your unique essence and share it with the rest of the world. It is time to pursue your life’s purpose and do the things you came here to do, now, not some far off day in the future, not when you have saved up enough money to chance it, not when you have the rest of your life sorted out, but now. Now. This is one New Moon that warrants making the effort to contemplate and set intentions, because they will influence the next long stretch of your life — the next year for certain, and to an extent the next 18-19 years as well. Not to mention that this week’s lineup treats your intentions to a dose of cosmic Miracle-Gro. The Sun and the Moon are in a growth aspect to both Mercury and Mars, which makes it the most natural thing in the world to walk your talk. Talk as if, act as if and before you know it, whatever the “as if” is will be. Concentrate on the essence, not the specifics, of everything that’s on your side of that dividing line. Bask in the possibility of being all that you can be. Sunday afternoon, the Sun slides into Virgo and begins the approach to his meeting with Saturn. We’ll have a month of being more self-evaluating, discriminating and mentally oriented. All the more reason to enjoy the last week of letting your inner child run wild and free. For more on the New Moon, report my report on the site.
One more big shift occurs this week: The Moon’s Nodes move from the Leo/Aquarius axis to the Cancer/Capricorn. They will occupy these signs for roughly the next year and a half, slightly longer than the Cancer/Capricorn eclipse cycle that rebooted in July. The North Node, representing our collective direction is at the Capricorn end; the South Node, representing what we are moving away from, is in Cancer. This summer’s eclipses highlighted the necessity of each of us taking responsibility for our own nurturing and emotional security. The nodal shift will further rivet our attention to issues of home, family and security, and, above all, individual responsibility.
Monday: Lots happens in the sky today, almost as much as took place over all last week. Seize the opportunity to push yourself forward and, by day’s end, it will be as if unseen hands are guiding your progress. Watch, too, for a fresh perspective on yourself and the inner journey you have been on since spring. Against this dynamic backdrop, messages and communications take place that are sober, important and consequential. Structures start clicking into place to reflect your inner changes and commitment to yourself.
Tuesday: This is a day when things break, shatter or implode. Do not apply the full brunt of your force to any situation. A tiny ping on a metaphoric chisel will hit the weak point exactly. Ask for assistance in breaking through them; welcome the removal of any that takes you by surprise. Above all, stay alert, especially in transit. Eyes on the road, cell phones and PDAs out of reach.
Wednesday: A doorway opens to stabilizing, grounding or manifesting a relationship or money matter to your benefit, but you have to do the work. Some adjustments are in order, too: in your thinking about your wounded past, your openness to abundance and receiving (more, more, more!), and your circle of friends. Attitudes, situations and people fall naturally on one side of the dividing line or the other.
Thursday: A new dawn, a New Moon, a new phase of life. No more focusing on, processing and releasing the past; today belongs to your future. This summer has reminded you who you really are and what makes you feel passionate, joyous and alive. Use that understanding to set your intentions for the next month and beyond. Don’t limit what can come to you with specifics and details. Identify the quality of what you want to experience, then double it. And even double it again.
Friday: The cosmic optometrist delivers new lenses for your vision today, and everything takes on a new sharpness and contrast. Watch for the general mood to turn serious as the Moon’s Nodes shift into Capricorn and Cancer. They’re setting the tone for the next year and a half. Late evening, everyone is processing Saturn’s contacts this week with Mercury and Venus. Some people will experience a sense of emotional stabilizing and security. Others will feel deprived and isolated. Remember who’s in charge: You.
Saturday: The Moon squares Mars just before 8 AM EDT and goes void of course for most of the morning. You could spring out of bed restless or irritated or compelled to do something, anything and then feel like you’re floating in molasses for hours, unable to discharge the energy. Let it flow out of you and give yourself permission to not be consciously productive. Whatever quiet activity you fall into, your being will be doing some more sorting. You’re at a crossroads involving what you value, and particularly how much you value yourself. Take the direction with the greater return. New horizons appear by nightfall. Breakthroughs, excitement and fresh air fill the evening. Embrace the new.
Sunday:The week’s discussions and adjustments and shifts and insights culminate in your sinking deeper and more comfortably into your own skin. You’re connecting to your own power and tapping into a force far greater than your conscious will. Explore and use it today.
An mp3 is now available at FortunaWorks.com of Kathy’s teletalk taking the eclipses through the signs, from last year through next. Her site also has podcasts, other mp3s, a discussion forum and more on the eclipses, the Aquarius/Pisces traveling party and the Saturn/Uranus opposition. To join her mailing list, send e-mail to kbiehl@fortunaworks.com.