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Weekly Weather Forecast

by Stephanie Azaria

Significant Planetary Aspects for:

Join Kathy on Tuesday evening, April 13 for her talk “Hot Time: The Astrology of Summer 2010” at The Goddess in Eden, 74 Church St., Montclair, NJ. Info at http://www.thegoddessineden.com. An mp3 of the talk will be available for purchase later in the week.

It’s starting to feel like spring really is here to stay (even with weird temperature drops around the country). This week, each of us is treated to our own personal spring awakening, as Wednesday’s New Moon in Aries ignites and revs our engines. We won’t get much past the starting line, though, before glitches and impediments require attention and old business calls us back. Aries wants to dash ahead, but Mercury in slow and steady Taurus — turning retrograde around midnight Saturday EDT — will make sure we can’t. Nothing happens speedily; practicalities must be chewed and digested first. We’re in for a tug-of-war between pushing forward and pulling back, lasting until Mercury goes direct next month.

It doesn’t have to be frustrating, especially if you keep in mind that every little detail that pops up for addressing is part of the groundwork for your journey and moving you toward your destination. The process is like heading out for a long car trip. When you take your luggage out to the car, you see that you have to move things around in the trunk to make room for your bags. Then you slip behind the wheel and notice how dirty the windshield is, so you hit the washer fluid button and turn on the wipers. Instead of water spraying and clearing the windshield, the wiper blades are smearing the grime across the glass, so you go back into the house and dig around for that old bottle of wiper fluid. Either you find it, refill the fluid and clean the windshields, or you don’t and bring out wet paper towels instead to wipe off the now-smeared dirt. When you get back in the car, you pick up all the papers that are strewn across the passenger seat, so the friend you’re picking up to come with you won’t have to sit on them or move them out of the way. That makes you think of the extra luggage s/he’ll be bringing, so you clear out bags, papers, window scrapers, sports equipment and more from the back seat that have been there for so long that you’d forgotten about them. When you get behind the wheel again, you reach to call your friend to say you’re on the way and realize you left your cell phone and charger plugged into the wall, so back you go into the house to retrieve them. On the way out, it occurs to you that it might be nice to have some snacks in the car. You dig the cooler out from the back of a closet, look in the fridge for fruit (oooh, apples!), put it in a bag and then take a couple of extra plastic bags to use for trash. You make a mental note to pick up more snacks, drinks and ice on the way out of town. You get behind the wheel again and go to put on your sunglasses. They’re inside the house, too, so back you go again. As you pull out of the driveway, the gas gauge catches your eye. It’s low. You meant to fill the tank last night but got distracted, so you head for a pump you know rather than chance the gas prices on the highway. As the tank’s filling, you eyeball your tires and see that one is low. You fish out the pressure gauge, test all the tires and fill them up. In the process you find a nail in one of the tires. You call your friend, say you’re running a little late and head for the tire shop to get the tire plugged. On the way you stop into a grocery store and pick up chips and cookies. While you’re waiting for the tire repair, your mind wanders back to your kitchen and you wonder whether you turned the stove off. You’re already on the trip, you reason, so you rip into a bag of chips and start munching. Hours later, after the tire is repaired, you’ve picked up your friend and you’ve returned to your house another couple of times (prescription medicine didn’t make it into the bag, either), you’re finally underway. At last.

The car trip example is a metaphor for what we’ll be facing now. Exhausting and annoying as each of these backtrackings may be, every little one of them was a prerequisite for the trip — a prerequisite for getting ahead. We’re going to discover foundation pieces that we’ve neglected to think about, as well as ones that we thought we’d already handled. Many will come from the areas of life where Virgo is in your chart. Saturn required work in these areas from September 2008 through October of last year and he’s returned to push us into a clean-up and review through late July. With Saturn briefly back in Virgo, and making an adjustment aspect to the New Moon, some kind of reconciliation is needed between boundary and well-being needs, on the one hand, and your current identity, on the other. You may find yourself updating your appearance (or the words that you use to describe yourself) to match your current job description or how you spend your time on a daily basis. You may drop habits or change your diet or exercise routine to be consistent with the person you see yourself as being. The adjustments shouldn’t be arduous or agonizing. The Aries New Moon is unleashing a fierce surge of motivating, self-starting energy. No one’s going to have to tell you twice (though an outside force may spark the inspiration for adjustments). Uranus has been chipping away at this area since the fall of 2008 as well. Another liberating blast is on the way as Saturn and Uranus gear up for their fourth opposition, and their final one on the Virgo/Pisces axis, on the 25th. For the moment, Uranus is in a growth aspect to the New Moon, inviting us to break free from past ways and step into behaviors and situations that are truer and more supportive of ourselves. For a lengthy discussion of the New Moon, read my report on the site.

There’s one more source of the backwards pull, and that’s Mercury in Taurus, stationing retrograde on Saturday. Mercury, the planet of communication and transportation, is in his slowest mode in Taurus. The sign grounds his high-flying ways and makes him proceed deliberately, and doubly so when he turns retrograde there. He entered the retrograde shadow on the 4th and will not clear it till nearly the end of next month, after stationing direct on May 11. Remember that he’s ruled by Venus, so this makes the usual Merc retrograde admonitions about purchases and big contracts all the more important. That bright shiny object or deal might not have the substance and worth you assume, or it may come with strings you can’t see. Use this time to research concrete and practical information about the journey you’re planning. New information that comes to you during the retrograde may be garbled in transmission. Agreements are dicey because the two sides are likely not operating from the same dictionary and set of assumptions (though this could benefit you if you want to keep the door open to renegotiating later). Travel could take longer than usual. Instead of fighting or squawking at delays and snarls, use them to look even more closely at where you’re going, how you’re getting there and the fine print of any message, offer or agreement. A retrograde Mercury in Taurus can be your friend as much as Saturn in any sign can. What appears to be a delay, a block, a screw-up, a misunderstanding or an impediment is buying you time. Take advantage of it.

Monday: Disruptions in the dream world propel us less than rested into the work week. Still, we’re raring to go, with the Moon entering Aries as the morning kicks in (EDT) and encouraging free agent behavior. Your own impulses are going to rule your day, so you may feel annoyed-to-constrained by other people’s needs and requests and the ground rules of existing relationships. Late morning and mid-evening are the most challenging times.

Tuesday: Pay attention to mental chatter as you awaken. Early morning dreams delivered messages of inspiration and guidance and test drove innovative, freer ways that you could navigate your life. Yesterday’s edginess isn’t over yet, though. Today’s version involves hardball and power plays in communication. They’ll be rumbling just below the surface, if they’re not voiced outright. The atmosphere calms, softens and brightens late afternoon. Consider delaying reaching out to people you value till later in the day, when it should be go more smoothly and be received without drama or suspicion.

Wednesday: The New Moon comes early, at 8:29 AM EDT, so expect a high-energy first half of the day. As you’re out dashing around, don’t be surprised if you stop mid-race and find yourself staring at flowers or clouds, and likely forgetting what you were doing in the first place. The pace and the atmosphere soften and grow gentle mid-afternoon when the Moon sextiles Neptune and goes void until until evening (3:23 PM to 6:55 PM EDT). Time to regroup, to imagine, to rest and let all that fierce and reawakened energy settle in.

Thursday: This is the first of two days with only aspects involving the Moon. We’re in for intensely personal reactions and processing. The early morning hours gird our inner strength and resolve, giving us the backbone to both stand up for and pursue what we want. Daytime communication has a reliable, what-you-see-is-what-you-get quality that may be scarce in a few days, so gather information and schedule important discussions now. Nobody’s really in the mood to compromise, but the substance of these talks could still be practical and useful.

Friday: After post-midnight restlessness, the day settles into more pleasantness than the rest of the week has brought. The challenges will come midmorning (not to obsess or be a control freak) and late evening (not to do anything requiring focus and concrete thought). The daylight hours are quiet, after an early morning Moon/Jupiter sextile, and reverberate with that contact’s good-heartedness. If you feel called to smooth over anything, the other party may well be receptive today. Apart from that, it’s a day to enjoy being alive. (Yes, every day deserves that, but this one has little to interfere, or a welcome change.)

Saturday: Venus is active today and brings relationship, financial and self-worth issues into focus. Some shake your dreams, so this is another morning to note where your mind keeps going as you start the day. Standoffs and standstills crest by early afternoon. If they turn into showdowns, no one is going to be happy, and both sides could suffer enormously. Compromises are not in the cards (or the stars) until mid-afternoon, when agreeability and diplomacy return and suddenly everyone is friends again. Time activities accordingly — and don’t lose sight of the slow grind of Mercury stationing. It’s been palpable for days and will already be engendering misunderstandings and confusion today. He goes retrograde just after midnight EDT.

Sunday: The planetary aspects all occur before the sun gets very high in the sky. This makes for another night of informative dreams. They put us in touch with our higher nature, transmit important, heart-centered messages through dreamland (don’t doubt that you communicate with others during the night) and free us from lingering restraints and inhibitions. We should awaken feeling more kindly disposed to the people in our life and more optimistic and expansive about our own lives. Spread your wings and soar today. The skies will call you back down to earth soon enough.

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