Forecast for Friday 1 April 2011

Friday 1 April 2011

~Inward Profundity Prepares a New Cycle~

As pointed out yesterday, this is the second day of the moon being void-of-course, so I refer you to that report for advice.

Yes, more than the usual number of Fools may be apparent today! If you are one, laugh at yourself and carry on.

A bit of advice I did not give yesterday: When the moon is void, as yesterday and today, it can be a good time to get rid of things---throw them out or if possible give them to someone who could use them. I tried that this morning with small success, sorting through possessions and putting them in boxes: "Save," "Maybe Out," and "Probably Out." Not enough in the "probably out" yet.

Sometimes these are good laundry or cleaning days also.

At or near home, or in the community, you may be leading children or younger people. They appreciate your direct honesty. Children see through fakery. They also appreciate the exhilaration of freedom when something fresh is presented to them, and in that case if it is "fakery" they don't mind because they know it is a game. Still, they and you are serious and trying to work your ways through labyrinthine concerns in one way or another---with a sense of inadequacy but not necessarily abashment.

Someone might be concerned that you seem duplicitous, or spreading your affections so thin that he or she cannot depend on you. However, they also sense that you will return---you are off on one of your circuitous absences, perhaps. You may feel the same about someone else. The older and younger seem to be finding solace in each other. Someone interesting to you may seem to be eating too much or too lazy.

Mysterious factors are okay while the Part of Fortune is in the last, twelfth, sector before the New Moon. Also, extra rest, so that the "too lazy" above is okay if it is you rather than someone else! (The New Moon comes on Sunday morning.)

Egoism and vanity in people is pretty much normal, although it tends to decrease with maturity. It might be annoyingly evident while Mars conjoins Uranus, although this is properly a desire for freedom from restrictions. People have to shape themselves in accord with their own ideals. In doing that they sometimes encounter opposition from those who don't appreciate or understand those subjective ideals. (This is sadly true in the case of criminals, or those who have not been able to make their own ideals one with the ideals of humanity.)

The connection of "secret enemies" with the 12th house is evident right now in the case of at least one defector from Qaddafi. He is saying, in effect, that the man to whom he was loyal was his secret enemy. Likewise of course Qaddafi's opinion of him. You may feel betrayed by at least one friend. However, this could be totally temporary, one of the ups and downs of friendship and relationship.

Deeper interests and studies are favored. Profound secrets are revealed to the one who pursues them, while Venus in Pisces sextiles Pluto in Capricorn. This might also be material prosperity or at least a feeling of security in that regard.

You may realize suddenly that you have been unfaithful, inwardly or outwardly, to ideals---perhaps religious---which have inspired you in the past, so that your conscience brings you up short. Then is the time to reaffirm your faith or allegiance. It is better of course not to make your faith in the Invisible dependent on outward occurrences, as do those who "bargain with God." He is the immutable and utterly dependable.

{Friday} ~Inward Profundity Prepares a New Cycle~

Cosmic Piper

Thursday 31 March 2011

~Utter Patience and Faith~

We discussed Mercury Retrograde yesterday so I will refer you to that report.

I quote from Wednesday's New York Times:

Japan’s Confidence Slips in Nuclear Crisis

By KEN BELSON and HIROKO TABUCHI

The flow of bad news has undermined optimistic statements by officials.

Pro-Qaddafi Forces Push Rebels Into Chaotic Retreat

By C.J. CHIVERS and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK 11 minutes ago

The Libyan rebels continued their eastward retreat on Wednesday, fleeing before the loyalists’ shelling and missile attacks.

This is the kind of "retreat" and "confusion" stuff you can expect during the next three weeks especially. It is not that Mercury Retrograde is evil but that it requires readjustments. Things which have gotten out of hand need to be corrected somehow. This doesn't seem like fun, yet is necessary. The word "Chaotic" above, plus "Confidence Slips," just about sum up the situation. So however this applies to your life, you have been given a major clue as to how to handle it.

All this applies especially to today (Thursday) and Friday, because the moon will be void of course both days. That is highly unusual. The void-of-course times ordinarily last only a few hours. The last aspect of the moon while it is in Pisces occurs Thursday at 6:45a PT | 9:45a ET | 1:45p UT and so the moon will be void-of-course from then until it enters Aries on Saturday at 4:17a PT | 7:17a ET | 11:17a UT. That is almost two whole days. Beware of utter confusion! You may feel that "nothing is working" and that your plans are all on hold. I would recommend sticking to (a) basic things with which you are thoroughly familiar, ordinary necessities; (b) things you have to do which are ordinary but have been postponed, such as clean-up and organization of possessions; (c) spiritual prayer and meditation which are always good and can give you inner focus and strength at times like these. If you do taxes, for example, okay, but please don't hit the final online "submit" button or put the forms in the mail until Saturday or later so you can re-check everything and make sure it is right. It is all too easy to make mistakes at these times.

Being nice to people will be good today (Thursday) while the moon is in Pisces; there is a universal feeling of good will at such times. Combined with what has been said above, you can see that people will need and appreciate that good will more than usual. Sometimes my prayer to G*d is simply, "Thank you for good people," because what would we do without them? I mean janitors, secretaries, mechanics, and minimum-wage workers, among others.

Also, we need leaders, however imperfect they almost inevitably have to be. The sun conjoined to Jupiter in Aries suggests that some leaders are coming into their own. Obviously one is needed in Libya, for example; maybe something is brewing. Obama's Libya speech was excellent, although I do not know whether or not his remedies for the situation will really work. He laid down a lot of solid principles which might, or perhaps ought to, determine international intervention.

Nevertheless there was a tinge of American nationalism in his speech, understandable in a man facing re-election in little more than a year, but disturbing in that he gave France and the UK little credit for their leadership in the Libya situation and seemed to claim that the U.S. was the leader. A disinterested view would suggest otherwise.

Facing a void-of-course day, let's not be tough on ourselves. Maybe we need time to relax in a natural setting. Things which seem impossible now might be postponed. That is not always a sin. Reading, or observing nature passively, could restore the soul and spirit. It is invigorating to be a part of nature, at times, rather than an administrator of her potencies. That is to participate in Gaia's dance of life. It does not preclude gaining from nature, as a responsible kindly husbandman. We approach a time when our balance with her will be happier.

Precise, aspiring intelligence is paramount within you, no matter what tangles you face outwardly.
So you can be strong in your focus even if flexible in your approach (or even dilatory when that is good ([previous paragraph]). Aren't you happy that something you decided in the past few weeks is still a solid choice? Your discernment showed it to you and you can hold to it no matter how many outer details try to sway you.

Mars approaching Uranus is a signal that some will be obstreperous, angrily determined to get their way. During the two void-of-course days (today and Friday) some such individual could fly off the handle or react in a way which requires others to control him.

Good things are shaping up, so it would be a mistake to jump into something totally new. Almost demonic forces might tempt you toward disastrous thinking or planning. Taking your time is the best course. You can discipline yourself to attend to simple things. That will strengthen you for bigger ones at another time. The targets at which you aim may be hidden for now but will reappear and meanwhile you are resting, recuperating, and developing plans silently while attending to safe basics.

{Thursday} ~Utter Patience and Faith~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 30 March 2011

Wednesday 30 March 2011

~Inevitably Into the Socially Spiritual~

For those of you unacquainted with the ins and outs of the Mercury Retrograde period, which begins Wednesday afternoon (I will give the exact time later in this report), let me recount a few things which happened to me over the past few days. They seem trivial but are clues to what you may be seeing around you in your life and others': (These are happening before the official retrograde period because the Dark Hermetic Epoch of which I have been telling you for ten days or more begins before and extends after the retrograde period by a couple of weeks. The Retrograde period ends April 23; the Dark Epoch May 11):

1. The back of the chair I use to write these reports, in a common room, started falling off a few days ago; usually when I come in, I put the back of the chair on and the next time I come in it is off again.

2. The phone in the room, used by many, stopped working yesterday.

3. Today I went to tell the person in charge about the phone. He was absorbed deeply in his computer. I said "Looks like you're deeply absorbed." He said "Yes" and went back to his invisible task. I stood there five minutes waiting. Then he looked up and said, "Oh, did you want to talk to me?" I was clearly visible the whole time.

4. A friend wanted to set up an online account and I told her I would do it for her. Then when I tried it turned out she had an old account. So I had to have the old password sent to her. It all seemed a rather pointless waste of time.

5. In securing funds to pay bills, I was told that rather than having funds put into my account by ACH I would have to wait for a check sent by snail mail. So I had to inform a creditor that I might be late this month. I had no idea I would have to wait for a check and then deposit it, all time-consuming.

These are just a few examples; but when they pile up you can see how they slow things down. Meanwhile some important tasks I need to do have been in limbo. Some of that is my own fault; because also at these times you may find you take more sleep, rest or naps.

6. On the positive side, I had amazing and beautiful dreams this morning, in Technicolor and with superb musical accompaniment. You may find that your dream life becomes vivid during the retrograde period or whole Dark Epoch. It can be wonderful, as can unexpected psychic phenomena.

7. On the frustrating international side, we hear contradictory and changeable reports about what is happening with nuclear levels in Japan and today we hear that radiation levels in the U. S. have increased. Nobody seems to know what is really happening or able to monitor it exactly, and the reactor problem has still not been solved.

8. On the day before Mercury turns retrograde NATO is taking over the LIbya operation. Changes of this sort, confusing changes, happen at these times; not that NATO can't handle it but I would expect the transition to be long and complicated.

I hope the preceding will help you to cope with the annoying delays you are likely to encounter.

The Mercury Retrograde phase, core of the Dark Hermetic Epoch, begins today at 1:49p PT | 4:49p ET | 8:49p UT and lasts until April 23.

Hey guys, never doubt the basics of astrology, no matter how I might stumble in interpreting the daily aspects. Here is an amazing confirmation of the planetary motions: On Monday I heard that new information in Japan showed that Plutonium had been released and measured and that it was an additional hazard. What was going on in the sky? The sun at 7 Aries was exactly square Pluto at 7 Capricorn. As I have already mentioned, I and most occultists believe that human language is not arbitrary, so the fact that this dangerous man-made element is named after Pluto means that it is "ruled" by the planet Pluto in astrological nomenclature. And here is an amazing confirmation of that fact. Pluto is at point focus of a T square involving Saturn on one side and Jupiter and the sun on the other, and on the very day the Plutonium release was discovered and confirmed, the square with the sun was exact. Just one more fact for skeptics to chew on---although they never chew on such facts but spit them out before they digest them. Which is why skepticism is a path of determined ignorance which does not nourish the brain.

One wonders always, in warfare or any disaster, why some are saved and others lost. We do not have the mind of G*d in those particulars, at least not most of us. Today you may consider yourself lucky to be a survivor. The correct word, however, is not lucky but "blessed." Interpreting the Divine Will for humanity is hardly an easy task: preachers and prophets have their hands full. That consciousness which can perceive the details of the heavens and the earth in one view and see their relations has to be a divine consciousness if it is valid. You might have glimpses of that.

Everyone seems to suspect treachery on one hand or another; even in the Libya situation some feel that NATO and the U.S. are wrong to intervene or have less than disinterested motives. This is partly a symptom of Jupiter opposed to Saturn. It could cause people to suspect even their best friends. It cuts deep into the realm of motives, so that we start to wonder about our own motives---which is a good thing, spiritually speaking. Being diligent at what seem your most basic tasks is a cure for much confusion. If you think about death today, you might consider that ordinary responsibility might be the best preparation for any future in this world or the next.

Being "at sea" like a lonely sailor may be depressing yet exhilarating when it inspires you to set your sails with optimism. You get validating clues from everywhere. Methods you have already used are likely to be valuable and effective still.

People enjoy being with one another in surprising ways, delighting in accord which springs up. The moon's conjunction with Venus late in the evening, both sextile Pluto, bodes well for mystical uplift whether with others or alone. Life is social whether outwardly or inwardly in memory and envisionment. Contact with people is enlivening; if not, it can become so at a deeper spiritual level. Darkness precedes the light; outer darkness awakens internal brightness.

{Wednesday} ~Inevitably Into the Socially Spiritual~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 29 March 2011

Forecast for Tuesday 29 March 2011

}Crowded Potentials Sorting Out{

The role of litmus paper for the moods of the day is a hard one, wearing on me right now because in the Dark Epoch, especially the Mercury Retrograde period beginning Wednesday afternoon-evening, it is much harder to predict these with any certainty. Things keep changing from hour to hour in a more confusing manner and moods swing more violently. Today is likely to have such a flavor.

The right road for you is pointed out if you are able to read the signs. You feel strong when you "go it alone," and yet know you are relying on resources provided by others. So your pride is tempered by humility. You can see acutely into necessities, and so begin to handle them with proper care.

It is easy to relax at times, and this is good up to a point, but then you realize you are being somewhat lazy in view of the things you need to square away during the next month.

There are questions about which of two or three individuals is right for you in terms of friendship or lasting relationship. It is all right to be light-hearted about this when decisions are impossible. The correct trend will reveal itself. Circular repetitions are normal during the Dark Epoch, for you are reviewing and re-planning. It's like untangling a knot in electrical cords; some of the motions seem pointless and yet each is necessary for the final freedom.

It is good to be sure you are estimating potentials wisely, dropping wrong notions based on wishful thinking so you can focus on the ones with real potential. Knowledge is possible through facing surrounding chaos and difficulty; finding within it the key to healing and redemption. Ultimate gains will come through a relatively normal approach rather than through anything radically different from what has worked in the past.

Something is happening at a level of mediumship or channelship. That means you could acquire deeply helpful information from celestial sources. How this would occur is a mystery. You would not have to understand all the details in order to benefit from this link to heavenly sources of guidance.

There is defense in your calm willingness to be a bulwark of security for those who rely on you. They defend you because you do the same for them.

The economy is based on togetherness even when you prefer freedom. A back-and-forth between these two is to be expected. When things converge too crowdingly, or people, you can try to link to the common welfare and not be impatient with the crowding until it has served its hidden purpose and then dissipates.

{Tuesday} {Crowded Potentials Sorting Out}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 28 March 2011

Forecast for Monday 28 March 2011

}Peaceful Reorientation Past Obstacles{

Thank heaven the weekend is over! I think most will greet Monday's workload with a sigh of relief. "Something definite to do, I am no longer in limbo!" This because the |more difficult third of the week| lasted through Saturday and Sunday, plus the moon in Capricorn (the sign of its detriment) and the Dark Hermetic Epoch. Mercury turns retrograde (the three-week plus retrogradation being the center of the Dark Epoch) on Wednesday at 1:49p PT | 4:49p ET | 8:49p UT (until April 23). That is information to write down or remember. Those who are "spooked" by the retrogradation period are not superstitious, just aware, and blessed with memories of what has happened during earlier such periods. Of course there is no reason to panic, just to calm down and proceed as peaceably as possible, realizing that you are tempted to deviate from your normal patterns perhaps more thoroughly than is good for you. Things take longer, generally, but that is no reason to give up. Also it is wise to allow yourself more periods of free time than usual, to recover inwardly and do "inner work" in consciousness which goes very well at these times.

The sun in Aries squared to Pluto (while opposing Saturn and close to Uranus) could be a sense of frustration, as in "road rage," and impatience with obstacles. Financial matters are working out no matter how difficult it may be to husband them perfectly. Actually there are hints of prosperity shaping up. When things seem slow or everything "under the weather," you can stick with slow ordinary matters. Then when interest picks up in more remote but fascinating potentials, you will feel you have a right to pursue them, having attended to normal duties.

Some suspicion of others is natural, with the current hard aspects to Saturn. Preferably this could be more a wariness based on a perception of human weaknesses than a paranoid state of accusation or self-accusation. People feel blocked in many ways and so will not be as cheery as usual and if they tangle with you it is probably because they are inwardly frustrated, up against a brick wall. The solution to this is calm diligence in continuing with a thread of responsibilities which makes sense to you. That will lead and comfort you through the darkness. Usefulness is a tonic to the one useful.

What is not possible at one time is possible at another. This is one of the great lights of astrology. So if things seem to turn against you, that is nothing to cause despair. Actually the moon's aspects are quite good, so you will be able to see your way past difficulties and even feel optimistic as the day goes on into the evening. There are influences of a hidden sort which could either help or hurt, so it is wise to tune in to the helpful ones---the good spirits, not the confused or deceptive ones. There is a benediction coming down in ways not anticipated, if we are receptive to it.

The more cheery part of things is conviviality and even festivity, which could break out as remedies for the confusion or heaviness already outlined, even if short-lived. Gifts which come down from heaven are evident to those receptive to them, especially in late afternoon-evening. There is a survival of what is best and what you have found supportive in the past: a bulwark against anxiety.

{Monday} {Peaceful Reorientation Past Obstacles}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 26 March 2011

Saturday 26 March 2011

\Constancy Amid Changefulness/

We are in the coils and toils of the Dark Hermetic Epoch, getting perhaps a little "darker" by the day, and the even darker Mercury Retrograde period begins Wednesday March 30. The "darkness" is good for dreams; also perhaps for midnight study by the lamp of intuitive intelligence; for psychic phenomena; and for the unexpected. It is not as good for carrying forward ordinary everyday routines, although one can do that with circumspection and determination. Mishaps are more frequent because everyone tends to be absent-minded, and not even realize that. But if the mind is absent from material trivia and present with G*d, the darkness becomes superphysical light.

A spirit of adventure accompanies the triple conjunction of Uranus, the sun and Jupiter in Aries. People are on the move, restless, seeking, and pleased with potentials which turn up every moment even if there is no solid resting place. Good planning is possible in connection with travel. Your mind-set may be firming up in connection with basic matters you can handle at least in part. You may be "on top of things" when it comes to directing others in certain ways with which you are familiar.

When things seem precarious or go wrong, the sense of "command" is strong, that is, you can take charge and set things right. We are in the |strained, karmically difficult or emotionally stressful third of this week| today and Sunday. That period has crept up to the weekends where it will remain until the middle of June. Pleasures and parties may still go on, but it is well to be aware that people will be pondering, inwardly, their problems in a big way and that will explain the moroseness or bitterness which you may feel with them. Still there can be revealing erotic impulses and responses, some of which you may abjure from a deeper soul-level even if they are meaningful in a special way. Isolation, in feeling or fact, is a distinct possibility, but then you could attend to things you need to do alone.

The revolutionary impetus rocking the Arab world has a reflection in your world, perhaps in your progressive independence from influences which would hold you back even if in their day they were good for you. So you develop finesse in putting things in their place and giving only as much time to each as will benefit yourself and all. You break down opposition to your hopes by remaining secure in your basic plans regardless of momentary divagations.

Good fortune is favoring you, perhaps financially, or satisfaction in what you possess and ways of organizing and using it. You may imagine how you would use your things in another situation or locale. How would they fit in, and what or which? The world seems a magical field of friendliness, at least in potential, no matter what momentary moods you face. You sense the continuity of what you are approaching with what you are leaving behind. You gain authority by the sincerity and constancy of your devotion to tasks, whether assigned or self-assigned. The friction of the details is temporary.

{Saturday} /Constancy Amid Changefulness\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 25 March 2011

Friday 25 March 2011

*Altruism Persists through Circumlocution*

Things look quite smooth. Although the moon squares Mars early in the day, after that it moves to a sextile with Venus and Neptune (conjoined at the end of Aquarius) in late afternoon-evening.

The difficulties have to do with the slow and slowing Mercury, otherwise known (in Cosmic Piper's terminology) as the Dark Hermetic Epoch lasting until May 11. (It will get somewhat better on April 24 and even better on May 8.) You may note that things change rapidly. People and yourself are more flexible (good) and therefore more uncertain or less fixed in your routines (not always good) and so things are "up in the air." So much is going on at once and people are re-examining everything, wondering what is next. Sometimes this is confusing, sometimes exhilarating. The Dark Epoch is a time of adventure. It is as if our dreams (which come in darkness) were being actualized (good dreams but also nightmares) in surprising ways and we are willing to go along with that subconscious guidance or dictation up to a certain point. For example, you run into people you haven't seen in a long time. The past comes alive. Your dreams are vivid and meaningful. All that is good, but meanwhile ordinary routines can be swamped by the tsunami of adventure. You have to struggle a bit to keep up with them. Experiment becomes more interesting than rigid adherence to schedules. Yet if you depart too far from the schedules you are in trouble. It is a balancing act.

Adventures do not have to be perilous but could border on that. Your zeal transforms danger into opportunity.

When things seem impossible, it is not wrong to lie down and rest or take a nap. Even in an office you might be able to close your eyes and pray or meditate for a few minutes. Quietude can be revitalizing; or by letting vitality go you recover it ("whoever loses his life for My sake shall gain it").

People's affections are changeable but not false; you may find you are balancing two or three affections at once, none of them pointless, all valid. Things repeat; relationships repeat; there is reorientation. Circular paths are sometimes refreshing. Absence of ambition might mean that you are recalibrating your ambitions in accordance with something implicit, not yet manifest.

Prestige and honor result from holding on to whatever is essential in your vocation, your service to someone or Someone. In doing that you find that you have to reprimand or correct someone who pretends to such service but is really hypocritical. What a thankless task! Yet maybe you are the one to do it. Much is being worked out behind the scenes, not yet manifest as explicit gain.

Attack and defense in warfare may not be utterly clear, as they usually are not until the post mortem. Yet some through valiance are securing the honor of their cause. Continuous idealism can be maintained through the inspiration of poetic words, artistry, and spiritual conviction.

This could be a day when good fortune impels you to ask, "Do I deserve this?" Such an honest question leads to altruistic action and even better fortune.

{Friday} *Altruism Persists through Circumlocution*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 24 March 2011

Thursday 24 March 2011

*Location as Social Center*

[For those of you who read the colored versions: (the Hue-ed versions, hah!): I don't use red very often but today with the moon in Sagittarius, a colorful sign, I am going for the scarlet; hope it isn't hard on the eyes.]

Thursday looks smooth in quite a few ways, as if you were settling things in your home and in your mind. It has potentials of relaxed friendship and easygoing entertainment.

Getting outdoors could be good, where you feel more rugged and at one with nature (although in many places it could be windy). You run into people you appreciate wherever you go, even at home. The community seems a love-fest. You enjoy yourself and congratulate yourself on things you are accomplishing.

Are there two or more objects of your affection who seem to be each jealous of the other? Well aren't you the lucky one, able to choose between two hearts and let the abandoned one suffer! Oh, you didn't mean to hurt? Oh, it feels like a game? Things repeat, in love as in life: Have you been here before? But there are ever-interesting variations in the circle of dance.

Some participating in it may seem a little lazy or self-indulgent, yet harmless. Others may actively encourage sensual thoughts or reactions. Seduction can proceed in less-serious forms which are titillating rather than dangerous. Other more conservative social impulses and connections are pleasing because they bring the community together and cultivate a sense of belonging. At an even higher level is someone who is a sort of psychic healer, informally, without mentioning the fact.

A sort of gambling urge can be harmless if indulged in a liberating rather than grasping manner.

On a more solid level, you want to get things done immediately, for you feel the pressure of time slipping away (in this Dark Hermetic Epoch when it is easy to get lost in side matters). So it would be wise to cast off those impulses to waste time in inconsequentials, getting to the core of what you are trying to accomplish at home or headquarters.

You are pleased with your immediate environment: home, neighborhood or community: and with potentials shaping up there or at a distant place you may visit.

{Thursday} *Location as Social Center*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 23 March 2011

Wednesday 23 March 2011

*Smoothly Reconstructive*

I am tempted to say that the time of "reprise" or temporary ease continues, although that could be a weakness. The stresses come from a deeper level where the opposition of Jupiter and Saturn continues, the once-every-twenty-years "mutation" I have discussed. It signifies, for most of us, maybe all of us, a major change going on at a deep level concerned with destiny and the particular vocation or calling our souls awaken to. Today might be a good time to tune in with that, especially after the moon enters Sagittarius at 1:46p PT | 4:46p ET | 8:46p UT. Then it will form trines with Uranus, then the sun, both in early degrees of Aries and so linked with the coming year. (I believe that the year begins on March 20 when the sun enters Aries at the Vernal Equinox.)

You may think a lot about your home and whatever changes are important for it in the near future. Or, maybe, spring cleaning?

You feel pleased with yourself along some line or other. I will not preach on the dangers of vanity; you probably are familiar with that topic. There are many potentials of enjoyment which I would not like to squelch with a sermon. Probably the sermon will surge up from your conscience anyway to prevent gross indulgence. Meanwhile there can be pleasure with those who are rugged and natural, in settings which feel natural to you.

When you feel isolated and bereft, at certain moments, that is the time to ponder paragraph 1, that is, the deep changes you feel are going on in your life-mission, making it closer to your soul's desire. Lonely moments are deeper moments. G*d can be found in them.

Then, soon after, there is strong social stimulation once again. It makes you feel you are in command of the forces centering around your community, master of your castle no matter who visits it.

Such internal strength is bolstered on a King of Clubs day. A kingly figure in your present or past may be speaking to you through the day's events.

There is speculation concerning your home, location, travel or a move. Or this might be about someone else who is moving or traveling. It may be impossible to see too far ahead, but it's possible to see just far enough to get started with whatever is essential.

You are sensitive to invisible forces and this can be productive of good, or of happy synchronicity.

A forecast for everyone requires fine judgment. There is one warning for the day, having to do with something explosive in your home or living situation, maybe your work headquarters. It could be as simple as a plumbing or heating problem, or as bad as an explosion, but of course this last would be statistically unlikely for any individual. Reasonable caution would be the sensible approach.

The contrary balance of that is: You may be coming into a sense of possession in relation to your home or a possible home. You feel you have an entitlement which is likely to manifest in the near future. Perhaps you get clues about this. You might visit a luxurious place. Traditions which have been happy for you are revivable in mind and perhaps in fact. Those with whom you communicate uphold standards you also accept and that is satisfying.

{Wednesday} *Smoothly Reconstructive*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 22 March 2011

Tuesday 22 March 2011

~Relaxed and Colorful Variety~

By early afternoon the moon will be out of the Via Combusta. This could mean less uncertainty about a number of things on your mind.

All-in-all it looks like a quite cheery day, with an emphasis on fun, relaxation, pleasure, and entertainment. (This of course may not be entirely true in countries where battles are raging, but even there I would expect they will have some respite today.)

It is true that the sun conjoined to Uranus in the first degrees of Aries, ruled by Mars, is a tendency to rashness---or else to long-overdue action. In Libya and Yemen and Bharain it is not always clear which is which. Today the women behind the scenes, the wives or mothers of the military men in Yemen for example, may have a strong influence, likely of course to be beneficent since women do not like war. I think that at least one leader in these awakening nations may do something highly significant today---if not step down, then something leading in that direction. At least he will place himself before the public eye dramatically.

There is a sort of laziness in people. This has something to do with the Dark Hermetic Epoch lasting until May 11, much to do with today's aspects and positions. Why struggle or suffer overmuch? is a common feeling. That can be wonderful for a while. Affections may seem unstable, as if loyalty in love to one's inamorata did not include loyalty in erotic attraction at every moment. (Some think, Why should it?) Interests and tendencies move around in circles, as if you were on a merry-go-round.

Whether there are also tragic events caused by the warfare or mini-warfare in various places, I cannot predict, but it seems that explosions will be contained fairly successfully. Strategists feel confident of themselves.

To control the spirits by which we are surrounded, we need to visualize and keep in mind just what we are doing and what we want. Then there is a focus to which they can be regimented for good fortune.

You may be happy with your home and what you are doing with it. In your community you express a beneficent spirit which pleases neighbors. This could be true even of those who have seemed malicious in the past. They have some interest in you or they would not care one way or the other. Whatever is deficient in you or unusual can be a point of issue or else it can just make you interesting, if you use it in an appropriate manner. Each one is unique in one way or another. Pleasure in such colorful differences permeates the day's events.

{Tuesday} ~Relaxed and Colorful Variety~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 21 March 2011

Monday 21 March 2011

~Toward Serenity~

The |difficult or emotionally strained third of this week| was from Saturday afternoon until this afternoon (Monday). (I am hampered in calculating the exact moment by the absence of my usual computer programs.) This is complicated further by the moon being in the Via Combusta from forenoon Sunday until mid-afternoon Tuesday. This happens once a month so does not have to be tragic; yet the fact is that the Iraq invasion of March 2003 occurred on a day the moon was in the Via Combusta (second half of Libra) and this time there was the military attack on Qaddafi's forces in Libya by the French and British. These both happened on the single day of a month when the moon is in the second half of Libra. As a matter of fact, the sun was either in 0 Aries or 29 Pisces (cusp of Aries) on both occasions, Aries being the sign of war in traditional astrology (Ares the Greek god). This means that the Part of Fortune was also in the 7th house of war on both occasions. (The 7th house rules both war and marriage, something to ponder.)

How one interprets the Via Combusta depends on one's philosophy. If stupid wars start then, is it evil? That would be one view. A more mature view would suggest that it is a time when people are tempted to go off half-cocked and do violent things such as starting a war. So it is a test. A perhaps more sophisticated viewpoint, philosophically, would suggest that although no one likes wars, perhaps the moon being in the Via Combusta, or burning way, while also in the sign Libra, the scales of balance or karma, is just the time when, if a war is destined to happen by the laws of karma, it might begin. We all wish the laws of karma did not cause killing or suffering. It appears that they do, sometimes. Pondering that fact and reasoning out its implications is a religious, spiritual, theological or occult project, not really the business of astrology, which is a science of observable correlations. I could do the former myself, but this does not appear to be the place for it since I am trying to write a daily forecast for Monday instead.

Maybe at the monthly time the moon goes through the Via Combusta we ought to consider our karma, how it is holding up, our "stock of merit" as some have put it. Is your karmic bank balance high or low? It seems to require continual payments, something like rent or mortgage.

(You can see why this is not a popular astrology column.)

Today some may be wanting to assert themselves powerfully, as if they knew the laws of karma and were instruments of them. (Such as Napoleon or Alexander if the stories about them are true.)

Although this sounds dangerous, if it did not involve killing or hurting people it might be more believable. Others may be focused on theoretical or mathematical research, which could go well even if unnoticed by the world at large. (One wonders what theorems autistic individuals might be working out unknown to the rest of us.) Sometimes very bright individuals find no release for their insights but humor. You might burst into laughter unexpectedly.

You may wonder if the work you struggle with on a daily basis is ever going to earn you the rewards you feel you ought to receive. In a word: Yes. I can say that with authority because the laws of karma (them again!) are utterly trustworthy. There are times when normal, not-paranoid individuals feel that everything is conspiring against them. Even saints have felt that, which might account for theories of the devil and his minions. If it seems that way, all I can say is, get to the spiritual foundations of your consciousness which are definitely above all those fears. (Individuals of differing spiritual traditions or religions appear to do that in differing ways.) Even in warfare, those who can live in that deeper reality are protected somehow or other.

Males sometimes feel they are giving in to females in a way which threatens their masculine honor. This may be such a time. What it means is a very individual matter. Perhaps there are material and enjoyable rewards for such "giving in" which are worth the cost. At other times, some principle needs to be upheld even through seeming loss or sacrifice. Although women usually seem ethically superior to men, this is not always the case.

The theme of "inadequate reward for what I do" comes up again; yet at times you can just let go, relax, and rest, perhaps at home, or in a place of entertainment or enjoyment such as a restaurant or coffee shop, in order to regain your internal bearings and continue to give to the world what you naturally give it. Those who seem to oppose your efforts may not know at all what they are really doing. They are unconscious along many lines.

It is interesting that what might look like painful self-sacrifice or selflessness to a younger person becomes serenely reasonable and easy to someone of more mature years. He or she has learned the pointlessness of too-intense desires and become open to the desires of others, or ways of helping them cope with their frustrations, so that the world does not seem enemy any longer but the happiness of each is one with his or her own.

{Monday} ~Toward Serenity~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 19 March 2011

Saturday 19 March 2011

}Full Teeter-Totter Moon{

The Full Moon occurs at 11:11a PT | 2:11p ET | 6:11p UT: Sun in final degrees of Pisces, moon in Virgo. After that the moon will be void of course for almost two hours until it enters Libra at 1:04p PT | 4:04p ET | 8:04p UT. The Full Moon always brings heightened consciousness, as if one's mind could focus on dozens of things at once and comprehend them all in their interrelations.

Purpose and will are strong. You sense that you are going to do what you are going to do and no one can prevent you when you are convinced you are right. To be spiritually right assures that all else will fall into line. You put yourself into a lasting frame of reference, framed by the Eternal, and then your discernment is sharp and accurate. You aspiration and correctness assure that you will have a strong personal influence on all concerned.

Questions of home, household costs, and accompanying partnership (who can afford to live alone?) are intense but you sense that the fog is going to clear away from them.

Many are feeling vain or petulant because frustrated, so could explode in anger, then find their anger did not accomplish anything. It is all right to be impetuous at times, when one is right (paragraph 2). But long-term effort is what will gain recognition and reward.

Someone with a message for the human race is helping you in connection with work, partnership and household matters. Some indeed have a mission to help and teach, and are not infected with hypocrisy or self-delusion, which we need to remember when recovering from disappointment in one teacher or another. So it is well to cooperate and learn from the sincere spiritual guides (if one is lucky enough to know one).

A familiar friendly environment or group reassures you. There may be children or younger people and a sense of assured satisfaction in them, or other members of your real or extended family. Life can be simple and friendly.

It is well to avoid involvement in too many projects at once, although you can dart quickly from one to another when you are sure they are all important. A desire to wander and ponder may be normal and helpful when not taking over the whole day.

There is much beauty surrounding you, even if you are not in a fit mood to appreciate it; attending it could lift your mood. Life is refined through luxuries and pleasures. A playful and appreciative mood, childlike, is a relief from recent worries, which may not be resolved totally but need not be depressing. Acts welling up from within as a response to frustrations might look almost violent, as in dogs playing with each other and pretending to bite, but are instinctive psychotherapy. People can be serious inwardly yet playful outwardly. All is a process of healing-and-liberating balance.

{Saturday} {Full Teeter-Totter Moon}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 18 March 2011

Friday 18 March 2011

\Adjustment through Patience with Self and Others/

We approach the Full Moon day, Saturday. Some pressures may be releasing along some lines although there is an emphasis on getting things done. You will not be content unless you are doing that. Finishing things up, which have been weighing on you, is an elixir.

We have entered the Dark Hermetic Epoch as of today. (If it weren't for computer problems and hassles I would calculate the exact minute but am very rushed.) I have been feeling the symptoms of this even during the past week. On Tuesday I went out to have a little fun and relaxation, and the Dark Epoch seemed to be in force already. Since it is based on the speed and cycle of Mercury, we slip into it gradually. Here are some of the symptoms: People are doing things in a more chaotic way. You will see it even in the way they walk on the street. They stop, think, and turn around. Their bodies move differently, sidewise; they do more window-shopping and go places they have never been before. There are often longer lines because workers are hassled or thinking of other things than work. You get an idea to do something you ordinarily would not do and think, "Oh what the heck, who will it hurt, I will delay doing that other important thing for one day and enjoy myself a little." So things get "out of pattern." You wake up at different hours than usual and go to sleep at unusual hours. You note that other people's patterns are different or unpredictable. It can be a good time for spontaneity, yet we feel we need to struggle to keep a balance and to keep on with ordinary tasks so we don't get way behind. So yes, it is wise to keep to your schedules as much as possible in most cases, while making exceptions here and there for a little creativity and spontaneity. This period lasts until May 11 so it is well to adapt to it.

If you feel isolated to a degree, you are getting your bearings. People are not enemies although they could waste your time or get you off course. You can validate for yourself what will keep you straight, safe and sane. Patterns which have worked for you in the past will continue to work if you work them.

Signor Borelli's symbol for Saturn's position mentions "distant northern countries" and oddly enough I will be traveling north when the Bright Epoch begins (or a little before that in May) and of course northern Japan is the focus of the world's attention. What this might mean to you is for you to decide. Intelligence is sharpened while Mercury opposes Saturn. It seems that that is "of necessity," in other words, to meet challenges you have to think hard and fast. So you get smarter. You are sensing what has exceeded its usefulness in your life, what you have to drop. This could be possessions, or old patterns of some sort which are falling away for something new to turn up. Dangers have to be faced and met, as in military maneuvers. Care is even more essential during a Dark Epoch.

Some may be incisive and aggressive in pursuing what seem opportunities to them, and if you seem in the way you could be the brunt of their anger or else they may fume inwardly about your hindrance to them. When words are spoken in such situations, people are trying to instruct one another and if such instruction is not desired it seems officious or offensive. A retreat into inefficacy could be one reaction, although this would be temporary and there would be a recovery. Sorting out real opportunities from mistakes can be quick if one is alert.

Thereby one avoids weakness, which could manifest if one gave up too easily in the face of difficulties. Disappointments are clearance; they show what you do not have to do or think about so you can get on with something else. Clinging to what is no longer relevant merely delays the adjustment to something relevant.

There are times when a spiritual retreat is exactly what will help, if it is moderated as to length of time so it does not become mere lassitude. It could then facilitate the adjustment mentioned in the previous paragraph.

{Friday} /Adjustment through Patience with Self and Others\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 17 March 2011

Thursday 17 March 2011

\Through Potential Crisis with Patient Attention/

The day seems nebulous, with the moon making virtually no aspects but an opposition with Neptune. This could be intensified worry, or, more happily, an escape from worry through spiritual meditation. Practical matters remain delayed, held back or under a cloud, although to pursue what is truly important is a mark of bravery and could be essential. Some work will please you because you see it will eventually bring greater harmony into your life.

The symbols for degrees of the zodiac by Signor Antonio Borelli give, for today's position of the sun, "A serpent standing erect within a circle of fire." I immediately thought of the brave workers in Japan who are trying to contain a potential nuclear disaster. Let us indeed pray for them to succeed with a minimum of human suffering. Sepharial's interpretation of the symbol states that those living through it "will take life at the crisis and turn it back from the Gates of Death." Indeed let us hope so. Perhaps you will see what this might mean in your life.

Ultimate gain is sometimes other than immediate gain, and if that applies to the finances of many--as indeed it applies to the finances of governments at this peculiar time--we may sense something good and even bountiful being prepared through temporary lack.

The conjunction of the sun with Uranus, from the latter degrees of Pisces to the first of Aries, suggests that something you do not yet comprehend may be essential as a revision of your policies or procedures in order to make them successful. It is well to correct information and understanding through as much knowledge as you can secure.

Changes in your home, connected with partnership, may be evident and clearer to you. Since tomorrow, Friday, is the beginning of the Dark Hermetic Epoch lasting until May 11, you might realize that something basic you have already decided, or come close to deciding, is the right procedure to hold on to for the next two months, especially as connected with home and partnership. This could give clarity you need when things seem doubtful.

The troubles of younger people may or may not be evident; perhaps they hide some of them; but you can be a bulwark for them through a helpful attitude and willingness to help whether help is asked or not. They, as all of us, are going through the 20-year "mutation" of Saturn and Jupiter and are rethinking their futures.

Most of us are sensing that our freedom, very important to us, is secured through being reliable for those who are important in our worlds. In other words, real freedom is not inconsistent with reliability but an outcome of it. The labyrinthine paths we may choose, as a result of our freedom, can be useful to others when we modify them as well as we can for their benefit.

On other fronts there could be discord or even fighting, although this can be mitigated or turned into concord because Mars is semi-sextile Venus, a "minor" yet strong aspect when exact as now. (It had a somewhat colorful direct depiction in Hillary Clinton's informal conversations with Egyptian "revolutionaries" [she Venus, they Mars]). In family matters and in work, one can elucidate matters calmly for those who seem to differ with one and thereby secure something like an affectionate response. They are more willing to listen than you would expect.

Health matters, yours or others', are better than they seem because temporary setback is just that, temporary, and so faith is not only curative in itself but realistic. Even seemingly chronic matters are susceptible of cure.

Asking for help or advice when needed is not weakness but strength. Of course it is up to you to decide if the advice is right. It is important to translate concern into action to meet any emergency. Prayer plus appropriate action, perhaps stemming from prayer's answer, is the formula. The Sabian Symbol for Venus is "A forest fire quenched." Let us hope this might apply to the Japanese situation, almost literally if the water-cannon approach to cooling the reactors proves effective.

At a more prosaic level, you might be able to handle accounts, taxes, or any financial accounting or planning wisely. In disturbing times sometimes basic necessities, attended smartly, are therapeutic in more ways than one.

{Thursday} /Through Potential Crisis with Patient Attention\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 16 March 2011

Wednesday 16 March 2011

*Pleasure in Realistic Assignments*

My dad used to say, "If you can't say anything good about somebody, don't say anything at all." So if I apply that adage to the forecasts, I would have to say almost nothing today. True, we are out of the formulaic |difficult third of the week|, which helps with emotions. But the current and coming oppositions of three, four, or five planets with Saturn are tough. Since Jupiter is one of them, the "mutation" or twenty-year cycle is happening in full force. It is not only the people of northern Japan who are undergoing a major questioning about their future. You are and I am. It varies in intensity and subject-matter for each of us but is a world-wide condition. What are the major decisions or choices you are making now? Isn't it a little tough? Aren't you seeing some things about yourself you didn't want to see, and realizing that you have to just face them as best you can? According to the theory, choices you make now may be determinative for the next twenty years.

The moon in Leo, and Part of Fortune in the 5th, are helping today to make things lighter. Some kind of entertainment, or unusual connections with young people, can uplift moods. As for finances, I wish I could say something good. Maybe the stock market will recover today---I do not try to predict it---but sadly I rather doubt that it will. If it does, maybe I should just give up ever trying to predict it. At any rate, whatever it does your personal finances may seem scanty in some way which disturbs you. Maybe expenses are greater than you thought. I am trying to take my own advice about finishing my taxes by March 18 (instead of April 17, this year's deadline) but a few pieces of the puzzle are delaying me.

Invisible entities are afoot. (Well, do they have feet?) Or they are awing. You could try to make sure they are good influences, or else choose others, as in choosing friends. I tend to believe we are affected by invisible beings much more than we realize. The literature on this, if pondered, is entirely convincing (it convinced Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and countless careful intelligent observers since). On the other hand, a lot of "nervous nellies" immediately jump to the conclusion that we can't help being influenced, controlled or hurt by such beings. Of course we can. Unless, of course, we have subconsciously chosen a path of destruction.

The aftershocks of the earthquake are not only physical but psychological, and affect many around the world as much as the Japanese perhaps.

I see a few more indications in the daily chart suggesting a benediction, despite all the suffering and uncertainty, and I hope this is true. It may happen at a spiritual level no matter what is going on materially.

Brave people are facing dangers. These are, for example, the workers at the nuclear plants in Japan, facing the hardest and most lethal tasks of their lifetimes. Others are facing such dangers in Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Without a sense of karma, destiny, or the omnipresent grace of God, I do not know how anyone can face such things. Are not all soldiers somehow religious in the heat of battle?

Nuclear energies are being reexamined, as to their cost, their human cost, and their place in the future of humanity. Energy needs to come from other sources. When shall they be found? Some say they have already been found but not utilized.

There is a balance between nature-minus-humanity, and humanity on top of nature. The happenings in Japan are a signal that Nature sometimes wins and humanity loses. When nature is without humanity, it sighs relief. But is that a signal that we are not really "on top" of Nature and can only be there by treating her as a worthy and lovable steed rather than a stubborn beast? Overbuilding on land not appropriate for buildings seems to be one problem. Behind that is the population problem, a more basic one.

These musings come from positions in the daily chart.

At a practical level, strategies are important, as in preventing nuclear disaster. What strategies are you trying to implement to make things safer or better for you? This can be as simple as organizing possessions. That could prevent you from jumping into foreign situations which could disrupt or hurt.

People may come together for entertainment or other purposes in a way which apportions tasks or duties in a happy way.

Someone who doesn't get around much, maybe confined by weakness, or self-confined, might be going through a morose stage of bitterness and resentment toward anyone and everyone. You might feel some implicit loyalty toward this person and wish to help. Cheering someone is a talent we all have in varying styles. Analyzing self and others is good up to a point, beyond which it can be destructive. People can't help revealing their faults in one way or another, but charity helps them recover from those very faults.

{Wednesday} *Pleasure in Realistic Assignments*

Cosmic Piper