Forecast: Wednesday and Thursday, August 22-23, 2012

Sun in Virgo and Moon in Scorpio, 2012

Beginning Wednesday 22 August at 12:55a PT | 3:55a ET | 7:55a UT
through Thursday 23 August
/moon goes void-of-course Thursday at 2:35a PT|5:35a ET|9:35p UT
until Luna enters Sagittarius Friday at 3:51a PT|6:51a ET|10:51a UT

~Outing Avarice, Spite, Usurpation~

At long last the Bright Hermetic Epoch has arrived (until October 18). You may not see a big difference right away but perhaps will sense that you are "back in form," "back in shape," or "on the right track."

On the other hand, it might not be until Friday that this will seem real, for on Wednesday the moon remains in the Via Combusta and on Thursday is void-of-course all day. Both indicators can mean coping with uncertainty, although it should be fading away in the underlying trend toward chipper assurance.

One factor to face, perhaps taking several forms, is the greed and nastiness in people. This can assume so many forms of which we are only partially conscious. Some see it in two of the Presidential candidates and are talking about it (in accord with the current astrological picture: Pluto the plutocrat opposing Venus while both square Uranus, the planet ruling Aquarius in which sign were born Ayn Rand, Ronald Reagan and and Rand's "follower" Paul Ryan). Some think it their right to plunder others, even to take advantage of a friend's downfall for the sake of position, power or gain. When you sense this in someone (or even yourself) you feel revulsion. Cunning avarice is not a pleasant quality. Those who use it criminally are often behind bars (unless they are white-collar criminals) or else if they have figured out how to use such tendencies legally they are eventually despised by those who see through them.

It might feel like fun to accuse someone, shatter her or his complacency, get revenge in a way which seems honest and right because, after all, it is only pointing out that person's crimes or sins. And, of course, this has its dangers, even if one is actually correct in one's accusations. How can one do this fairly and decently? (rather than sadistically) becomes the difficult question.

Greed reaches points of satiety, as does appetite. Overeating appears to be a world-wide problem, and you may be thinking about it. All the deadly sins are in fact deadly.

However, some of the tendencies toward feasting are in fact festive and friendly, so if you share a meal with an individual or group you may be mitigating the "deadliness" of overconsumption. We need a chance to enjoy things together now and then, with conviviality. (Then back to that diet plan . . . )

Mercury's sextile with Jupiter, together with the Bright Epoch, suggest brilliance in the mind, with an ability to acquire knowledge or wisdom, even big piles of it. What is your particular approach to the wisdom of the ages? might be a good question to ask yourself. Doing it successfully will make you prescient even about practical affairs and everyday choices.

In connection with paragraphs 3 and 4, there are further indications that you might be facing (or sleuthing) someone who is taking the easy, lazy way to a position which looks successful, while actually avoiding hard work and coasting on the efforts of others, meanwhile being spiteful toward those who have benefited him or her. We find such individuals at all income levels. I don't like to think about it any more than you, but the current setup suggests many of us are fire-walking such questions, and perhaps we need to do so.

{Wednesday and Thursday} ~ Outing Avarice, Spite, Usurpation~

Cosmic Piper