Forecast for Friday February 19 2016---and Pluto square Uranus square

Friday 19 February 2016

~Patience Within Restructuring~

Moon in Cancer--Leo   ***

/moon goes void-of-course at 6:37a PT | 9:37a ET | 2:37p UT   ** /
until it enters Leo at 6:18p PT | 9:18p ET | 2:18a UT   ***

It always seems easier to talk about the hard aspects and to notice them than the smooth or helpful ones. It seems that nothing will satisfy us--we always moan about the hard parts and hardly realize our blessings. There does indeed seem to be a lot of tension in the air. I attribute much of this, in terms of formal cause, to the Pluto square Uranus aspect, exact by less than two degrees. We might call it "the ISIS aspect" because it was prominent when they were most brutally cruel and violent and of course some of that continues and remains a major topic of political conversation. But beyond and beneath that, what is goading the terrorists on is also goading us on, though in a better direction if we have evolved to a higher level of ethics. It is goading Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and the other candidates; it is goading me to keep up with my researches even when I feel tired or weary of it all; it is goading you in some direction which you can't give up on no matter how many times you feel you fail. And that is good. The squares, despite their classification as hard aspects,  are good aspects because they keep us challenged and trying, and therefore learning.

The astrologer Reinhold Ebertin has some cogent words for this aspect. At its worst it can be: "Violence, excitement, subversive plans, confrontation with 'either-or' questions, difficult decisions, unforeseen and vitally important crisis, sudden separation, death." In other words, everything an attempted reign of terror tries to impose on the world. If we are not in a war zone, and most of you reading this are not, we go over these things in our minds, or keep fighting to win a game or sporting contest, or we feel addicted to movies and TV shows with a lot of violence in them. But there are better uses of the aspect 

Ebertin again, on Pluto-square Uranus: "Indefatigable work, achievement through immense effort, carrying-out of innovations or changes, building anew, setting up a new life." I would guess you can see how this applies to yourself. Look how it applies to the almost unprecedented thousands of displaced people and immigrants around the world. 

If you ask me how long it lasts, the question of orbs comes up, on which there is no absolute agreement because often the force of an aspect like this one comes barreling in, fades out, and then surges in again, depending on other factors and other aspects going on. By five degrees the Uranus-Pluto square covers the period from April 25, 2011 through April 10, 2017, about six years. (It is interesting that I moved to Seattle, a major change for me, in May of 2011. You might note something similar in your own life.) By a smaller two-degree orb it comes and goes, because both of the planets go retrograde at various times, and it has been exact several times. It will not be exact again but is now within two degrees until March 20. We may not be done with it then, but that is the last time it will be within two degrees until it recurs as an opposition rather than a square in 2046-47. So the good news is that we may have suffered the worst of it. We can still be trying to make use of its best values for another month. Maybe you can complete something you have been working on or restructuring. 

The other major square, Saturn square Jupiter, accompanied by Saturn square Neptune, is a topic for another report. It has much to do with religion, ethics, and spirituality. Saturn in Sagittarius is bringing out the voice of the current Sagittarian Pope, for example. More about it later.

{Friday} ~Patience Within Restructuring~

Cosmic Piper