Forecast for Wednesday 2 June 2016

Wednesday 1 June 2016

^Just My Somebody^

Moon in Aries   ***

/moon goes void-of-course at 8:43a PT | 11:43a ET | 3:43p UT   ** /

until it enters Taurus at 7:48p PT | 10:48p Et | 2:48a(Th) UT   ***

We've talked about the major aspects in the past several reports. After early morning could be a time to catch your breath and get your bearings peacefully while the moon is void-of-course. Routine or expected activities are probably best. 

Advance alert: The |difficult third| of each week has been occurring in the weekends and shall continue so for a while, including Fridays for the next four weeks (June 3-5, June 10-12, June 17-19 and June 24-26, with exact times later). Sunday is free of it on July 3 just before the Independence Day holiday, which makes that weekend smoother than the Memorial Day weekend just past. Likewise the Sundays of July 10 and 17 are liberated, and then by July 30-31 the weekends will be free of the |karmic imbroglio| or whatever one chooses to call it, through August, September and October. Not everyone likes to think that far ahead, and of course the weekends are not destroyed by this, but for those of you who find it helpful it is good to know. 

In other words, my advice is to put social events, dates, meetings, fun evenings into the mid-week, or Monday through Thursday, for the next month or more. This is not always possible but is a clue which might help you avoid being continually disappointed by scheduling those things on the weekends. Or, if that is inescapable, be prepared for encountering and rising above the difficulties and emotional distances or irritations which are likely on those weekends. I am not being Pollyanna here, or maybe I am trying to fence Pollyanna into Monday-Thursday! 

There may be people who love that |hard part| of the week. Drama queens! Okay, go for it, bring on the soap opera--raised voices, threats, recriminations and tears! "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!" Make the weekends into a theatrical-style encounter group. As for me, I find that easier to bear in a real opera or a soap opera. You'll find me comfortably at home with a book or a screen most likely. 

At the risk of going on too much about Venus opposite Saturn, it is with us intensely now, exact on (you guessed it) Friday and the coming weekend. It is not always the absence of love. It can be deeply intense love. But that is the kind of love which either thrives on or survives difficulties and sufferings. It can be tearful love, or love which goes underground for a long time to reappear in a burst of sad emotion. 

Or, perhaps even worse, it can be sheer boredom--"Is that all there is?" But such boredom usually masks despair, for those who are not in despair are able to find something they want to do or accomplish under any set of aspects, and therefore are not bored. Also, they do not get bored by their loved one, or if they do (a problem at these times), they recover from it through the very depth of their love. 

It's hard to put into words. Music might help. By serendipity this song came up on my playlist. You have probably heard it before. But to me it expresses something wonderful about Venus opposite (or square or conjoined to) Saturn. It can be love which is ordinary, touching, profound, unglamorous, but as overpowering as it is unexplainable. "Just my Bill." Listen to all of it, with complete attention, thinking of anyone you've been in love with, female or male, as "Bill"--or think of yourself as the "Bill" whom somebody loved-- and have a hanky or box of tissues at hand. It is pure white magic. 

"Just My Bill" from Showboat, sung by Helen Morgan

{Wednesday}  ^Just My Somebody^  

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 31 May 2016

Tuesday 31 May 2016 

^We're Back^

Moon in Aries   ***

Even four stars might be deserved because this day seems a contrast with the holiday weekend, as if most will feel "Glad to be back at my job and regular activities." 

Lunar aspects suggest happy attention to detail. "Now I am getting this in shape, in order! Success!" We are coming slowly out of the Dark Hermetic Epoch, thoroughly on Tuesday June 7 a week from today, but already with signs of reassuring progress.

This could apply to financial details as well as anything important to you at present, although the sphere of interpersonal relations is likely to be touchy. In general it's a day for material and business gains (maybe ****) rather than social ones although those are not impossible. Underlying them is the opposition of Venus and the sun with Saturn. That is the "Does anyone really love me?" aspect. All are feeling it so if you keep that in mind it will soften the impact of others' seeming indifference or semi-hostility. They may be subconsciously blaming you (and anyone) for their feelings of separation, alienation, or love-deficiency. 

However, at best this aspect promotes loyalty to those whom you feel to be true friends forever, no matter what their faults. It might be asking, "Do you know who your solid friends really are? Give them the benefit of the doubt."

There is also the possibility that you need to go to the bat for someone, or redeem someone from a problem, being more generous than you feel like being, but then feeling glad you did it. 

Moon in Aries can be brash and self-centered, but it can also "cut the crap" and be one-pointed toward what improves one's prospects.

Communications could be emphasized, or trying to put into words, music, art or practical skill whatever makes a difference in others' lives, in accord with your own knowledge, even if you feel this is not sufficiently appreciated or understood. That could come later if not now.

{Tuesday} ^We're Back^

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 30 May 2016

Monday 30 May 2016

~Memory and Patiently Cultivated Hope~

Moon in Pisces-->Aries

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week continues   * | 

/moon goes void-of-course at 4:11p PT | 7:11p ET | 11:11p UT   * / |

|Difficult third of week| ends at 5:04p PT | 8:04p ET | 0:04a(Tu) UT   ** /

Moon enters Aries at 6:10p PT | 9:10p ET | 1:10a(Tu) UT   ***

The story above shows that things get smoother just toward the very end of the three-day weekend. I did not choose that! Maybe some day in the far distant future human holidays will be planned around astrology. I think this time, many will be happy to get back to work on Tuesday. 

Still, Luna is trine to Mars all day, in water signs, a signal that something vitalizing is going on inside us which can also be translated into the social sphere. 

Apart from that, the Grand Square intensifies, involving oppositions of both the sun and Venus with Saturn while all those planets are square Jupiter on one side and Neptune on the other. This could be a tale of woe, or a challenge we meet wisely. Let's make it the latter.

Whenever Venus is in hard aspect with Saturn, feelings are either blunted or at worst bitter. Where has love gone? is often a question. But this is an opportunity to test love, that is, test one's ability to keep loving and also note how others respond. Who is really loyal? is a question that can be answered over the next month. 

The Venus-Saturn square ends, by ten degrees, on June 11, and shortly after that the "good' or smoothly harmonious period of June 22-July 15 will be upon us. Wonderful! Keep that in mind when feeling sad, depleted or less than enthusiastic. I mentioned that three-week period as possibly a good time for a vacation, but in any event it should be a good time to catch up with people, be more socially active, and restore a relationship or friendship (or stumble upon a new one perchance). Until then we need patience.

Venus opposite Saturn, with its rather sad ambience, is a good time to remember those gone from this world on this Memorial Day. Since Luna is trine Mars, the military planet, that can include those who served in the armed forces but of course is not confined to them. 

{Monday} ~Memory and Patiently Cultivated Hope~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May 2016

Saturday 28 May 2016

~Peaceful Better Self~

Moon in Aquarius-->Pisces

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week begins at 9:41a PT | 11:41a ET | 3:41p UT (until Monday afternoon)   ** |

/moon goes void-of-course at 1:20p PT | 4:20p ET | 8:20p UT   * / |

until it enters Pisces at 2:07p PT | 5:07p ET | 9:07p UT   ** |

The weekends have been and remain subject to the |difficult third| for quite a few weeks to come. However, since this is a holiday weekend, the stress does not have to be as intense as usual. A happier side of the |difficult third| is PEACEFULNESS, which can be obtained if we overcome intense desires, put them aside, and relax into a deeper destiny of spiritual understanding and simple activity in accord with dharma. Silence in the mind is a wonderful thing and better, at a time like this, than chasing one's tail or some other tail. 

An obstacle to such peace is Luna's square with Mars, in effect all day, which could agitate us toward either anxiety or irritability. An intelligent conscious focus is essential to overcoming both obstacles. It's a good time for concentration on something significant. Jupiter's square with Saturn is telling us, "You have an opportunity to be your better self."

He likes to use the law to squelch his enemies, but

The horse he acquired loves to prance free of care.

The woman with an eye on his wealth escapes

His litigation through cunning fascination.

The astrologer he knows sees threads suspended from a labyrinth

In the sky. He has the patience to work through any

Conundrum. A stranger to the public, he hews his way

From heaven through earth to enrichening liquid gold.

The aggressive lawyer cannot ride his spirited horse,

Free from courthouse domination. The woman who captures

His heart waves her serpent-entwined wand and he gives

Her all she asks for but retainer fees.

Up and down the astrologer's ladder to heaven career

Angels of speculation laughing at the lawyer's briefs. 

{Saturday} ~Peaceful Better Self~

Sunday 29 May 2016

~Securing Peace~

Moon in Pisces

|Karmically challenging or sobering third| of this week continues (until Monday afternoon)   * |

I can't indicate more than one star, but that is enough for inner spiritual awareness which could be wonderful and peaceful. Luna intensifies the Grand Square among Neptune, Jupiter, the sun, Venus, and Saturn. This is either agonizing or quietly deliberative, and perhaps slowly, gently constructive. "Too much to handle" is one meaning of the Grand Square, but since this is a holiday weekend we may be able to get past that part of it more easily. Economizing one's time is important. Choosing what is easy to do--doable within peaceful reasonable limits--will make everything smoother. 

I have been looking at a photo of President Obama as he gave his speech in Hiroshima. And I keep thinking, "What a good man." I have no doubt about the salutary intention of his heart, although in this limited world of contentious politics there are obvious limits to what he could do in his eight years in office. He tried and he did better than anyone else could have done, most likely. I do not agree with all of his decisions but he is a human being and a decent one. Considering all the other possibilities, we are lucky to have had him for these eight years. 

What went on in Japan while he was there is poignant and touching:  http://www.nytimes.com/live/president-obama-hiroshima-japan/

This weekend I'll try to remember my Uncle Homer who was a serviceman in World War II, our family's great friend Evan Leddy, and all others who have been victims of war, whether "our" American soldiers or others. The President is right--we need a moral and ethical way past warfare to ensure that the arsenal of doomsday weapons (unfortunately growing) is never used. 

Have a peaceful, uplifting and enlightening Memorial Day weekend.

{Sunday} ~Securing Peace~

Hugh

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 27 May 2016

Friday 27 May 2016

}Competence{

Moon in Aquarius   ***

It looks good for sticking to a plan.

It is utterly amazing how accurately the motions of the planets often point out what is going on. Today Mars, going backward, re-enters Scorpio, sign of death and destruction (but much better things than that as well), and today President Obama is scheduled to be in Hiroshima, the first American president to go there since its destruction by American atomic bombs in 1945. Mars the planet of the military in Scorpio the sign of death and destruction, and retrograde, signifying a happening from the past and its aftermath. It happens to happen on the very day of this visit by the President. Quite curious and remarkable, as is all of astrology. I pity those who refuse to enter into this magical universe of expanded understanding. 

He is odd to all, unpopular, peculiarly focused on nothing

He could state. But he has an accountant's skill

With numbers and studies his ledger. He thinks daggers

Toward competitors, harshly computing his profit.

In his family tree are others more genteel, endowed with sense

And competence, as well as one who as jester mocks at all

And at himself, playing spontaneous games while a brother

Goes on strike protesting exploitation.

The man at his desk with computation would win great wealth.

His brother on strike would seize an easy competence.

The joker laughs at both. Somehow there's nothing worthy

Of drama in a series of TV episodes in these lives.

Which one will fight for what he thinks ought to be his?

Chance and hazard do not deter him. He must have the prize.

{Friday}  {Competence}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 26 May 2016---And Summer Vacation Times!

Thursday 26 May 2016

}Closer to Understanding{

Moon in Capricorn-->Aquarius

/moon void-of-course   ** /

until it enters Aquarius at 7:28a PT | 10:28a ET | 2:28p UT   ***

Lunar aspects are cheerier and more helpful than yesterday.

A concentration of planets in the 8th sector of a major field system has led me to emphasize financial considerations in these reports. Also Mercury remains in a trine with Jupiter and Pluto, the latter increasing over the next week while gaining speed, suggesting that for many financial issues will be resolved happily. The uncertainty of the Dark Hermetic Epoch is decreasing gradually. Whatever you do today could help in a big way to settle money questions.

The opposition aspect in astrology is interesting. It is really the least frequent aspect, because Mercury and Venus can never form oppositions with the sun, and those three seldom form oppositions with Mars--only when it is retrograde once every two to three and a half years. So the current opposition with Venus was somewhat of a puzzle to me, which is why I asked for your input about what is happening in the emotional or romantic sphere for you. 

The answers of two individuals were helpful. I have to go on my own limited observations. I have used the word "separation" to describe what may be going on in many lives from May 15 through June 2. That is because the opposition seems to be an aspect of separation, among other things. Yet it can be creative. Think of mitosis and meiosis in cells. In my high school -college days I saw diagrams of this, with the material in the cells separating into two opposite poles just before the cell divides. Perhaps that is what goes on with Venus opposite Mars. So it could be highly creative, but I believe its creativity is mostly invisible or subtle. The crisis of separation makes way for a reunion later, in some form or another. 

I see that the last time this opposition occurred, I was mostly alone during it, but three months afterward I had a peak experience in a relationship and other friendships. Three months from now would be late August or early September, and I see that Venus will be sextile Mars for the whole month of September. Voila! The "separation" or "meiosis" phase we are experiencing now in relationships and friendships could be preparing us for something truly wonderful in September. (Or even earlier; see below.) It is true that Mercury will be retrograde that month, but this is not always a bad sign for personal relationships (although confusing for business and projects). Further, Jupiter will escape from Virgo (a sign in which it is uncomfortable) and enter Libra on September 9. Libra is a sign of love and relationship, ruled by Venus.

Let's not get carried away, but when you are feeling down, dream of next September as a time for some of your hopes to gain fulfillment, especially in the social or interpersonal sphere. 

If you are not afraid of Mercury being retrograde, September 10 through October 6 could be a perfect time for a vacation. Travel is not always terrible at such times, when other aspects are good. (I am leaving out the first nine days of September because of squares to Saturn and Mars by the sun, which might still be felt afterward, but less so.) 

But also, closer to the present, look at June 22 through July 15 as a possible vacation time. I would choose either that or the period just indicated in September-October for a happy vacation period. The first has the benefit of a Bright Hermetic Epoch; the second has the benefit of Jupiter having gone into Libra. Another virtue of the June 22-July 15 period is again a good aspect between Venus and Mars, the trine, and also a sextile between Venus and Jupiter up through July 10 (with ten-degree orbs which I have found reliable for long-term indications). 

The rest of the summer has features which could be problematic. A word to the wise is sufficient.

I'm not asking for anyone's blind faith about that, but let me say that I have studied these things assiduously for decades. I just went back to look at a rather disastrous vacation I had in 1988, to see what went wrong. I had studied it many times before but wanted to remind myself of the details. I have also looked at the happiest periods of my life, some of them vacations, with these methods. The Venus sextile or trine Mars periods are always positive for relationships, unless something else is fiercely intervening. The Venus sextile Jupiter aspect in the June 22-July 15 period is also magnificent. If you have four weeks of vacation, why not use two of them in the earlier period, and two in the later one? Or, if not on vacation at those times you can still enjoy yourself thoroughly in and around your working schedule.

We have discussed the Jupiter square Saturn aspect repeatedly. It is exact today (and was yesterday). It is serious. It makes us self-critical. It is a struggle, partly, between too much of a good thing (Jupiter) and too little (Saturn). It is an attempt to gain control of one's appetites. Wise discrimination is essential. I hope the helpful lunar aspects today will get us through this period of testing with success and fulfillment.

{Thursday} {Closer to Understanding}

Cosmic Piper

P. S. I really appreciate those of you who have indicated you like the poems. I do too but I got carried away with the summer vacation report above! Maybe next time.

Forecast for Wednesday 25 May 2016

Wednesday 25 May 2016

\Sorting/

Moon in Capricorn   ***

/moon goes void-of-course at 6:13p PT | 9:13p ET | 1:13a(Th) UT   ** /

While the underlying trend of Tuesday was optimism (moon trine Jupiter), today it could be jitteriness (moon square Uranus). We need to hold on to whatever hopefulness surged up in us yesterday and maintain that vision even if there are things which make us doubt it today.

Money and finance are still emphasized. Perhaps you have seen a way out of the hardest part of your financial predicament (using that word in the sense that everyone has one, in one form or another, even Donald Trump). Yet that way seems uncertain. You can get through these doubts and maintain your poised orientation to better possibilities, probably more smoothly on Thursday, which could be a day of good fortune. 

We have talked about the Venus opposite Mars aspect, lasting from May 18 through May 30 (by a ten-degree orb, but this is a major aspect which might require 15 degrees; then it would be May 15 through June 2). It is major because it can happen only once in every two or three years, when Mars is retrograde. The next incident will be in June 2018. 

I asked yesterday how people's love lives were, and two of you, one female and one male, replied that there was nothing happening in their "love life" and one of them said that he knew he was repelling or warding off love as a defense. That was very helpful to me because I feel the same way. It was poignant yesterday, when a wonderful friend wrote to me inviting me to be with a group of people and I had to say No. I felt that this did not fit in with my current living, even though the friend means a great deal to me. It was painful to say no. It was "the great separation," seemingly, which might be a name for this aspect. 

Then another friend, who reads these reports, and comments very helpfully, sent me the following article:  http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/fashion/marriage-breakups-separation.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0&referer=http://m.facebook.com/

You might find it fascinating--about the seemingly natural or inevitable end of a couple's marriage. It was published in the New York Times a few days ago right after the Venus opposite Mars aspect began in earnest. You can always detect the current aspects in the topics which trend in the media. 

We will get through this and it is good to learn from it as much as we can. It even worked out at a lesser level for me Tuesday: I wanted to go to a group meeting in the evening but found that the bus getting me there was horribly late and decided that rather than be embarrassingly late I would not go. It was, this time, an enforced separation I had no control over. 

I note that there is a lot of rebellion about standardized tests in schools going on. That is interesting because this opposition is in Gemini-Sagittarius (Venus in Gemini, Mars in Sagittarius), the axis which has more to do with education than any other in the zodiac. This aspect can be felt as interference. "Get out of my life, you useless standardized tests!" Or, in the case of the ended marriage, "Please get out of my life, old mate, in a civilized manner." 

Not fun, and yet, as in the case of the ended marriage, there may be little emotion connected with it. Or, as the reader of these reports said, he himself is choosing to "defend" himself from love. That seems rather hard-nosed and callous, though not really cruel (let us hope, though it could be at worst). 

Of course on any spiritual path, Love of the divine sort is an imperative, so during this aspect we need to raise human attachments to a level of divine love, which might mean that even though we are separated from someone physically we do not have to be separated spiritually.

The other hard aspect now, Jupiter square Saturn, has also been discussed at length, so I will only say, it is challenging us to live up to our ideals. In a big way. So we are sorting out the true from the illusive, the good from the useless, in our lives. May that go with godspeed for you.

{Wednesday} /Sorting\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 24 May 2016

Tuesday 24 May 2016

\Selfishness/

Moon in Capricorn   ***

Luna fortifying the Grand Trine among Mercury, Pluto and Jupiter should help with money matters or anything concerning possessions, buying or selling.

Venus opposite Mars is exact today. You tell me about it. I don't know what is happening in your life. I would call it an aspect of loneliness or separation. So tell me that you are in the most exciting love affair of your life! I have no investment in bad news.

It could also be an aspect of rejecting love, or feeling that the love offered you just doesn't work or is not real, or that the problems which come with everyone are not worth the struggle to be with them. Or it could be the most exciting love of your life! Tell us about it.

I am tired of trying to be an oracle. You know what is going on in your life.

He despises the church looming in the west while he picks with his axe

For a find. Agnostic since birth he mines in the earth for what's real. 

At night he hears songs of veterans getting together to remember

What's best or worst from the war. He fears plunder from strangers.

Two yellow flowers grow in the shade of a sheltering tree.

They need water from a well that quenches other thirsts.

An owl above comes alive in the moonlight, aware

Of secrets he'd reveal if he could to flowers, tree, me. 

A man lying in a dark gloomy chamber sees a grey cloud

Outside, but sunlight on the horizon. The owl sleeps.

{Tuesday}   /Selfishness\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 23 May 2016

Monday 23 May 2016

^Pupil of the Process^

Moon in Sagittarius-->Capricorn

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week continues (until 10:16p PT | 1:16a(Tu) ET | 5:16a(Tu) UT)   ** |

/moon goes void-of-course at 7:39a PT | 10:39a ET | 2:39p UT   */ |

until it enters Capricorn at 10:35p PT | 1:35a(Tu) ET | 5:35a(Tu) UT   **

The harshness of things, as delineated in the weekend report, continues although less painful because of the moon's gradual separation from hard aspects, plus the fact that Mercury now direct is gathering speed. We may feel that we have survived the worst of it. There are sensitivities, and separations. Many may feel alone. There are thoughts of competition, either in career or for gain, and that is not bad if aimed at acquiring the necessities of one's life-plan. It appears that money strategies are less befuddling than last week. 

The Jupiter square Saturn aspect gets closer by the day, what I have called a test of the soul. It makes us introspective as to our place in the world and the justification of our existence, as it were. "What am I doing which makes my life worth while to myself, G*d and human beings?" is the question we may be asking ourselves consciously or subconsciously. We are identifying with the judgment a guru, teacher, or parent-figure might make of us, and trying to be worthy. That is all to the good. The void-of-course moon most of the day suggests we have to be patient with the process and not jump to conclusions. The butterfly has not fully emerged from the chrysalis.

The following is neither sonnet nor any other form I know of but combines the degree-symbols of the daily chart:

The master elucidates as much as he can to the pupil.

A horse with fine-curved neck prances past them

While a warm wind enlarges whitecaps on the sea.

Irrepressible thought-energy seizes teacher and student.

The profile of this observer suggests detective sharpness.

He gazes at a man reclining on a couch served gladly

By courtiers. One taste-tests people, the other the arts.

The observer walks to a natural well, gathering secrets.

The well feeds a stream over which a lovely bridge conserves

Human energies. The master and pupil stroll upon it.

{Monday} ^Pupil of the Process^

Cosmic Piper

Extra Report: Mercury Stationary Gift

Mercury will be stationary on Sunday (May 22) at 6:21a PT | 9:21a ET | 1:21p UT, that is, motionless from geocentric perspective, while it is changing from apparent backward motion to apparent forward motion. An amazing fact is that Sri Aurobindo was born on a day when that was happening (one day out of approximately 120) and that a salient factor of his teaching is that to do the Integral Yoga we need to go beyond, live beyond, or be conscious beyond "the mind" or our ordinary intellectual thinking functions. That is often not easy for us, certainly not for me. I was born while Mercury was traveling fast forward, and my proclivity is endless thinking and pondering of things, while I "chase the planets" for astrological perspective. So silent thought-free meditation is something that doesn't come naturally to me, nor does it to a great many others. Here is something from the Master which could help myself and perhaps you on this Saturday-Sunday "retreat" from our usual ways of thought:

"So long as we are dominated by the intellectual habit and by the lower workings, the intuitive mind can only send its messages to us subconsciously and subject to a distortion more or less entire before it reaches the conscious mind; or if it works consciously, then only with an inadequate rarity and a great imperfection in its functioning. . . . The remedy is to train first the intellect to recognise the true intuition, to distinguish it from the false and then to accustom it, when it arrives at an intellectual perception or conclusion, to attach no final value to it, but rather look upward, refer all to the divine principle and wait in as complete a silence as it can command for the light from above. 

. . . But for the knowledge of the Self it is necessary to have the power of a complete intellectual passivity, the power of dismissing all thought, the power of the mind to think not at all which the Gita in one passage enjoins. This is a hard saying for the occidental mind to which thought is the highest thing and which will be apt to mistake the power of the mind not to think, its complete silence for the incapacity of thought. But this power of silence is a capacity and not an incapacity, a power and not a weakness. It is a profound and pregnant stillness. Only when the mind is thus entirely still, like clear, motionless and level water, in a perfect purity and peace of the whole being and the soul transcends thought, can the Self which exceeds and originates all activities and becomings, the Silence from which all words are born, the Absolute of which all relativities are partial reflections manifest itself in the pure essence of our being."

--The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 301-302 (I left out the final sentence of the chapter, which you might find helpful.) 

Even those of us who have a hard time attaining that Silence may have more success this weekend. No coffee for me tomorrow morning!

Hugh

P. S. This report does not replace the regular one for the weekend, already posted. 

Forecast for Saturday and Sunday, 21-22 May, 2016

Saturday 21 May 2016

^Sensibilities Stretched^

Moon in Scorpio-->Sagittarius

/moon goes void-of-course at 4:41a PT | 7:41a ET | 11:41a UT   ** /

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week begins at 5:55a PT | 8:55a ET | 12:55p UT   * / |

Moon enters Sagittarius (no longer void-of-course) at 11:49a PT | 2:49p ET | 6:49p UT   ** |

I commend those of you reading this, because you know I do not give sweet sugar-coated mood-lifters as forecasts. The reports have been rather dire lately. I find no way to lessen the heaviness of things at present. 

The lunar data above are normal weekly cycles, nothing to worry about in and of themselves, but they combine with other difficult factors, the chief of which I believe to be the square of Jupiter with Saturn. This is a long-term defining aspect. It has been with us for months, but we tend to feel it more explicitly when it is exact, as now by less than one degree and precisely on Wednesday-Thursday this week, May 25-26. 

It is a soul-challenging aspect. Dr. Marc Edmund Jones says of it, when it occurs in a natal chart: "Jupiter and Saturn in a square aspect indicate an ordering of life's fundamental motives through which the native [bearer of the horoscope] usually suffers very immediate consequences of even the least neglect or abuse of his own potentials. He finds he must fight continually for the ideals in which he has come to take the most consistent interest, and also learns that his conscious well-being is wholly dependent on the moral struggles in which he becomes involved almost inevitably at every stage of his experience. If he does not relish the days in which he seems torn to pieces in self-uncertainty, he must discover ways to tear himself apart deliberately on the behalf of some cause of real significance or some conception that he can dramatize through his own being." That is an intense warning, and I left out the most frightening part of it, the last sentence.

I'm not trying to frighten you, but I am feeling some of this aspect intensely. It seems I am not taking the time I probably should to do some really painful things--including writing two letters to two individuals about very touchy and painful matters which are crucial to them and to me. Yes, it is a moral and ethical imperative, and I intend to write those letters, but again today I postponed them. I do not know what this aspect means in your life, but perhaps you can sense that from what has been said. We are up against our own judgment of ourselves.

Here is an example of what can happen under this aspect at the worst. I did not know about it until yesterday, when a beloved long-term friend called me to inform me that someone in her family had committed suicide two months ago. The date was March 25th, and since the friend asked me to do so I looked in the ephemeris to see the aspects at that time. Jupiter was square Saturn within less than a degree, in fact within 20 minutes of arc (one-third of a degree), that day. This individual's self-condemnation (if it was that) involved intense problems in his marriage, but of course only he knows the whole story. Because of retrogradation of the planets (from geocentric perspective) that aspect is now repeating, exactly on May 25th-26th. So we need to be prepared. At worst it could indeed be a suicidal aspect, since the self-judgment is intense. We are seeing our failures, in order to get a grip on them and rectify them. Of course we need to do that, but also to be patient with ourselves so we don't go overboard in self-defeating self-condemnation. It's perhaps analogous to fixing a machine rather than smashing it, or learning slowly to play that piece rather than attacking the piano. 

I hope that might be helpfully meaningful.

Meanwhile we have a Full Moon today, at 2:16p PT | 5:16p ET | 9:16p UT. To me this always indicates an expansion of consciousness, an awareness of things on multi-levels, and more-or-less intense spiritual illumination. 

In accord with what was said above, we do indeed need to be careful--super-patient with all and with ourselves. This is especially true because Luna will be with Mars and opposing Venus while the opposition between those male-female "deities" increases day by day (exact on Monday-Tuesday). Flaring up in anger is possible unless curtailed.  At a lesser level it can be just letting go of someone when one senses that there is no possibility of smooth understanding or heartfelt communion at present. Let it be. At best it could be long, patient, detailed sharing of one another's viewpoints without rancor, no matter how much the mind and heart have to expand in order to encompass the other's position.

{Saturday} ^Sensibilities Stretched^

Cosmic Piper

Sunday 22 May 2016

^Patient Aspiration^

Moon in Sagittarius

|Karmically challenging or sobering third| of this week continues (through Monday)

* |

What was said yesterday remains just as relevant today. The |difficult third| reaches its peak in the forenoon and afternoon (in the Western Hemisphere; later at night in Europe and India). Whatever your deep challenges, you may choose to face them in prayer with help drawn down from above. 

P. S. (added later): I see that nobody (oh, one person) liked what I wrote for the weekend. Tough, but I call it the way I see it. I neglected to mention in Sunday's forecast that Mercury turns direct that day, at 6:21a PT | 9:21a ET | 1:21p UT. When Mercury is motionless, at that time, is a good time for having one's mind motionless, or attuned to higher frequencies as in meditation and prayer. It looks like a good day for such inward activities rather than forward motion. But such forward motion is being prepared gradually.

{Sunday} ^Patient Aspiration^

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 20 May 2016

Friday 20 May 2016

~Re-Visioning~

Moon in Scorpio

< moon in Via Combusta * <

until  5:48a PT | 8:48a ET | 12:48p UT   ** 

I don't believe I have given my usual lecture, during the Mercury retrograde cycle (until Sunday this week), about "not giving up, not resigning, not dropping projects." It is all too easy to do that. I have felt like it myself, especially during these two days of the Via Combusta (Wednesday and Thursday this week). People will feel they need to move, drop their job or their mate, give up on a project which has been badly faltering, and so on. We are all subject to those feelings at these times. (It can, and does, continue past the end of Mercury retrograde, until even June 7 this time, the end of the Dark Hermetic Epoch.) 

"It's just not working" is the feeling. Maybe not, in appearance, but appearances are deceptive. There is probably something you can do to fix the situation, even if that seems hopeless at first. Tinker with it; tweak it; toy with different ways of doing it, in your mind at first, and then try them out. If one doesn't work, probably another will. Mercury retrograde and the whole DHE challenge us to "keep on keeping on" in perhaps novel ways in order to get our bearings all over again. Revision is a key. 

It's interesting that that word literally means "re-visioning" or seeing things in a new way. Then it has come to mean revising, that is, changing the approach outwardly to make it work better. First the re-visioning, then the revising or reconstruction. That is probably what you need to be doing with something in your life, rather than dropping it completely in disgust or despair. This particular "lecture" or sermon has been helpful in the past to readers and I'm sorry I didn't deliver it earlier this time around. I was lulled by the Grand Trine (which includes Mercury) to feel that things were easier than they have turned out to be (for me and I believe for many others). Yes, there is hope, but even that has its limits when we feel "Oh no, it's still not working, time to give up." No, it's time to figure out how to do it right, even if that means failing a few more times until you get it. 

Of course, in some few situations, it might be wise to drop something, or retire from it, during a DHE or Mercury retrograde period. But I believe that is far rarer than we tend to assume. Finding a different approach, revisioning and revising, is more likely to be what is needed. For that, seemingly infinite patience is required.

For Friday, we need to beware of the Venus opposite Mars aspect described yesterday (I won't repeat that--you could re-read it.) That is because Luna will be opposed to Venus all day and evening, not an easy aspect for relationships or friendships. People often pull away from each other at such times. 

On top of that, the retrograde Mercury is forming an exact quincunx with Saturn, an aspect of uneasiness or redirection. Uneasiness leads to redirection. From Taurus to Sagittarius, it might indicate tensions between sources of income, or ways of using money, on the one hand, and spiritual or ethical ideals on the other. That is one reason I mentioned philanthropy in a big way in Thursday's report. We can all be philanthropists on a small scale, even when at first it seems impossible. That may seem very hard because there is also a feeling of poverty. Even high-flying investors are not happy with the markets, which have been not only choppy but stagnant, and down for the year. Collectively we are going through a "Where is my money?" cycle. 

Jesus told a rich young Hebrew man that to win eternal life he should sell all his possessions and give to the poor. The young man--the text says that "Jesus looking on him loved him"--walked away sadly. Then Jesus said to his disciples that although it was hard for the rich to "enter the kingdom of heaven," still "With God all things are possible." I think we are finding ourselves at some such point right now. 

The previous paragraphs about revision and reconstruction are probably the most help I know how to give.

{Friday}  ~Re-Visioning~

P. S. To look over the barriers into another's life is not an easy thing to do. Astrology helps. While writing this report an old friend called me to report the death by suicide of a family member. The personal grief involved for this person was extremely intense, and beyond the reach of astrology or any merely mental analysis, and yet I heard the news while the moon was in Scorpio, sometimes a sign of death, and in the Via Combusta, which sometimes "pulls the rug out" from under us. I hope your Thursday and Friday will be less earth-shaking.