Sagittarius Full Moon: Feeling, celebration & lightning insight

Celestial weather: 1 - 11 June 2023 

After the hard and heavy, haywire energy of recent months, this week’s Full Moon in Sagittarius feels like a party, sweet friends. Ruled by the Greater Benefic Jupiter, planet of generosity, joviality, hospitality and adventure in the sensual temple of Venus, the Lesser Benefic, sign of earthly riches and natural beauty of the world, it’s a welcome moment to celebrate the blessings in our lives and the dreams we’re nurturing, and to feel invigorated and inspired by the possibilities for the future. 

Mercury finally breaks free of its shadow

The Sun is well on its way through curious, playful, mutable, multi-faceted Gemini but there’s still a lot going on in Taurus this week, which influences our ambitions and aspirational trajectories. Mercury, the planet of mind, mercantile activity and all kinds of gadgetry, and the ruler of Gemini, FINALLY cleared its shadow at 16 Taurus on Thursday 1 June following a period of tech glitches up the wazoo. Hopefully, problematic digital, communication, mechanical and mental matters etc should hopefully begin resolving although minds and situations remain in a heightened state of electrical and emotional sensitivity over coming days and into next week.

On Friday 2 June, the fallen Moon in Scorpio opposes Mercury, potentially triggering intense subterranean feelings or revealing significant information previously undisclosed. It could help to illuminate a situation, bringing greater awareness of issues that build towards breakthroughs in thinking when Mercury conjoins Uranus, the planet of lightning insight, on Monday June 5.

Jupiter meets the amplifying North Node

On Friday 2 June (@ 10:42 am AEST) Jupiter fuses with the magnifying influence of the North Node, the point of intersection where Sun and Moon are eclipsed, which amplifies all things Jupitarian in the Taurus areas of our charts, placing emphasis on our values, the destinies we envision for ourselves and what we’re willing to commit to or invest in to expand towards them. 

It’s worth tuning in this weekend to the messages and intuitions that surface as body wisdom in quiet moments of contemplation in nature and other peaceful Taurean contexts. They enhance the earthy power of Jupitarian fortune, wisdom, altruism and growth. Think daydreamy walks, gardening, reading, dancing, cooking, adventuring in the natural world, luxuriant stretching, making, imbibing eco-philosophy etc.

I’ve definitely been noticing an emphasis on the eco-philosophical this week. I’ve found myself listening again to the remarkable Sophie Strand whose sublimely poetic exploration of ecology and identity reminds us of the myriad mycelial, microbial connections on which our own fortune depends. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, I recommend popping her name into the search field of your preferred podcast app and doing the Jupiter thing by intuitively picking an interview that resonates. She speaks on many of these Jupiter in Taurus themes with deep and embodied insight.

As does Gina Chick of course, our own freshly minted superstar, whose writing on her experience Alone in lutruwita is similarly luminous and inspires real joy in the sacredness of our terrestrial relations of interdependence and co-mingling. With Jupiter in Taurus the greatest rewards and abundance are generated when we aim our efforts towards the benefit all beings. The seeds of intention we plant in the rich soil of our lives are always nourished by other organisms. 

Grand Water trine: Venus, Neptune and the Moon

On the morning of Saturday 3 June, Venus, the planet of love, value and beauty in Cancer trines Neptune, planet of transcendence and imagination in Pisces, as the fallen Moon in Scorpio trines them both at 27 degrees. This is fleeting but potently sensitive astrology, which offers a portal of intuitive opening and emotional depth,  ideal for healing and honest, heart-centred conversations, art-making and therapeutic imagining. All three planets are in the bounds of Saturn, currently in Pisces, where melancholic vibes are well directed into creative disciplines of articulation and expression. 

Speaking of which, I mentioned a while back that Saturn in Pisces has been associated with incredible peaks in musical and artistic production throughout history. An exasperated composer friend recently asked me what was up with that recently. Things have felt emotionally gruelling as opposed to artistically inspirational.  I realised that I’d failed to emphasise that much of the artistic brilliance signified by Saturn in Pisces was inspired either by melancholic feeling, psychedelics or the straight-out sads. Think: Billie Holiday’s I Cried For You, the Beatles’ Sgt Peppers, Jimi Hendrix’ Are You Experienced, Jeff Buckley’s Grace, Nirvana’s Nevermind, REM’s Losing My Religion, Portishead’s Dummy for a tiny glimpse of the Saturnian vibe. So if you’ve got the feels going on this weekend,  get them down on ‘paper’  and give your Venusian artistic expression some Saturnian form sweet friends. Holotropic breath work and/or other mind-altering strategies optional.

Full Moon 13 Sagittarius

Feeling, celebration and lightning insight

The Moon ripens into fullness on Sunday 4 June @ 1:41pm AEST just in time for a festive Sunday lunch, exhilarating hike, or early Sunday sesh with extra rounds and friends. The rulers of the Gemini Sun (Mercury) and Sagittarius Moon (Jupiter) are both in Taurus, the temple of Venus who’s making a mellifluous trine to Neptune, planet of glamour and dreamy visions as previously mentioned on this Full Moon. In modern astrology Neptune is considered the higher octave of Venus. It’s the planet of transcendent rather than earthly love. Both planets are in signs where Jupiter does particularly well, although they’re hidden from its view suggesting the potential for festivities and fun where conversations veer towards mystical, magical, meaningful philosophical depths - my personal faves - or where unexpected confusions complicate and enlarge emotional responses. 

A Full Moon to celebrate the distance we’ve travelled, the adventures we’ve had along the way, the challenges we’ve overcome and what they’ve revealed to us about ourselves and what we’re here to do. It reminds us that we have what it takes to find our way to the next of our dreamed of destinations. And it supports self-belief and a lust for life that helps us forge a balance between the hard work necessary, the R&R needed and the creative outlook essential to generate good fortune and new potential from challenging conditions. With Mercury one degree from Uranus, we could be experiencing the electrical charge of paradigm-shifting ideas and conversations that radically re-alter mindsets and status quo. 

Awakening to lightning insights:

Mercury meets Uranus

It’s taking place so early on Monday 5 June (@5:49am AEST) that the material of our dreams could provide pathways to insight and radical awakenings of the body-mind as Mercury fuses with the planet of revolution, Uranus. But it could come through any means. It’s the kind of shocking liberation of energy that come through suddenly jarring realisations and events, which instantly reroute energy into new directions. For deeper context, and a sense of the storyline seeking some kind of evolutionary continuation now, look to the period around 18 April 2022, for themes. Where were we then needing to wake up in our lives and thinking to radically reorient our energies in accordance with our true values? And where are we needing to do this now? Where are we practically, perhaps even stubbornly committed to ideas and beliefs that are out of step with the lives we actually want to lead? 

These are powerful days to seek out new and unusual experiences, connect with different people and create space for unconventional, exciting ideas; to listen to radical, revolutionary, thinkers and break free from deadening mental routines and limiting patterns in order to try new things; and to risk the true weirdness necessary to honour our own strange, brave hearts.

The Goddess Venus enters the fiery heart of Leo

In the early hours of Tuesday 6 June, Venus, the goddess associated with the magnetic power of attraction, treads the ground broken by Mars on Sunday May 21 following the Taurus New Moon and immediately opposes Pluto at 0 Aquarius. As Venus comes into confrontation with the mysterious lord of death processes, power and the riches of transmutation, Pluto, we could receive a glimpse of the transformative context in which Venusian karma will be playing out when Venus retrogrades into the underworld of Leo from Sunday 23 July to Monday 4 September. This is a fairly big deal sweet friends. The Venus retrogradation through the childlike sign of heart-centred leonine creative expression is one of the most significant transits of the year. 

From now until Monday October 9 the planet of love, peace, beauty, art, attraction and resources will be undergoing a powerful reset. Venus will first sweeten the Leo area of our charts before making a sharp turn in direction, which will provide the context for a major reworking in this area of our lives. More on this to come but it’s worth paying attention to the underworld messages. Again the Venus retrograde cycle in Leo provides a timeline of reference. Look to themes that were unfolding in 2015 and 2007, particularly in relation to aspirational trajectories, experiences attracted, reversals incurred, and the resets, re-training and outcomes that occurred.

In the meantime, we have much to look forward with Venus direct in Leo for the next couple of months. She’s magnetising glamorous, playful, expressive energy and artistic, heart-centred brilliance and leadership. She’s the goddess of good hair days and sensual, heartfelt, passionate self-expression. 

Mercury enters Gemini as Pluto returns to Capricorn

On Sunday 11 June (@7:36pm AEST) the planet of destruction & rebirth returns to the critical degrees of Capricorn for its second last phase of demolition. It reactivates the area of our charts that was subject to Plutonic pressures in late March & prepares us for an evolutionary revision, which should be complete in its processes of transformation by November 2024. But for now we may still be in the decomposition/putrefaction/fermentation phase when things can be a little pungent.  

Capricorn represents material, institutional, structural power dynamics traditionally associated with long-established hierarchies of financial power. Pluto will remain in Capricorn until 21 Jan 2024 before migrating back into Aquarius for another karmic preview of the quantum social & technological shifts that will be underway there over the next two decades. Aquarius represents the decentralisation of power  through both social justice revolutions that empower marginalised and disempowered communities and radical intellectual and technological advancements. As an air sign ruled by Saturn - the planet of limits and natural laws and Uranus - the planet of what’s possible beyond them and of the shocking events and catastrophes that serve to liberate blocked and stagnant energy, Aquarius rules AI, alien intelligence, air quality, breathing issues and airborne diseases. It’s no surprise to me that in the final days of Pluto’s first reconnoitre into Aquarius, we’re witnessing a crisis of air quality caused by out of control fires in Canada whose dependence on fossil fuels is even greater than the US, and of course the air quality is most negatively impacting indigenous communities and poor frontline workers across Canada and the US.

Revelations & unravellings over the next six months focus our attention on issues of power & should reveal any lingering power dynamics of toxic entanglement, which are more than ready for composting & regeneration. And the less tightly we hold on to the things that the lord of death compels us to relinquish, the less painful those experiences are likely to be. At the same moment that Pluto re-enters Capricorn, the Moon merges with Neptune, planet of dreams & visions at 27 Pisces & sextiles Pluto just as Mercury, the planet of mind, trines it from 29 Taurus on the precipice of its rulership in Gemini. This is a pretty interesting ingress chart which bodes well for the Plutonic work ahead. Powerful insights, intuitions, news & messages facilitate processes of healing, transformative imaginal power & creative expression and help us to regenerate an area of our lives that has been rotting and from which the fruiting bodies of its decomposition are beginning to emerge. There’s a Roman mosaic of the dictum - Know Thyself - inscribed at the temple of prophecy at Delphi whose cheeky skeleton lying on a mattress of those words reminds us that it’s through these processes of psychological death & transformation that we come to know ourselves more deeply & discover our true power.

An hour after Pluto’s return to Capricorn at 8:26pm AEST, Mercury tips into Gemini, sign of curious, critical, divergent, perspectives & witty intelligence. It heightens our capacity to translate & make sense of the feelings, information & ideas that emerge with these Plutonic revelations & to appreciate their seriously funny side. Things should get busy and interesting. With both Mercury and the Sun in Gemini, our cognitive acuity, mental capacity, mercantile thinking and magician’s minds should be able to keep apace with our ambitions, which is something to look forward to.  Mercury in Gemini is playful, carefree, trickster energy, which champions curiosity, comedy and changeability. Have fun with it lovelies.

Passion, power & regeneration: Dreaming big on the Taurus New Moon

Descent into the Balsamic Temple of the Senses

After some glorious Autumn days in Naarm/Melbourne, the weather’s turning cold again just as the Moon deepens its descent into darkness, presaging this weekend’s hugely powerful Taurus New Moon (Saturday 20 May @ 1:53am AEST). The Balsamic Moon can feel a little confusing as the light diminishes but the word ‘balsamic’ comes from the ancient Hebrew for aromatically perfumed resin, which was used to soothe and heal. As such, the Balsamic Moon is associated with rest, release and healing rather than figuring things out, and it reminds us to anoint ourselves with sweetness as we do so.

It’s a time to give ourselves the space we need to be wherever we are with whatever’s actually happening in our lives and to make it as beautiful as we can. As the Moon enters her exaltation in Taurus, sign of the senses, and conjoins Jupiter, the planet associated with the search for meaning, it’s the perfect time to cosy up and reflect on what’s limiting, outdated and extraneous in our lives so we can prepare for release, and to dream on what glimmers and inspires to plant seeds for a fecund new cycle on Saturday.

This week’s astrology is some of the most significant of 2023 sweet friends, and that’s saying something after this recent eclipse season, I know. Saturday’s exalted Taurus New Moon segues into a hugely powerful dynamic the following day but the events leading up to it this week really set the stage. What we seed on this lunation unfolds, as always, over coming weeks but with Jupiter newly entered into Taurus, their influence could feel more enlarged than usual.

Mercurial magic & monkey business

Mercury, the monkey mind, stationed direct in Taurus on Monday, signalling an easing off of some of very strange and annoying tech, communication, money and business-related issues and glitches we’ve been encountering since about April 7. Thankfully, as always, we’ve learned some valuable lessons in the process and they’re now enabling us to implement inspired and innovative new solutions. They could help us improve our efficacy, regain lost ground, broaden our reach and possibly even open up new connections with long-lasting benefits.

Mercury remains in shadow until Thursday 1 June, however, so we could experience some ongoing frustrations until then and I find it helpful to think of the Mercurial trickster, god of magic and commerce as helping us stay on track in reconstruction mode with these antics, reminding us to build momentum and efficiency slowly, artfully and with careful consideration as we draw on what we’ve recently learned. 

Between Thursday 18 May and Saturday 20 Mercury will make a sweet sextile to Saturn, which offers us a window of flow for making recent creative lessons manifest. The planet of the mind, communication, commerce and magic, in the sign of what matters to us most and getting it with ease, combines with the planet of disciplined devotion and material reality in Pisces, realm of visionary imagination, dissolution and healing. Ideas, endeavours, projects and practices that involve a synthesis of the practical and poetic, the sensual and therapeutic, the beautiful and imaginal, the material and socially idealistic could begin a process of crystallisation now that will bring long-lasting, tangible, beautiful results.

Jupiter, god of good fortune, enters Taurus

On Tuesday this week, Jupiter, planet of amplification, abundance, joviality and largesse, entered Taurus, sign of the gloriously fertile garden. If you’ve been noticing some major astrological buzz around this event, that’s because Jupiter’s movement into Taurus signifies a general improvement in fortune for people and situations across the board (with some caveats of course!).  As one of the traditionally ‘lucky’ planets, Jupiter is now leaving Aries, sign of one of the ‘unlucky’ ones, Mars, and enters the sign of the Lesser Benefic, Venus, second ‘luckiest’ after the King of the Gods.

In reality, Jupiter expands, enlarges and amplifies whatever it touches, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill, however the ultimate outcome always results in some kind of positive personal and collective growth. As the planet of belief and the search for meaning, and the archetype of the generous teacher, Jupiter also expands whatever ideas and beliefs we invest in intellectually and energetically. Jupiter also governs the concept of ‘the greater good’. In the sign of Earth’s resources it suggests that if we focus our efforts, endeavours and enterprises to benefit the many and the diversity of Earth’s inhabitants and expressions, the personal and collective benefits could be enormous.

For one whole year until 26 May 2024, the god of the glorious blue sky, of far-reaching visions and optimistic expansion, of wealth and good fortune will focus its slow fertilizing growth in the sign of material resources, sensual pleasures, the body, beauty, art, food and what really matters to us most. It’s going to be travelling in the same sign with Uranus though, so we can also expect some unexpected twists and turns, some whirlwind energy, breakdowns, shocks and breakthroughs during the course of the year, however, the Jupiter-Uranus combo virtually guarantees that there’ll the lasting and valuable innovations as a result.

If all goes well, Jupiter’s sojourn through Taurus should magnify our creative opportunities, enhance our pleasure and improve quality of life particularly as we relate to our own bodies, resources, talents and relationship to nature. With any luck - and both Jupiter and Venus signify luck - the Greater Benefic’s passage through Taurus over the next year will usher in more financial stability personally and collectively as well.

On the downside, Jupiter in Taurus can amplify all kinds of addictive tendencies and their repercussions; the kinds of desires that can never really be satiated, which poison and corrode self-worth. So it’s important to know if this is the case this year, that there’s also a positive evolutionary intention behind this kind of exaggeration. This is an extremely powerful year to work with or seek out trustworthy and inspiring teachers, to explore wise spiritual disciplines, to focus on body-centred healing practices that attend to trauma. Depending on where Taurus falls in your chart, various topics are likely to be enlarged to both positive and challenging effect this year but their purpose is to achieve positive growth.

Coming in with a bang: Jupiter squares Pluto

We might receive a glimpse of some of those initially amplified challenges when Jupiter enters Taurus and immediately squares Pluto at 0 Aquarius in a hard tension with echoes until the end of May. The planet of death and putrefaction, revelation and transformation could lay a heavy burden on our initial enthusiasms, indicating that our magnificent garden party visions may require some deeper excavation and stinkier composting to fertilise the fecundity and lasting foundations of our future-fruiting arbors of joy.

The desire for security and stability is in tension here with the need for deep change that might require pushing boundaries or breaking free from societal norms and expectations. And ultimately the part of us that wants to dig in and resist ‘necessary’ destructions always loses out to the titanic force of Pluto, especially in Aquarius, which is fundamentally future bound. The crucial thing to remember with Pluto dynamics is that what seems terrible initially turns out ultimately for the best, and it’s a HELL of a lot easier when we surrender rather than resist the process. Keep in mind  sweet friends, that SHIT is the stuff that actually nourishes growth and abundance. It’s NOT a reflection of our worth or what we deserve but it does highlight the fact that there’s a better way on the other side, and that some thing must give in order to get to it.

Staying present to the messages and insights that surface through the muck between now until the end of May and softening to receive the hidden wisdom of intensities will help enormously to ease suffering. Paying deep attention to the nuance and deeper meaning and significance of these experiences could also reveal to us the ways in which they’re already nourishing growth and transformation in our lives, which can feel buoying and motivating. Anything that feels extra challenging this week invites tender attention, compassion, curiosity and a radical acceptance of what is. Accepting reality creates that magical space in which transformative change seems to happen almost effortlessly.

TAURUS NEW MOON

Saturday’s lush New Moon in Taurus sets the stage for some big astrology. A more potent window for initiating intentions than the average New Moon, this is a lunation to dream on what we care about most, to purify the toxic shadows of belief and experience that have been clogging our hearts and power, to experience a passionate renewal that allows us to act courageously on our values and beliefs with a synergy and exuberance that magnifies positive outcomes.  Although Pluto, lord of the underworld opposes Mars, god of war and planet of passion, drive, courage, will, anger, violence, conflict and cutting on Sunday, and Jupiter, god of the greater good, squares them both in a profoundly transformative tension, we could feel the waves of magnitude before.

The Moon finds her exaltation in the fertile Taurean temple of the senses but on this lunation she also rules and is ruled by the goddess of love and beauty, Venus, in Cancer. Both goddesses are empowered by mutual reception and sextile here, which ups the ante on their capacities not only for luxurious nurturing and loving care but also for compassionate maternal authority. It’s as if they’re overseeing the impending confrontation between the young, emotionally reactive god Mars, who’s been emotionally triggered in Cancer since March 25, and the god of death and destruction who is aeons older and more powerful, and whose purpose in Aquarius and sense of reckoning is focused on the bigger picture. 

Venus’ entry into Cancer on May 8 has already helped to soothe some of the Martian inflammation around topics of family, feeling and the past, and she continues to exert a pacifying influence on Mars on this New Moon, as does the exalted Moon herself in an almost exact sextile to Mars, restraining impulsive aggression with a sweet and reassuring hand. Neptune, planet of illusions, memories, forgiveness and healing is almost exactly trine to Mars, which can both soften and dissolve the urge to assert ourselves in a triggering power dynamic or fuel the delusional stories we draw on as evidence for sticking to our guns. But with so many positive forces at play on this lunation, it’s as if Venus and the Moon beckon Mars from the ledge of this destructive 29th degree of its fall in Cancer with an invitation to eat a delicious, heart-warming feast. 

On Sunday 21 May, when Mars finally enters Leo, the relief should feel considerable but the planet of fiery passions runs right into an existential conflict with the god of the underworld, planet of death, psychology and deep transformations, Pluto. At the same time Jupiter, god of meaning and the greater good, already squaring Pluto since Tuesday, now squares Mars as well. The nature of this dynamic could find its reflection in a deep and profound sense of catharsis and renewal, a passionate drive to realise endeavours that make a difference in the world while generating greater abundance, or in hugely powerful psychological breakthroughs that feel like a victory against inner demons or overwhelming forces that literally transforms the status quo.

However, we could also see this dynamic reflected in power struggles, explosive  and exaggerated reactions, confrontation between the needs and desires of the self and those of the group, or conflicts of belief relating to values, money and resources and  impact on self worth. If we do find ourselves swept up in the vortex of these energies, we can trust that something rich and profound is wanting to emerge through these processes of intensity, dissolution, destruction, revelation and regeneration. Wherever possible, avoid power plays that could cause damage and find flow in the transformations wanting to come through. They present hugely positive opportunities for abundant growth.

To optimise our receptivity to these energies we might pay attention to the power of what’s playing out and meditate on its transformative significance, take time to appreciate the beauties in our lives and connections, lead courageously from our hearts, empower others, protect vulnerable inner children, champion unusual and innovative ideas that could benefit the many, express heartfelt truths that transform power dynamics with love,  seek sweet reprieve in nature, dream up opportunities to synthesise the desire for playful self expression with ideas that make a difference , and above all, by cultivating faith in the miraculous and mysterious power of life and the painful experiences that transform us by compelling a deeper and more conscious relationship with ourselves and with the world, which rewards us with riches.  Seed big intentions with passion and power on this Taurus New Moon sweet friends.

As children, few of us are taught to understand and prioritize our feelings….There is a set of rules and expectations put upon us that is not about exploring who we are or what we’re capable of… As artists, our mission is not to fit in or conform to popular thinking. Our purpose is to value and develop our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, p. 257-8

Making the most of a powerful Scorpio Lunar Eclipse window: the last on the South Node until 2040

If you’ve been feeling the emotional waters rising & watching the bones of old tragedies washing up in the psychic tides over the last couple of weeks, take heart lovely friends, you’re right on time for this week’s Scorpio Lunar Eclipse, which takes place on Saturday 6 May @3:34am AEST. It’s the last eclipse we’ll experience on the South Node in Scorpio until 2040, which makes it a potent & potentially cathartic culmination to this nodal eclipse sequence. And it brings opportunities to deep clean the ancient sewer gunk blocking our channels of power & to clear the karmic patterns, trauma responses & power dynamics we’ve been working with over the last year & a half.

The ancients considered the Moon, the luminary associated with nurturing & sensitivity in her ‘fall’ in Scorpio, sign of trauma, death & transformation because emotions here can feel intense & overwhelming. On this week’s eclipse, that’s more the case with Mars, planet of conflict, severing & violent passions ruling the Moon from its own fall in Cancer, sign of the Moon’ This state of mutual reception by fall provides a very interesting context for this final South Node Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio.

Though both planets struggle to achieve their natural intentions in these signs, their mutual interest in each other’s context suggests an opportunity to further cooperative aims through experiences of difficulty. Any psychic detritus washing up on the tides this week alerts us to areas inviting our attention, investigation, empathy & trust. They point both to deeper processes of transformation underway & powerful opportunities for release, reset & reorientation. Practice compassion & actively self-soothe while feeling into difficult emotions during this eclipse window, seek wisdom that calms & inspires when overwhelmed & rest lovelies. We’ll be actively nourishing a future we can passionately commit to while potentially identifying actions & strategies that could help us feel more empowered & secure.

Scorpio is the sign of alchemical transformations, of the wisdom derived from wounding & of evolutionary developments in freedom. As we incrementally abandon our rudimentary defense mechanisms, we release ourselves from the drama of our fears & take flight. On multiple levels, this eclipse invites us to trust our own lives & let go in places where we’ve become rigid with fear. Control, which is naturally signified by Scorpio is also an instinctual response to trauma but this week’s Lunar Eclipse asks us to consider where it might have become part of the problem.

Where have we been holding on to archaic patterns that prevent growth? The South Node, described in Vedic astrology as the severed body of the eclipsing dragon Ketu, is associated with processes of cutting away, emptying & elimination that lead to spiritual growth & purification & is said to rule Scorpio. Scorpio is associated with the expulsive functions of the body & the cycles of mortality, putrefaction & composting that foster psychological renewal & enrich terrestrial wealth. Lunar eclipses in turn are associated with conclusions & endings, often personal or familial & with course-correcting shifts that align us more authentically to our path by suddenly upending the status quo.

Mercury entered the heart of the Sun on Tuesday, passing the halfway point in its retrograde journey through Taurus, indicating the potential for emerging solutions re matters of business & material security, rethinking values, tech & problematic financial & self-worth related ideas born of trauma. Scorpio’s modern ruler, Pluto, planet of psychological depths, death & rebirth experiences & hidden truths also stationed retrograde on Tuesday following a brief reconnoitre into Aquarius. Both planetary retrogrades further emphasise attention on the past as a means of maximising the psychological and healing potential of Saturday’s Lunar Eclipse. With the Sun close to Uranus, planet of sudden breakthroughs & Jupiter & Venus making a sweet sextile to one another, both in the bounds of Saturn, planet of crystallised reality, itself in the rulership & exaltation of both benefics, our intentions to free ourselves from our own limiting patterns just might bear fruit on this eclipse.

Venus moves into Cancer on Monday 8 May softening Martian tensions in the sign of the Moon. The Sun conjoins Uranus late Tuesday night & early Wednesday May 9-10 as Mercury edges backwards toward the amplifying North Node. Stay open to unexpected insights & intuitive breakthroughs re relationships & the past, family dynamics, money matters, creative innovations & comms. Jupiter enters Taurus on May 17, emphasising financial security & collective values while hopefully enhancing opportunities for increased abundance & self-worth. All in time for another powerful New Moon in Taurus on May 20. Any emotionally cathartic space-clearing we can do around Saturday’s Scorpio South Node Lunar Eclipse should help to prepare the ground for the sweet crops we plan to sow then.

More below as usual lovelies & if you’d like some more clarity, inspiration & reassurance around this powerful eclipse window, don’t hesitate to reach out! It’s what I love to do & readings are available for all budgets 🌞🌕🦂🌊🫀🌟

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Fierce love and faith & a super powerful hybrid Aries Solar Eclipse

Today’s rare hybrid Solar Eclipse at 29 Aries traces a path of totality through Ningaloo & Exmouth, Timor Leste & West Papua turning the midday sky dark for around 60 seconds courtesy of the Earth’s curvature. Friends in the Pilbara & Kimberley, close to the eclipse path, should witness some spectacular eclipse crescent shadow-play cast by tree foliage, as will friends in other parts of WA, NT, SA, FNQ, Indonesia & the Pacific islands, albeit to a lesser extent. Those of us here on the east coast of Australia & in SE Asia might just see the dragon aka the Moon’s shadow taking a bite out of the Sun through our colanders when the eclipse reaches its maximum @2:12pm AEST.

It’s an extremely powerful beginning to eclipse season. As the second Aries New Moon it takes place at the final anaretic degree, which brings the intensity of endings to inceptional turning points. New trajectories that are better suited to support our aspirations are fertilised by the death & decomposition of old pathways. It’s also ruled by Mars, planet of fire & drama in the sensitive water nursery of Cancer, which has been raising the emotional temperature for many already. Astrologically, eclipses are mysterious & non-linear, associated with fated happenings & events beyond our control but their full impacts unfold over time. Astrologers look to the houses where eclipses are taking place as sites where major change will be occurring in the life of the individual over approximately two years. The Moon’s nodes, which determine the signs eclipses occur in, spend around 18 months in each but eclipses are also previewed in signs before the nodes enter them & linger after to make concluding remarks. Today’s hybrid Solar Eclipse is one of these foreshadowing events. It’s the first eclipse in Aries since 2005 & precedes the shifting of the nodes to the axis of self (Aries) & other (Libra) in July. Look back to the major storylines unfolding in your own life between late 2004 & mid 2006 for clues re the themes emerging now for a life-changing sequel.

In Aries, there’s a fierceness of wanting, an urgency to act, a drive to defend & protect ourselves & others, as well as a potential for anger & reactivity triggered by deep sensitivities. And at the final degree there can be a distressing sense of disintegration, a feeling that things are coming undone. At the same time it’s as if the soft clay we formed in the candlelight of the last Aries New Moon on March 20 is committed to the kiln on this eclipse. The firing could be unpredictable & the initial results angsty but it’s only the first step in a more interesting unfolding journey. An hour after the eclipse, the Moon enters her exaltation in the slow, sensual, material realm of Taurus & instantly squares Pluto, planet of hidden power & transformation in the technological, socially revolutionary realm of Aquarius & the form is set. Four hours later the Sun leaves its exaltation in Aries & also squares the planet of death & rebirth, transmutation & riches as it enters Taurus. In this tension between a Taurean desire for security & the Plutonic demand for transformation, resistance to change is overcome by a more profound drive for power & authenticity.

This Solar Eclipse is further charged by Mercury, planet of the mind, communication, business, travel & technology, which stations retrograde in Taurus tomorrow conjunct Uranus, planet of breakdowns & breakthroughs. There’s potential for both powerful feelings & insights but also for opportunities to break free from patterns that have previously controlled us on this eclipse, although they may come in disguise. As Mercury turns back in mutual reception with Venus in Gemini, glitches could lead us to rethink & refine comms, ideas, relationships & money matters & things from the past become powerful sources of inspiration & insight. Mercury stations direct on May 15 but remains in shadow until 1 June & by the time it enters Gemini on June 11 Mars & Venus will be in Leo, another pivotal chapter in the story of 2023. In the meantime, Mercury’s retrograde journey through slow & steady Taurus assures us that we have time to work out the details, to pay attention to what went before, to rethink, reimagine & reinvent our approach with a greater emphasis on pleasure & simplicity.

Personally, I’ve been listening to a lot of Tara Brach & after days immersed in the calming antidote of her wisdom it finally dawned on me that the pain I’d been railing against had actually catalysed action on a couple of very wishful Aries New Moon intentions that I’d never seriously thought I’d achieve this year. It strikes me as a fitting metaphor for this eclipse. Pain is a powerful tool. As Mars destroys & cuts away, it makes room for extraordinary new possibilities to emerge & as it moves through Cancer, it also reminds me of this majestic sea cave, carved by smashing waves on the Gippsland coast & a magical highlight for me of the Libra Full Moon. On today’s powerful course-shifting hybrid Aries Solar Eclipse, I’m wishing you all fierce love & faith beautiful friends. May we all trust the process & feel the full magic of what is. 🌊🦀🌞🌑🔥♥️

#ariesnewmoon #aries #marsincancer #mars #taurus #mercuryretrograde #plutoinaquarius #seacave #gippsland #tarabrach #astrology #eclipse #solareclipse #hybrideclipse #fierceloveandfaith

Libra Full Moon: Mythical emotional landscapes

This week I’ve been making leporellos for a collab with my friend @remichell0 & I got carried away with my own mythical emotional landscapes in this first work in progress, which is like a call for protection zones for the flawed & fragile, strange but beautiful fauna of our own imaginal psychic terrain against attacks, primarily from inner assassins! This week’s astrology actually speaks to the potential for some healing around this topic, I think & also to opportunities for slowing down & enjoying the sweet & simple pleasures of life & establishing sustainable supports for the fragile shoots emerging in times of uncertainty.

This week’s Libra Full Moon (Thurs 6 April @ 2:34pm AEDT) follows the Sun’s conjunction with Chiron (@8:25am) the wounded healer & teacher of heroes in the sign of the Sun’s exaltation in Aries. Chiron’s empowered place at the heart of the Sun could illuminate wounds of identity that interfere with our ability to shine in the world as we are whilst simultaneously highlighting the wisdom we’ve gleaned in the process, which has fuelled a mastery of the passions we now use to bolster others. With the god of war, Mars in the emotional Moon palace of Cancer & the Moon in the sign of relationship interactions, we might be more conscious of frictions that aggravate old wounds around emotional safety & tendencies toward passive aggression. We might ask ourselves in such moments what’s actually worth fighting for & which parts of a newly emerging sense of self is needing protection or courageous assertion in order to thrive?

Venus, the planet associated with processes of harmonising & creatively synthesizing differences, attracting what we value to ourselves & experiences of pleasure, peace, beauty & self-worth, rules this Moon from her Taurean temple of the senses, which facilitates delightful conversations, delicious meals & repose but also emphasises the importance of self-care. Feelings that trigger our defensive circuitry in relationship dynamics could also yield insights that deepen connections if we can tend to ourselves, taking time out even momentarily to tune into the flow of the natural world in triggery scenarios & to recommit to the heroic defense of our inner children against threats from psychological snipers. Mercury in Taurus slows down our thought processes, lending greater consideration to words & communications & as it enters its retrograde shadow on Friday, glitches in the realms of business, comms & technology are worth paying attention to. Mercury make a sweet sextile to Mars until May facilitating this more considered approach & as Venus sextiles Neptune this week, we’re better able to respond in emotional states with calm words of compassion or acts of creative imagination.

Those nascent possibilities initiated in the dark of the Aries New Moon on March 22 reach an initial point of reflective culmination on this Full Moon, which in turn highlight the next necessary steps. Venus in the bounds of Saturn in late Taurus & Saturn in the exaltation of Venus in Pisces & the exaltation ruler of the Full Moon in Libra bodes well for creative problem-solving & productive constraints that could help us to identify what’s worth saying no to to minimise overload, overwhelm & burnout. In the lead up to the Sun-Jupiter conjunction on April 12, the first Solar Eclipse of the season on April 20 & Mercury’s retrograde in Taurus on April 21 (to May 15), it seems like interesting astrology for consolidating plans for sustainable, creative outcomes, crystallizing ideas & tending to debilitating doubts that have been getting in our way.

There’s always more going on but I hope this little taste of archetypal cosmic indicators is helpful preparation for the festival of mythical & miraculous rebirth & family dynamics this week lovelies. Enjoy the Venusian pleasures & take care of your sweet selves 💗🌞🌕🐣🐰

#fullmoon #libra #venusintaurus #chiron #saturn #mercury #marsincancer #art #leporello #innerassassins #horoscope #zodiac #astrology

Aries New Moon: Seeding courageous dreams for the future

Today’s New Moon at 0 Aries is the first of two to bookend a season of major change. On April 20 the second New Moon at the final 29th degree of Aries is also the first eclipse of the season & a rare hybrid solar eclipse, visible as a total eclipse in some parts of Australia. Eclipses tend to usher in events beyond our control, which can have greater significance in the places where they’re visible, making today’s Aries New Moon particularly powerful for setting the stage with intent.

As the first sign of the zodiac, Aries is associated with the vitality & violence of birth, with what we want & how we go about getting it. It’s bold, fast, fiery, impulsive, reactive, protective, courageous, aggressive & innocent. Its ruler, Mars, is in the final degrees of Gemini where it’s finishing up a long period of overhauling ideas & communications, technology, business & learning, underway since August 2022. Mercury, planet of the mind & ruler of Gemini, is also in Aries & close to the New Moon, placing the two planets in a supportive relationship of mutual reception. This dynamic suggests both the possibility of greater support for & clarity about the ideas we want to action over the next 12 months as well as a potential to rush into things without taking time to think them through.

Pluto’s ingress into future-oriented Aquarius tomorrow lends an as yet unseen power to the beginnings initiated now. Offering ourselves the gift of space to connect intuitively with what feels right in alignment with our values benefits us all. Venus is moving through her own temple of Taurus, conjoined with the amplifying North Node, which bodes well for the potential yield of intentions that are value-aligned, which enhance simplicity, beauty & quality of life. Jupiter, the Greater Benefic also continues its passage through Aries in close proximity to Chiron, the wounded healer & teacher of heroes. In expanding everything it touches, Jupiter enhances the potential for healing wounds of identity. In Aries, the emphasis is on asserting the vulnerable parts of ourselves that feel they must fight for the right to exist. Leaps of faith in courageous self-belief allow us to eventually master the passions that drive us.

Connect to New Moon magic with candles, firelight & flame. Formulate intentions in any form that sparks passion. Make, move, dance, journal, walk. See previous posts for creative vision mapping suggestions. Call on the energy of the world for support. Craft clear & specific, measurable intentions ( a new job that fulfils me & offers inspiring career developments & a higher income than I’m on now, for example). The energy is geared towards growth later today, this evening & tomorrow while the Moon's in Aries. Keep a record of your visions for the year ahead. When you’re clear about what you’re seeding, you might imagine a spark of flame igniting them with life, sprouting seeds in rich black earth, fertile rain catalysing growth, branches fruit-laden, touching the sky.

Image: Hilma af Klimt, Tree of Life 1913-15

#newmoon #aries #newmoonmagic #astrologocalnewyear #intentions #magic

Dark Moon magic

Today’s Equinox marks one of two moments in the year when our planet achieves a moment of temporary equilibrium, as the Sun moves into 0 Aries marking the beginning of a new season of growth & development. Tomorrow the New Moon initiates a new astrological year & is immediately followed by Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius on Thursday March 23 for the first time in 248 years.

It’s pretty big. So as we close out this cycle & prepare to enter into the new, today’s dark Piscean Moon invites quiet rituals of reflection, rest & release. Studies have shown the efficacy of ritual on sports performance but according to the Scientific American they even appear to benefit people who don’t believe in them. Ritual reduces anxiety & improves outcomes in situations of stress & uncertainty & those who conduct rituals under such circumstances consistently outperform those in non-ritual-performing control groups, according to researchers Brooks, Schroeder et al.

The dark moon can feel a bit like one of those situations with Pluto at 29:57 Capricorn poised to shift into revolutionary, revelatory, futuristic new territory. Energy tends to be low on the dark moon & scenarios can feel more confusing, emotional & unclear than usual. It’s a lunar phase associated in the Hindu tradition with the goddess of power, destruction & change, Kali & in the Greek with the goddess of transitions, crossroads, magic & protection, Hecate. So you get the vibe. It’s witchy & loaded with power & portent. In this rich moment of emptying & renewal, you might feel inspired to follow your own traditions, intuit a ritual of your own or try the following to release the old & make way for the rush of new energy coming in. Research also shows that rituals involving longer sequences of steps tend to be most successful in producing outcomes (Legare & Souza 2012) so I’ve added plenty to this recipe of symbolic & causally opaque actions for harnessing intent. I hope it helps you tune in lovelies…

🌊🕯️🧠💗🌸📝🔥🌑

Light some incense or essential oils.

Play some music that inspires feeling & reflection.

Clean your space, slowly & mindfully.

Pour water into a large fresh glass for drinking throughout.

Make yourself a cup of something. Rest & relax. Meditate on what’s changing.

Think about what you’ve learned over the last year through the challenges experienced.

On a sheet of paper write down what you want to release.

Take your candle, paper & water outside (or somewhere fireproof).

If outside, make a small hole in a patch of earth with your fingers.

Burn your list & express gratitude for the learning.

Sweep the ashes into the hole & cover it over with dirt.

Pour your remaining water onto the earth.

Look at the night.

Remember that you’re blessed.

🌊🕯️🧠💗🌸📝🔥🌑

Image: 19th century Kalighat painting of the goddess Kali in her terrifying guise to ward off evil.

#equinox #darkmoon #hecate #kali #ritual #release #magic #astrology

Making magic

From now until the Aries New Moon (Wed March 22) we’re in a waning lunation phase lovelies, closing out & emptying what’s ready to be released. If there’s anything you’d dearly love to be over with, rid of or resolved this year, you might like to make a list that you can keep adding to up until the dark Moon. But as you add things to your list, make a note of what you’ve learned in the process of dealing with them, acknowledge how they’ve grown you & add a little prayer of grace & gratitude for their release. On the dark Moon, Tuesday evening, you can burn your list in a candle flame or similar, adding a bit of ceremony for flair (more on this soon); what’s cut away on the dark Moon doesn’t grow back so easy or abundant. Keep adding to your list of intentions & collecting images that resonate, spark desire & inspire, but if you’re planning a creative vision mapping ritual, don’t begin making it before Wednesday; the energy is geared towards growth, particularly later in the day/evening.

I’ve found it helpful to shape intentions with a sense of the some of the bigger influences at work & if you’d like a sense of some of the major themes playing out for your rising sign in 2023, check out the timestamped video linked here. They’re short & to the point. TBH rising sign horoscopes aren’t really my strong suit (I really love speaking to birth charts) but hopefully the information is useful lovelies & my crazy facial expressions amuse! If they don’t quite scratch your itch, I discovered recently thanks to all the legends who contributed to the recent earthquakes fundraiser, that I LOVE doing 20 minute readings. They’re jam-packed but digestible, speak specifically to your chart & they’re super affordable. It’s also worth mentioning at this point that not all intentions made on an Aries New Moon are going to come to fruition. Magic is mysterious & sensitive to timing & conditions, which are indicated more clearly in the natal chart. Understanding what’s being activated can be enormously helpful, practically & psychologically so if you think you might benefit from a deeper look, feel free to get in touch lovelies 🌟💗🧠🫀🌞🌱🌳 Otherwise stay tuned!

#makingmagic #astrologicalmagic #ariesnewmoon #darkmoon #rituals #intentions #releasing #makingspace

Hazy visions & mystical windows of timing

In the build up to tomorrow’s Neptune cazimi (with the Sun at 25 Pisces squaring Mars at 25 Gemini & immediately followed by Friday’s Mercury cazimi squaring Mars at 26 Pisces) we could be feeling some heightened tension, confusion & uncertainty re communications, perception & ideas. But these could be illuminated over coming days to reveal insights that help us clarify the actions necessary to cut away dross & begin manifesting a vision.

These transits feel like a dramatic closing chapter to the eight month long journey Mars has been taking through Gemini. The planet of ambition, drive & desire, violence & attacks has been particularly noticeable in the sign of data, communication, technology & commerce whilst squaring the planet of illusion, deception, imagination & compassion, Neptune. Since August 2022 we’ve seen an avalanche of data hacks & tech breaches, layoffs across the tech industry (including 10,000 Facebook workers in the last 24 hrs) the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, more ideological gun violence, a tidal wave of AI releases - from text, image & music generators to whale sound translation projects, information warfare in Russia & Ukraine & this week both the introduction of laws to reduce gun violence in the US & the signing of the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal triggering fears of proliferation.

As we approach this final stage of Martian activity in Gemini, these transits could be powerful for clarifying what isn’t working & for getting clear about what the vision really is. Though situations may feel hazy & tense at present, they could also highlight ideal outcome scenarios & point our intentions in the direction of actions that make a difference. They’re also strongly associated with magic, which leads us back to next week’s Aries New Moon. If you’re interested to harness this magical timing window, this week’s energy is ideal for formulating intentions & collecting images (printed or digital) that speak to you of their essence if you want to want to work with a creative vision mapping practice (ie vision board) for the Aries New Moon.

Personally I’ve always struggled with vision boards (I can never stand the sight of my own attempts & find it hard to clarify my intentions in this format) so I’ll be working with the structure of the Vedic house system, which I find quite beautiful (pictured here) to help focus intentions across all areas of life for the year ahead. DM me if you’d like a copy of the template or if you’d like more info about how I’ll be working with it or check out Astrology Hub’s episodes on Treasure Maps with Tracy Cook using Buzz Meyers’ version of vision boards using the Feng Shui Bagua system.

I’ve also found it extremely helpful to understand what opportunities & challenges are in the bounds of possibility for the year ahead astrologically speaking to clarify my own intentions. Stay tuned for a video covering the major themes of 2023 for each of the rising signs, I hope it’ll be of help for you too lovelies 🌑🌞🌙🔥🌱🌳🌸🍒

#neptunecazimi #mercurycazimi #marssquareneptune #vision #mapping #practice #ariesnewmoon  #creativevisionmapping #astrologicalmagic #intentions #vedichousesystem #astrologyhub #art #astrology

Preparing for a super-charged manifestation portal: Aries New Moon, March 22

My dad was a devoutly religious Catholic when my siblings & I were growing up but whenever we found ourselves in a beautiful place in nature, he always described it with passionate reverence as ‘magic’. I’ve been thinking a lot about how that inscription has informed my own beliefs re magic. Like so many others, I rarely felt anything divine in religion, I encountered it teeming & abundant in nature. But as we’ve evolved in our capacity to scientifically comprehend the miraculous nature of the cosmos, we seem to have succumbed to an increasingly deadening disregard for the actual magic of the world. Those who deride mysticism as superstition & ignorance, who ascribe a soulless Cartesian mechanics to the function of nature, do so to the detriment of wonder & rob the everyday miracles of the world of their potential to yield meaning. 

In reality, every act of intention realised is a magical feat of manifestation in collaboration with nature. We possess the power to partake in the miracle of flight, can manifest an abundance of fruit where it’s never grown before by harnessing the power of nature, however timing & conditions remain critical factors. Cherry trees planted in the summer months will struggle to take root but if they’re planted in the cooling earth of Autumn, they’ll thrive & bear fruit. Astrology is the mystical art & science used by the ancients to gauge the quality of time.

On March 21 the Equinox marks the Sun’s entry into 0 Aries, which begins both the astrological new year & Autumn in the Southern hemisphere. As the first sign of the zodiac Aries represents actions motivated by desire & the force & forward thrust of birth. Each year, the Aries New Moon marks a particularly potent moment for astrological magic when intentions seeded have the greatest chance of manifesting within 12 months. The incredible nature of this potential was hammered home for me personally this year. I was about to deliver a huge public art project on the last Aries New Moon & was too exhausted to set intentions but I was attacked by a dog on site the next day, my painting hand mauled then damaged further in surgery, out of action for months & my world turned upside down. Incredibly, the biggest intentions I would have consciously seeded on that New Moon have come to fruition this year, albeit under pretty bloody challenging circumstances.

As a result I’ve been determined to be extremely intentional this year and as fate would have it, it’s a particularly rare & powerful portal for astrological magic in 2023 with two New Moons in Aries: the first at the critical 0 degree on March 22 & the second at the critical 29th degree on April 20, also the first solar eclipse of the season. So if you’d also like to supercharge your manifestation potential for 2023, stay tuned dear friends. I’ll be sharing content over coming days to help you clarify intentions & get prepared. This week as we’re building towards a surreal culmination between what we want & what we dream of, what’s actually realistic or ridiculous as the Sun conjoins Neptune & Mercury in Pisces & squares Mars in Gemini on Thurs 16, it’s a perfect time to begin taking notes.

#staytuned #ariesnewmoon #aries  #eclipse #sun #mercury #neptune #mars #geminin #pisces #manifestationportal #astrologicalmagic #magic #nature #intentions #actions #art #astrology

Virgo Full Moon & Saturn into Pisces: Vision & crystallisation

An hour after this evening’s Full Moon at 16 Virgo (11:40pm AEDT), Saturn makes its grand entrance into mind-altering, mystical, emotional & imaginative Pisces. After five years in Saturn-ruled signs, that’s big. It places emphasis on feelings & senses, visions & beliefs & the discipline, structures & rituals/routines necessary to achieve mastery in relation to the new chapter opening up in our lives this month.

Saturn in Pisces periods have produced some of history’s most celebrated works of art, music & literature so I’m feeling pretty bloody excited about it!! The last time Saturn was here (1993-96) marked an enormously inspiring period in my own career as an artist & I CANNOT wait to absorb what everyone else brings forward creatively in this period!! 🌟

Mercury, planet of mind, magic & communication, rules this Full Moon from Pisces where its mystic-poet vibes can feel at odds with the demands of Virgoan perfectionism & critical thinking. Saturn & Pluto are at the critical 29th degrees of Aquarius & Capricorn, which can heighten the feeling that we’re being tested. We may be receiving info about what needs correction, adjustment & perfecting but now may not be the time to fix what isn’t quite working.

If there’s heightened sensitivity, confusion or anxiety, pay attention to the insights & inner visions but be gentle on your sweet selves, surrender to the poetic fog & trust the process unfolding. We have time to integrate & make sense of all that’s changing in our lives. Pluto rules death & renewal so anything that seems to be coming undone in distressing ways is part-way through a profound process of transformation that promises eventual rebirth & access to deeper sources of our own power. We just need to surrender to what's falling away.

As the Great Awakener Uranus trines this Full Moon, it could also be a lunation of liberating insights & exciting changes that break us free from old limitations & heaviness. Open your channels to receive lightning messages beautiful friends & enjoy a quick tour of some of my fave Saturn in Pisces artworks! (IDs in comments below) It's a big month, so stay tuned for more magic coming in lovelies! 🪐🌞🌕🪸💗

1. Hilma af Klimt 1908

2. Dora Maar 1935

3. Rene Magritte 1937

4. William Blake 1789

5. Leonora Carrington 1937-38

6. Picasso 1908

7. Marlene Dumas 1994

#saturninpisces #virgofullmoon #mercuryinpisces #pluto #saturn #criticaldegrees #uranus #thegreatawakener #art #astrology #inspiration #artisticgoldenages

Pisces New Moon: Swimming with dolphins in a cloud-studded seascape

Monday’s Pisces New Moon (20 Feb @ 6:05pm AEDT) contains within it the seeds of another watershed astrological year. After the heavy-handed Saturnian lessons of the last three years, this lunation cycle carries the planet of time and material reality, of limits, structures, boundaries and maturity into the deep waters of Pisces and opens a door to a new stage in our development.

With the New Moon at the first degree of the last of the zodiac signs, the oceanic, liminal realm of feeling and consciousness where we psychically integrate experiences and form embryonic new realities, the feeling of this lunar month is one of closing chapters and preparations for shifts into new territory. Venus, planet of pleasure and sensuality sits at the last, critical degree of her exaltation in Pisces on the New Moon and moves into her exile in Aries 50 minutes later. This could indicate some challenges in relation to Venusian topics - relationships, money, creativity, self-worth etc - but far-from-home planets are also compelled to find out-of-the-box solutions and in Aries, Venus is well situated to cut away anything joyless, harmful, ugly, undermining or extraneous that’s taking up space in our lives that would be better allocated to the new dream we’ll begin constructing soon. Pisces is both the feminine sign of Jupiter and the exaltation rulership of Venus and with the two benefics ruling from Aries during this cycle, there’s a strong emphasis on courageous self-assertion and bold actions that accord with our personal values. Such actions enhance confidence and self-worth and expand our horizons and as Jupiter finally leaves its shadow on 16 Feb also, the feeling of movement beyond the scope of what seemed possible six months ago is further emphasised.

This lunation cycle builds towards the Virgo Full Moon on March 7, which is immediately followed by Saturn’s entry into 0 Pisces an hour later at 12:34am AEDT on March 8. After five years of rulership in its own signs, this Saturnian shift into the imaginal waters of Pisces could feel strange and unsettling, momentous, melancholy, challenging and beautiful. Look back to 1993-1996 for a glimpse of the personal themes that could resurface for further development over the next 2.5 years. But for now as the Sun focuses our attention on Piscean themes, we might consider the worlds we want to inhabit moving forward and how we might make them manifest. Pisces is associated with the watery, dream-realm of undifferentiated possibility, the cosmic ocean from which all life emerges and returns in an endless flow of creative potential, and reminds me of Jill Bolte Taylor’s description of right brain consciousness (My Stroke of Insight, TED 2008) through which our minds perceive the energetic unity of the world without border, boundary or differentiation. It’s intuitive, mystical, meditative, sensitive, imaginative, emotional, romantic, sensory and imagistic, and the realm of fantasy, illusion, confusion, delusion, euphoria, altered states, unity, altruism, self-sacrifice, spirituality, compassion, forgiveness and healing.

Perhaps the world’s most famous Pisces, the genius theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, brought a Piscean kind of “whole world view” and mysticism to his explorations of the cosmic order. “I believe in intuitions and inspirations” he said in 1929. “I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am. I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Einstein’s scientifically imaginal genius was also deeply entwined with a deep spiritual conviction, which he described as ‘cosmic religion’, and a ‘passionate interest in social justice’.  “We exist for our fellowmen…” he wrote in 1931, “for all those unknown to us personally with whose destinies we are bound up by the tie of sympathy.” At this moment, devastating destruction, grief and trauma in Turkiye and Syria, literally beyond the comprehension of those of us safely in our homes far away, reminds us of the crucial importance of care for our fellows. Please consider donating to search and rescue at AKUT or Red Cross to help where you can dear friends 🙏🏼🫀🩸

In the face of all that is overwhelmingly painful and unjust, Einstein surmised in 1931 that the “most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” Such spiritual, ethical and creative themes will almost certainly be highlighted as Saturn moves through the ocean of Pisces. The planet  of outsiders, eccentrics, marginalised groups, scientists and astrologers is also associated with seafaring, which may be why it seems to do so well in Piscean waters. Although melancholy invariably accompanies Saturnian transits through Pisces, it’s the kind that inspires epically imaginative, spiritually poetic and sweeping acts of creation that help us to process and make sense of events that seem beyond comprehension.

And so, on this cloud-studded, dusky seascape of a New Moon, we might conjure a little of Einstein’s wonder for the small miracles of our lives, which take place within extraordinary contexts far beyond the scope of our understanding, and tune into the mysteries of feeling and imagination, compassion and possibility, intuition and complexity, and the mind-altering and incredible beauty of it all. Much love to @b_o_w_o_ng  whose text message ‘Ps I just swam with dolphins’ arrived during a magical reading by my astrologer friends and intergalactic spiritual aid workers @moonraysastrology @la.zodiac.reel @kimsastrohealing @kathleenschildmeyer @maggie torn. The divinatory space felt like swimming with dolphins. When I was painting this picture with my precious six year old niece (thanks @colettelafontaine @simon_bergagna) and lamenting that no matter what I did the poor girl in this picture looked scared and sad, when she should be looking happy, without hesitation she replied “I’d be scared,” then after a beat “but I’d also think it was beautiful and

A M A Z I N G !!!”

It seems a pretty apt metaphor for the moment. 🌞🌙🫀🙏🏼🌊🐬

This lunation cycle carries us up to the beginning of the astrological year with the Aries New Moon on March 22, a super-charged manifestation moment in any year but in keeping with the epic astrology of March, this one is E X T R A. Stay tuned for an astrological magic workshop I’ll be running to creatively harness powerful intentions then beautiful friends 🌟🔥♥️

#piscesnewmoon #jupiter #venus #saturn #saturninpisces #virgofullmoon #ariesnewmoon #alberteinstein #quotes #famouspisces #jillboltetaylor #mystrokeofinsight #rightbrain #wonder #mystery #astrologicalmagic #ariesnewmoon #art #painting #gouacheonplywood #swimmingwithdolphins #overcastsea #smallmiracles #magic #mnemonics #astrology

Deep mental probing, information as power, news that transforms: Mercury conjunct Pluto

Mercury, planet of mind, messenger of the gods & guide of souls was the only god able to travel between the realms of the living & the dead governed by Pluto in Greek mythology. As Mercury approaches Pluto in the early hours of Saturday 11 Feb, we may be gripped by the intensity of transformative revelations. Their relationship symbolises a deep probing of the psyche, the ability to face & communicate fears that hold us ensnared & potential for a deeper intellectual & intuitive understanding of the transformative power of our wounds.

This is the last time Mercury & Pluto will meet in Capricorn for nearly 250 years, which makes it worth paying attention to the news & information that stirs us - from both outside & within - as we tie loose ends in the Capricorn area of our charts between now & March 23 when the planet of death, destruction, transformation & riches ingresses into Aquarius for the first time since Australia’s colonisation. By 10:22pm AEDT, the Messenger God moves into Aquarius where it paves the way for Pluto, stimulating innovation & revolutionary thinking, which should peak just after the Pisces New Moon (Feb 20 - more on that next week) when Mercury squares Uranus on Feb 22 then trines Mars on Feb 23 in its own sign.

Until then we have something otherworldly & sweet to look forward to. On Wednesday 15 Feb Venus & Neptune meet at 24 degrees of Pisces, heightening romance, imagination, healing & creativity with the potential for glamour of all kinds, just don’t elope with someone you met this week! The following day the Sun merges with Saturn, which could deliver a reality check. But the 'no' planet also helps us identify the adjustments necessary to realise our visions.

So lovelies, may you discover riches this week in the messages, stories & intuitions coming in; magic & magnificence in creative & interpersonal explorations; & the crystallisation of your revolutionary visions for the future... Much love & thanks, as always, for tuning in to the potential for magic, sweet friends 💗🌞👁️🩸🫀⚡️🪐

#mercury #pluto #deepandprofound #messages #revelations #lastconjunctionincapricorn #venus #venusneptuneconjunction #romance #saturn #sun #art  #astrology

Climactic culminations & weirdly beautiful breakthroughs on the pathway to the future: Leo Full Moon

Saturday 4 February 1:48pm AEDT

Sun 15 Aquarius square Uranus 15 Taurus

With the Sun in Aquarius our aspirations for the future are tied somehow to our social responsibilities. As the Sun squares Uranus in Taurus we experience an electrical tension between our worldly aspirations & our personal desires for freedom from constraints related to money & resources, the body, pleasure, leisure, art, nature & beauty.The job of the fixed signs is to sustain conditions, which means they’re exceptionally loathe to change. But big change is coming & coming for us soon. The Sun's square to Uranus shows up like a Willy Wonka golden ticket: a shiny promise of exhilarating liberation, which indicates the impending upending of the old order of our lives, which will undoubtedly involve certain parts of our personality & experience getting sucked down the tubes in gigantic blueberry form on the way to a happy ending.Concepts of a golden future necessitate radical change but also Wonka-like eccentricity, innovation & the courage to be true to ourselves. They also require us to sacrifice a degree of comfort & personal ambition for the benefit of the collective but this also brings breakthrough benefits for us.

Sunday 5 February 2:28pm AEDT

Venus 11 Pisces square Mars 11 Pisces:

Tensions in relationships, communications & ideas contain creative & intelligent potential today. Venus finds her exaltation in the luscious, imaginal realm of Pisces & as she squares Mars, who’s over it in Gemini, she’s in a superior position. Her heightened ability to dissolve hard edges in Pisces offers a creative solution to conflict & communication problems. The lovers’ square might show up as delightfully cerebral & mellifluous creative & romantic tensions or as a need to soothe argumentative tendencies & spiky intimacy avoidance but there's potential for beautiful results.

Monday 6 Feb 5:28am AEDT

Full Moon 16 Leo square Uranus 15 Taurus

Monday’s Full Moon in Leo is a climactic culmination of recent Uranian events. It represents the peak of a cycle that began on the New Moon in Aquarius on January 22 and relates to the emergence of a new idea or future possibility, which was coming into view when Venus, now exalted in Pisces, was conjunct Saturn, ancient ruler of Aquarius. Here Saturn is the crystallizer of previously unimagined futures, which emerge through innovation and higher degrees of collective maturity.

Uranus, the Great Awakener, modern ruler of Aquarius, squares both Sun and Moon from Earth bound Taurus, charging matters relating to money and resources, the body, pleasure, leisure and beauty with a revolutionary energy, which acts as a prescient foreshadowing of the big changes coming in March.Recent Uranian breakthroughs have been priming us for the electricity we’ll experience on this Full Moon. Uranus’ square to the luminaries triggers sudden, shocking, unexpected but liberating shifts in energy, mindset and events, which somehow release us from old constraints and charge the unfolding narrative with radical plot twists that reorient our pathway into the future.

The Sun is far from home in Aquarius, sign of the collective, breakthrough thinking and decentralised networks of power, and it tones Leo’s natural exuberance with more serious cerebral energy but Leo rules the heart, leadership and play. We might ask ourselves at this pivotal culminating moment, how we can do things differently? Where are the rigid parts of ourselves clinging to old orders of being and relation? And how can we recentre the more authentic parts of ourselves in order to synthesise a new experience of belonging and being in the world?

#sunsquareuranus #venussquaremars #thegreatawakener  #willywinka #goldenticket #weidlybeautifulbreakthroughs #uranus #venusexalted #leofullmoon #fullmoonsquareuranus #fullmoon #thegreatawakener #leo #leadershipfromtheheart  #artweirding #art #astrology

A glimpse of hope in the astrology of 2023 for First Nations people & their allies

Undeniably the cruellest day to celebrate Australian culture & identity, January 26 marks the date Governor Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack at Warrane, later Sydney Cove & today Circular Quay in 1788  to proclaim British sovereignty over the lands already occupied by Aboriginal people & to drink to the King’s health before upending those societies entirely. The following day, on 27 January 1788, Pluto moved into 0 Aquarius. Two weeks later Saturn entered Pisces. As Saturn returns to Pisces on 8 March 2023 & Pluto re-enters Aquarius for the first time since 1788 on 23 March 2023, we’re about to come full circle.

Arthur Phillip had been sent to establish the colony of New South Wales as a British penal solution for the loss of the American colonies where 50,000 convicts had been transported until America gained independence from Britain in the American Revolutionary War. Between 1788 & 1863 162,000 able-bodied convicts, mostly from Britain & Wales, were transported to build the colony in NSW, which Matthew Flinders would name Australia in 1804. Once their sentences were served, convicts were free to own land under British law but because that land already belonged to Aboriginal people, settlement sometimes involved deadly violence. More than 400 massacre sites have been documented in Australia to date; almost half of these were conducted by police.

The first recorded commemorations of January 26 were actually led by emancipated convicts in 1808 to celebrate both "their love of the land” in which their fortunes had been radically reversed & the success of Australia’s only military coup, which removed Governor William Bligh from power. Bligh had sought to stop the illegal supply & trade of rum by the military & his removal on 26 January 1808 was celebrated with “drinking & merriness” by the colony’s former convicts. Their reversal of fortunes had, of course, only been made possible by the wholesale dispossession of First Nations peoples from their country.

In Victoria the first celebration of January 26 took place in 1871. It was named AMA Day after the ‘Australian Natives Association’, which was founded for the benefit of white “native-born” men. The first national ‘Australia Day’ was nominated by a woman to raise funds for the war effort during WWI & was held on 30 July 1915. On January 26 1938, celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet were countered by the first national Day of Mourning, an extraordinary protest staged in Sydney by the men & women of the Australian Aborigines League & the Aborigines Progressive Association who protested the treatment of Aboriginal people & appealed for the recognition of their citizenship rights. Australia Day was only introduced as a national public holiday in 1994. According to polling, only 29% of Australians celebrated Australia Day in 2021.

The astrology of these events is uncanny. On the first Day of Mourning in 1938 Saturn was in Pisces. Three days after Australia Day was declared a national holiday in 1994 Saturn entered Pisces. The 1967 referendum, which recognised the citizenship rights of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples for the first time, took place shortly after Saturn had left Pisces for Aries. As Saturn re-enters Pisces in March this year, we are again moving towards a national referendum on the constitutional inclusion of a First Nations ‘Voice’ to parliament. The planet of structures, foundations and crystallisation will also make its way into Aries in 2025. 

In this video we look to Pluto’s last movement through Aquarius from 1777-1798 for a glimpse of the potential scope of the change ahead. In the French Revolution, the American war of independence, the successful Haitian slave rebellion & the colonisation of Australia the old order of power was upended either from the outside or by those at the margins of power. Since 2020 we’ve been witnessing the global rise of First Nations people. Astrologically this looks set to continue & there's cause for optimism about the potential for real change in the decades ahead. I’m deeply hopeful about what they could bring & am reminded again of my favourite quote: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” - Dr Martin Luther King.

I extend my deep respect & sorrow to Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations & all First Nations peoples with special love for my Aboriginal friends & family. I’m so sorry that the 26th of January is so shit.

 

#alwayswasalwayswillbeaboriginall& #lestweforget #notadatetocelebrate #dayofmourning #saturninpisces #plutoinaquarius #firstnations #justice

January 2023: Tensions & intentions, taking time & tying up loose ends

Welcome to 2023 friends! The year kicked off with some intensity in a Venus-Pluto conjunction triggering powerful feelings that might have compelled us to think more seriously about our values and desires re relationships, friendships, creativity, and money.

Jupiter is in the courageous, action-oriented sign of Aries but though we want to move ahead with optimism and assert ourselves in the world with confidence, its ruler Mars is still retrograde, and ruled by Mercury retrograde in Capricorn. They’re both asking us to look back and reconsider our strategies before we move forward on our plans and there’s a certain gravity, seriousness and possibly even melancholy in our considerations with the Sun in Capricorn ruled by Saturn, finishing up business in Aquarius before it enters Pisces on March 7, which could enhance feelings of heaviness around our doubts and responsibilities.

Cue the Cancer Full Moon on January 7! It shines a light on what makes us feel comfortable, safe and loved although it might also trigger emotions, which remind us to give ourselves what we need. We may feel more tired, sensitive or quiet than usual but we find comfort and nourishment in food, family, affection, cosy home environments, solitude, cuddles etc. With Mercury Rx conjunct the Sun and opposing this Full Moon we could be preoccupied with thoughts and emotions relating to the past. But because Mercury takes its seat at the heart of the Sun today (around 11pm AEDT) such pondering could prove illuminating. Mercury cazimi brings extra insight & clarity to our plans, strategies, perceptions, communications and ideas that help us to get our ducks in a row for the fast-paced months ahead… 

Tune in for more of January's major transits...

3:55  January 7, Cancer Full Moon 

7:00  January 10, Venus trine Mars, Mercury trine Uranus

10:20  January 13, Mars stations direct, 19 January Mercury stations direct

11:40  22 January, Aquarius New Moon

17:25  January 23, Venus conjunct Saturn, Uranus direct - all planets are go! 

18:45  27 January, Venus enters Pisces

Powerful energetic signatures: An astrological help guide to end 2022!

Jupiter enters Aries, Wednesday 21 December

The Greater Benefic, Jupiter, planet of hope & expansion re-entered Aries in the early hours of this morning, shining a light of renewed optimism & bringing a rush of energy that gives us the ‘get up and go’ to fight for the life we want & the courageous action necessary to expand our horizons to that end in the year ahead. It’s a particularly powerful & auspicious transit on the cusp of tomorrow’s Solstice. And we can look back for clues about Jupiter’s agenda in the Aries part of our lives by considering what was beginning to open up between 11 May & 29 October this year. As Jupiter races through Aries from now until May 16, these themes should continue to expand as we learn new lessons that allow us to level up in our spiritual understanding of the primal drives that propel us in life.

Tonight & over the next few evenings, the Lesser Benefic Venus begins to emerge as an Evening Star. The ancients considered the goddess of beauty, friendship, art, pleasure, love, peace & diplomacy most relationally oriented and empowered to bring positive influence in her evening guise & as she rises in her evening splendour she simultaneously makes a trine to Uranus, planet of breakthroughs & revolution in the pleasure temple of the goddess,Taurus.  Look to the sky after sunset to see her near the horizon & pay attention to feelings, images, & ideas that magnetically attract & which contain the impulse for liberation & exciting change.

Solstice, Thursday 22 December

Solstices mark the cardinal tipping points in the year when the Earth reaches its maximum tilt toward (Summer) or away from (Winter) the Sun when we experience the longest or shortest hours of daylight in the year. And because the Sun represents the light of consciousness, our aspirations & the evolution of our awareness through our unfolding narratives, the Solstice marks a powerful symbolic turning point for reflecting on our growth as individuals.

With Jupiter at 0 Aries making an exact square to the Sun at 0 Capricorn, this Solstice holds a big charge, which could describe a tension between how things are and how we want them to be. It’s a significant moment to consider how we’ve changed since this time last year, to contemplate the challenges & crises that have facilitated our growth & to meditate on the ways we wish to expand our awareness in order to realise our aspirations in the coming year. At this point the answers may not be clear but the tension of these ideas will eventually propel us to the necessary action that prepares us for the new.

This Solstice focuses our awareness on the ways we love & the things we value most seriously. With Venus conjunct the Lot of Fortune & trine Uranus there’s greater ease & benefit in creative acts that harmonise radical differences to make beauty. And there’s more freedom & affinity available when we change up old traditions to enhance beauty & meaningful connections, particularly in family & relationships. With the Moon in Sagittarius focused on beliefs & opinions opposing Mars Rx in Gemini influencing perception & communication we may need to integrate some conflicting energies & ideas that we see mirrored outside us but which are ultimately an expression of a struggle that exists within ourselves. Emotions about a situation may feel amplified on the Solstice as our beliefs come into confrontation with a more complex reality, which may have been hidden from our view. If we can reset our navigational heart equipment to ‘best possible outcomes for the future of relationships’ settings with disciplined devotion when we feel challenged, we could experience big shifts in our thinking that accelerate growth, optimism & the support we want from our most important relationships in future.

Capricorn New Moon, Friday 23 December

The New Moon at 1 Capricorn (@ 9:16pm AEDT) also squares Jupiter in Aries & places further emphasis on relational themes as Venus trines Uranus. Things often feel confusing & unclear at this point in the lunation cycle but we propagate seeds of imagination in states of uncertainty, & as the Mercurial mind applies to sextile visionary Neptune, there’s magic in daydreams that allow us to ponder who we’re wanting to be, what we’re wanting to build, the visions we want to crystallise & the kinds of intimacies & affinities we want to cultivate with more beauty, meaning, stability & longevity. It also supports our ability to envision the healthy boundaries necessary to sustain them. And as Chiron stations direct today in a sextile to Mars Rx, opportunities for healing communications are also enhanced.

Christmas, Sunday 25 December

Despite the unsurprising potential for some frustrations & emotional overwhelm with Mars Rx in Gemini transiting the house of family in the middle of the day & the Moon in her exile in Capricorn, there are also beautiful indications for today’s astrology. Mercury makes its exact sextile to Neptune, inspiring beauty & imagination, which brings a childlike sense of wonder to new rituals & enhances compassion in conversations. Making a project out of changing up old traditions to emphasise beauty & connection can help us channel overwhelm into experiences of tangible awesomeness that make for lasting memories. As the Moon moves through Capricorn today, she carries the light of Venus in her most benefic guise to Mercury, which brings beauty to conversational skills & then Pluto (@2:11pm AEDT), which could move us deeply with profound feelings of love.

Thursday 29 December, Mercury stations retrograde conjunct Venus

As Mercury stations retrograde, it conjoins the planet of love & affinity at 24 Capricorn, bringing heart and mind into direct contact, helping us express what’s really important to us. Mercury’s station could also signal reversals & shifts in direction re our thinking about relationships & with Mercury ruling Mars Rx in Gemini, it could also foreshadow arguments, technological glitches & miscommunications. As Mercury retraces its steps through Capricorn over the next three weeks, it also rules the last weeks of Mars’ retrograde journey through Gemini, providing a very interesting opportunity for review, & as we rethink the ideas we want to action & materialise in 2023, we use our hearts as a gauge.

New Year’s Eve 2022

There’s some potential for mayhem, frustration & unpredictability in the evening’s astrology lovelies so take it easy tonight if you can. If you’re out in the world, do be mindful of a potential for anger & reactivity, drive safely & be extra careful in crowds. Hanging with those you really love looks like the ideal scenario with opportunities for deep conversations that afford insight into some of the intensities we experienced in 2022 that inspire us in turn with optimism & momentum to act courageously on our dreams. New Year’s Day is by far the more powerful day astrologically, however, so it’s worth planning for an especially relaxing & beautiful way to begin 2023.

New Year’s Day 2023

The Moon is exalted in Taurus on New Year’s Day, emphasising relaxation, pleasure, food & other lush delights for the senses, which act as a good cushion for the other major astrological signature of the day: Venus’ conjunction with Pluto (@1:24pm AEDT). As Venus merges with the planet of power & intensity, elimination, purification & rebirth we could experience profound feelings of love, grief, passion or transformative renewal in relationships. But small acts of love also hold deep power. The Moon’s co-presence with the North Node and Uranus inspires us to let go of limitations & do things differently, & with Mercury Rx still sextile Neptune there could be opportunities for transcendent conversations & inspired visions of imagination to start the new year.

A teen-vampire-rom-com-action-thriller of a lunation: Full Moon in Gemini conjunct Mars Rx

Dramatic night-time climaxes rarely occur in the movies without a cinematic cutaway to a Full Moon. They’re powerful visual manifestations of peak energy - when the Moon and Sun come face to face in mesmerising confrontation - and tomorrow’s Full Moon (Thursday December 8 @3:08pm AEDT) which is conjunct Mars retrograde, planet of conflict, action, aggression and desire at 16 Gemini, looks like a firecracker of a car chase scene in a teen-vampire-rom-com-thriller-action-melodrama of a lunation! Alternatively, maybe it could be something like a mental supernova explosion event?

When the Full Moon conjoins a planet, its archetypal influence seems to be enlarged by the Moon’s reflective nature, and with this Full Moon six minutes from exact conjunction with the fiery, unpredictable and currently backwards-moving planet of drive and aggression this lunation has the potential to be more volatile, argumentative, accident-prone and/or explosive than usual. It could most definitely manifest in more low-key ways, as passionate energy, spicy, provocative conversation, courageous ideas, cutting, flammable wit and playful competitive banter but it’s worth being aware of the potential for difficulty so that we can mentally prepare with as chill a vibe as we can muster to deal with any mayhem. I’m kind of expecting the soundtrack of the evening to be distant sirens but if things do get wild lovelies, know that the difficulty won’t last long and that what we’re likely to learn from it could be very significant.

The Sun’s opposition to Mars marks the halfway point in this current retrograde cycle (October 31 - January 13) and like a Full Moon it offers us a status report on our progress through this period of review and revision. It’s like a mental operating-system reboot for eliminating the malware that’s been corrupting our processes and as we cull dead files from forgotten folders in the Gemini, Capricorn, Aries and Scorpio areas of our charts, we could discover old gems that can be rescued for renewed purposes. Full Moons illuminate the initial outcomes of recent solar developments and reveal factors that need to be addressed in order for us to successfully realise our endeavours. So any dramas that erupt around this lunation also contain valuable information about needed adjustments. With Mercury ruling this Full Moon from stable, long-lasting, productive, material Capricorn, the sign in which Mars also finds its exaltation, we could find it easier to parse and correct glitches in our beliefs and ideologies, our perception of the facts, our communication processes, our means of protest and our relationship to media.

The Moon traditionally represents fluctuations in material fortune and feeling due to the eternally changing luminosity of its visage, and as it carries the light from its opposition to the Sun into a conjunction with Mars and then into a trine with Saturn in Aquarius, an intriguing process takes place. Whilst Mars and Saturn both govern painful experiences, they’re possibly the most productive of the planets in tandem, bringing grit, focus and determination to the realisation of our goals and desires. The Moon’s translation of light between the two malefics allows us the potential to synthesise a new possibility from a combination of difficult factors, and what we realise through the process of ignition and illumination that takes place on this Full Moon is then crystallised into an emerging new reality, coming soon.

The Sabian symbol for 16 degrees of Gemini is described as “the robust head of a youth becomes a mature thinker”. Given that Mars’ retrograde journey through the sign of the youthful mind is currently governed by the planet of mind in the sign of maturity, this feels particularly pertinent guidance. At this halfway point it feels powerful to ask ourselves, what problematic ideas, habits or misguided beliefs do I need to do away with in order to think both more realistically and optimistically about the future? In the next five weeks we can clear away a good amount of debris to make way for the new reality coming this March.

Hot on the heels of the Full Moon on Friday December 9 the two lucky planets, Venus and Jupiter form a square at the final degrees of Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius and Pisces where Venus also finds her exaltation, which suggests that good fortune flows quickly from courageous acts of changing our minds. And on Sunday December 10 (between 11:45am and 2pm AEDT) we have a magic window of astrology to play with. Make the most of the opportunity to initiate any kind of creative, social, mystical, educational, spiritual, imaginative, healing, playful, pleasing, nourishing projects, connections or activities that you’d really like to experience more of in 2023!

#fullmoon #gemini #marsretrograde #halfway #translationoflight #sabiansymbol #magic #pisces #sagittarius #capricorn #venus #mars #jupiter #mercury #mindblowing #supernovaexplosion #art #astrology

Sagittarius New Moon: New adventures & gifts of gratitude

This week’s New Moon at 1 Sagittarius (Thursday 24 Nov @ 9:57am AEDT) hopefully offers a glittering gift of relief from the angst of recent intensities, and a renewed sense of faith in the future, despite the ongoing tensions. It’s ruled by the Greater Benefic Jupiter, planet of protection and abundance, which is not only presiding from its mystical home temple in Pisces but after four months of testing our faith in retrograde motion, the planet of good fortune begins moving direct literally five minutes after the New Moon, which makes it an especially auspicious lunation for rituals of optimistic intention and imagination. The change in direction augurs forward motion for the dreams we nourish with sacred ambition now though they’ll still require faith and patience with Jupiter moving so slowly in the sky. Although likely slow-growing the results should be immensely beneficial.

Venus, Mercury and the Sun have all departed the underworld in Scorpio where they’ve been beholden to a more anxious, conflict-oriented and unpredictable Mars since late October. We’ve seen retrograde Martian tendencies on full display in Gemini during the course of the last two eclipses with a spike in hacking, Twitter drama, authoritarian threats, reprisals and surveillance, disputes, mistruths and general disregard for facts. Although Mars remains retrograde until January 13, the vibe should feel less destructively intense while the three significators of our storyline and aspirations, our thinking and communication, and our ability to attract what we value into our lives move through the fiery sign of inclusive, optimistic, celebratory and philosophically minded Jupiter.

Venus also emerges from a state of combustion on today’s New Moon, which brings another level of relief to areas of life that have felt more difficult and emotional over the last two months. Venus was considered the most afflicted by burning proximity to the Sun and although she’s still invisible in the night sky, obscured by the beams of the Sun, which the ancients also considered a limiting factor on a planet’s ability to act freely according to its own agenda, we should feel more relief as a result of her considerably improved condition. Topics involving women, self-worth, relationship dynamics, money matters, creative expression and quality of life should continue to improve into December. The planet of love and attraction finally emerges as an Evening Star on December 19 and both her benevolence and peacemaking skills, and our ability to attract and derive pleasure, fulfilment and connection from the things we value most in life, particularly those of a relational nature, should be further enhanced.

Venus and Mercury remain close travel companions throughout Sagittarius season, and although Venus’ condition is radically improved in Jupitarian territory, Mercury finds itself exiled in the sign of grandstanding opinions. For those of us who love long, meandering, esoteric, philosophical conversations over celebratory beverages etc, this is the best kind of ‘detriment’ a planet could find possibly itself in. But Mercury rules information, perception, facts, business, communication, and magic and in Sagittarius, sign of sweeping narratives and intellectual abstractions, we can be prone to over-exaggeration, waffly thinking, bluntness, losing the thread and failures of listening. It’s also worth being mindful of the potential to be carried away by these longed for feelings of renewal and inspiration, which could lead us to overstretching or placing unrealistic expectations on the potential of our daydreamed scenarios to succeed imminently in the real world.

This potential to be deluded by fantastic illusions, to aim too high, to lose sight of the facts and be misled is also heightened by the ongoing square between Mars in Gemini and Neptune in Pisces (which was exact on Monday November 20). So it’s extra important to re-read the fine print before taking big actions, and testing stories that seem too good, too bad or too weird to be true against established facts. And yet as mentioned in previous posts, this is awesome astrology for reworking, revising and reimagining old creative projects for a 2023 release. Mars and Neptune will make one more square when both are direct on March 15 and we should feel greater momentum then to act with determination on the visions we’ve been refining during this period.

Intellectual, social media, legal and communication tensions could also be intensified during Mercury’s opposition to Mars on November 30 when it simultaneously sextiles Saturn in Aquarius. This is interesting astrology that suggests both a confrontation with discrepancies in our thinking and communication, and a creative opportunity to crystallise more progressive social ideals in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion. On December 1, Venus will also oppose Mars, and while this can make for sexy, playful, witty, conversational banter and games, there’s also a potential for opinionated bluntness and arrogance to trigger emotional reactions. By the same token, it’s worth taking the thoughtless blunders of others with a proverbial grain of salt.

With Jupiter so close to Earth now and literally twinkling like a diamond in the sky, this is a powerful time to offer up prayers of gratitude for all that’s actually good. Thanks not only trains the mind to perceive true fortune but like Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, draws more into our gravity field. Take some time this evening lovelies to light yourself some candles - they’re sacred to Sagittarius - pour yourselves some wine - Sagittarius does love an intoxicant - and connect with the divine as you clarify bold and inspirational intentions of expansion and adventure. 🌟💎👁🌏🌞🌑🌙🫀🍷🕯✨

#sagittariusseason #sagittarius #newmoon #jupiterdirect #thegreaterbenefic #marsretrograde #venus #mercury #jupiter #celebration #adventure #divineconnection #art #astrology

Taurus Total Lunar Eclipse: The corona of awakening

Tuesday’s epic Blood Moon total Lunar Eclipse at 16 Taurus should be spectacular to watch as it reaches totality at 9:59pm AEDT but it’s also one of the most electrically unpredictable astrological events of the year. Traditionally Lunar Eclipses were associated with the fortunes of leaders and populaces but they’re also connected at a personal level with emotional conclusions in areas of our lives that are in serious need of change and which are triggered by events beyond our control. And this one is exceptionally powerful: a total eclipse, exalted in Taurus and conjunct the Great Awakener, Uranus, planet of radical change and shocking, unexpected events that suddenly liberate. It also directly opposes Mercury, the magician and psychopomp, whose revelations in Scorpio are key to liberating energy that have been blocking authentic access to power. It also squares Saturn in the last major activation of the square between the two rulers of Aquarius, which closes out two years of seismic societal, environmental and economic stress tests and power struggles, and the reactionary and revolutionising impulses that have been incrementally transforming societies all over the world. This heavy aspect diminishes steadily after the eclipse, signalling a shift in approach that places us firmly, albeit shakily, on a new and unknown but more liberating path for the future. But as we know, our longed-for futures never come easy. They require radical change, inspiration and work.

This Lunar Eclipse seems set to coincide with some stunning surprises, major disruptions, destabilising events, sleepless nights, chance encounters, and deeply meaningful conversations that illuminate psychological patterns of engagement that are derived from our traumas, which in turn deliver sudden insights that enable us to establish a better way forward for the future. So if the shocks come in hard and heavy this week my lovely friends, know that they also have the power to liberate us from constraints we may not have realised we were bound by, and in doing so, they compel us to innovate with a more conscious focus on what we’re actually hoping to achieve. Venus, who signifies our approach to love, the things we truly value and the ways we attract them to ourselves rules this Eclipse but she finds herself in difficult terrain, exiled in the realm of secrets, power struggles, death, transmutation and other people’s money, and eclipsed beneath the beams of the burning Sun. In Scorpio she confronts the dark and dominating influences that have been undermining her power. Her proximity to Mercury the Magician, who enters the heart of the Sun in Scorpio two hours after the Eclipse, affords her a little support in the form of empowered communication, and if we can find ways to voice the personal impact of power imbalances with peaceful intention and a clear eye on the facts, we can find access to more liberating forms of personal protection, which initiate a dramatic shift in our perspective. 

Retrograde Mars in Gemini rules Venus, Mercury and the Sun in Scorpio, highlighting the need for reflection on the stories we tell, both about our relationships and our relationship to power, and with Mercury and Mars in mutual reception, we have extra ability to uncover, identify, examine, understand and transmute the kryptonite in our minds, interactions and social media landscapes; old and shameful, disempowering stories or scenarios involving misuses of power are key sites for recovery and transformation.  

On Wednesday November 9 the Sun and Mercury oppose Uranus with Mercury at the throne of the Sun, aka cazimi or within 17 minutes of conjunction, an immensely empowered position, suggesting hugely transformative communications, conversations, confrontations, breakthroughs and insights that hold the potential to free up energy for lunar and nodal desires - peace, stability, emotional and financial security, creativity, passion, pleasure, psychological breakthroughs, the empowerment and liberation of women and ordinary people and the flushing out of the toxic power systems that undermine them. Venus sextiles Pluto on November 13 followed by Mercury on the 14th and the Sun on the 18th, further highlighting opportunities for structural overhauls and deep transformation as we communicate our truths, establish healthy boundaries and consciously integrate the necessary new structures in our thinking that will enable us to wield our power in healthy ways.

On late Thursday November 10 and Saturday 12 November Venus and Mercury trine Neptune, planet of dreams, fantasies and transcendent love. With Venus quincunx Mars on the 12th, we may also feel aggravated by unscratchable itches in our relationships, but this is magnificent astrology for art-making, healing and humour, and for dissolving the grip of our illusions in order to allow a beautiful and healing new vision to emerge. On Tuesday November 15, the Sun trines Neptune, and Venus in Scorpio trines Jupiter at 28 Pisces, which brings feelings of expansion, optimism and imagination as we grasp the possibilities for transformation. This engagement between the two benefics in water signs also makes for exceptionally passionate, fertile and spiritually profound connections so if babies aren’t on the agenda and that applies to you, take extra precaution or vice versa! 

On November 14, 16 and 19 Venus, Mercury and the Sun make sesquisquare aspects to Chiron, the wise and wounded teacher. These days could feel frustrating and/or triggering but they’re also extra actionable days that continue to surface insights that bring greater healing to our sense of selves. On November 16 Venus finally leaves the dark caverns of Scorpio for the candlelit illumination of Sagittarius where Venusian topics should also improve dramatically. On the same day Mercury trines Jupiter, suggesting more big revelations and more opportunities for truth-telling and growth. On the 17th Mercury enters Sagittarius where it becomes more spiritually and philosophically minded although we should keep an eye on our tendencies for hubris and exaggeration.

Retrograde Mars in Gemini continues its long square to Neptune in Pisces, making its second exact aspect of three on November 19. It offers us the opportunity to reconsider the foggy, confusing and delusional sections of our own narratives that have unconsciously kept us in thrall. The final square takes place when the two planets are moving direct on March 15 - a massive, world-shifting month. So if we can surrender our righteousness and commit to changing our minds, continually reconnecting with the bigger vision during this retrograde period, we’ll be better equipped to act on our dreams with courageous, visionary energy in March. 

When the Sun trines Jupiter on November 21 we gain a clearer view of the immensity of the process that’s been underway, and as it enters Sagittarius on November 22 we experience a rush of exuberance and renewed faith. But until then, lovely friends, tune in to the potential for breakdowns to morph into breakthroughs, and focus on emitting the star-like plasma of your own coronal intentions to direct the flow of electricity to the Taurean places where you’re longing for freedom and awakening…

#totallunareclipse #uranus #taurus #electricalawakenings #corona #plasma #lightning #venus #mercury #sun #scorpio #stellium  #mars #gemini #neptune #jupiter #pisces #pluto #capricorn #sagittarius  #contemporaryart #art #astrology