This is a profoundly domestic New Moon.  This Moon asks, “Exactly how do you want your home to be?  Do you feel safe at home?  Do you feel supported?  What can you do to make it a better nest for you?”  Mars, traveling through Virgo forms a helpful sextile to the Moon, offering loads of industrious energy to tidy, fix and refurbish.  This is a great time for house projects.  And because this New Moon is also a Solar Eclipse, we are also likely to see our shadows during it.

Details About This Eclipse

Date: July 11, 2010
Time of eclipse: 12:40 PM PST
Type: total (strong in intensity)
Visible in: People in New Zealand, Patagonia, the South Pacific, and parts of Chile and Argentina will see this eclipse.
At: 19 degrees Cancer
Shadow Agent: Mars in Virgo

Does It Affect You Personally?

If your birthday is on any of the following dates, you most likely experienced this eclipse:
January 3-13
April 3-13
July 5-15
October 6-16

Remember, not every eclipse touches everyone, but when it does, it’s usually noticeable.  A solar eclipse is likely to be marked by an external, real-world event (unlike a lunar eclipse, which is mostly experienced internally).  The following script is just one possible way it could go.

You hear a knock at the door.  You answer it.  Mars is there.  Before you can even speak, he’s rushed past you and is bringing things inside: a vacuum cleaner, a toolbox, a bucket containing cleaning supplies and several kinds of brooms, mops and brushes.  Outside you can see his van, groaning with construction supplies: jars of nails and screws, aluminum siding, wood flooring, copper pipes, roofing shingles and other sundry building materials.  After a few minutes of lightning-swift activity, he stops in front of you and gives you a military salute.
Mars:  Domestic Industry Team, reporting for duty.
You:  Team?  But there’s only one of you.
Mars:  I’m so efficient, you only need one.
You:  Oh.
Mars:  So what needs doing?
You:  Um, I have no idea.
Mars:  (pushing past you into the house) Ok, so the foundation needs fixing, the drain-pipes need adjusting before the next rainy season, and you could really use a drainage ditch.  A couple of rooms need updated wiring, and you’d really like a second story and some solar panels.  Is that all?  That can’t be all.
You:  Um, I think that’s it.
Mars:  What about your sense of safety here at home?  Do you feel loved?  Are you comfortable?
You:  What?
Mars:  How about some fixes not only to your home, but also to your sense of home?  Does your relationship need fixing?  How about your family?
He starts rummaging through his toolkit.
You:  Uh, sure.  Lots of things like that need fixing too.  Can you really do that?
Mars:  I can at least kick your butt and get you started.
You:  Wow.  You mean I could get a whole new sense of home out of this eclipse?
Mars:  You betcha.  But you gotta be willing to take action.  Just figure out what your real needs are and ask for them.  You need to take the first step.  Help is near, but you’ve got to ask.
He winks and goes back to the truck for more supplies.  You sink onto your sofa.
You:  Nothing like getting the problem and the solution at the same time!

Solutions for Earth-Gone-Wrong

In my recent post Personality Flaws of the Four Elements I described ways the 4 Elements can go wrong, each according to its own nature.

How To Know If Earth Is Grounding You
When your life is carefully measured from achievement to achievement (or failure), it’s easy to forget how to have fun.  Earth is the poster child for “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”  Your Earth has gone wrong when:

•    You’re such a critical perfectionist that your partner calls you a nag.
•    You’re a cynic, only interested in the bottom line and closed to any ideas that don’t have already proven value.
•    You’ve been called “cold” or “calculating.”
•    You’re prone to overindulging in physical pleasures to compensate for how hard you work or how boring your job is.
•    You’ve learned to defer gratification in favor of long-term goals—learned it so well that you can’t let yourself off the hook during a vacation and you despair of enjoying retirement.

Solution One:  Balance Earth With The Other 3 Elements
If your Earth is distorted, the other elements can help restore balance.  When your routines and systems are so effective that even you are bored, it’s time to break up the Earth with a little Fire.  Be spontaneous, take risks, look dopey.  Fling yourself into something, instead of calculating all its details first.

Earth gets dull and blockish without the lightness of Air.  Air encourages brainstorming sessions and crazy ideas—some may sound just like empty theories, but others will, with the time and testing Earth provides, prove useful in the end.  But you have to open your ears and listen first.

Water fertilizes Earth in a wonderful way, bringing warmth, emotion, compassion and sensitivity Earth does not naturally possess.  Too many late nights at the office?  Balance them with cozy family time.  Gotten too controlled or controlling?  Nothing like a nice emotional outburst to break down the walls.  Oh, and don’t forget to be vulnerable.

Solution Two:  Emphasize Healthy Earth
Healthy Earth practices can eliminate the need for compensatory, negative Earth behaviors.  Here are some examples of “Earth-Fu:”

•    Pay close attention to your bodily needs and engage in rigorous physical self-care.
•    Feed yourself delicious, homemade, organic, healthy food on a regular basis.  It tastes best when you cooked it yourself.
•    Organize your home, your office and your projects in ways that allow you to streamline, be effective and stop worrying.  Work smarter, not harder.
•    Fall in love with this physical world:  get out in nature more, breathe clean air and surround yourself with trees.
•    Set achievable goals and be consistent about rewarding yourself (even if it’s just a mental pat on the back) when you succeed.  When you become preoccupied with your failures, wrench your attention away from them and instead put it on what you’ve done right.

The Four Elements are a fascinating part of human temperament.
Find out about yours in a reading with Jamie:
Contact Jamie to learn how.

Coming up next:  Does Air Have You Lost In A Cloud?

“Wake up!” says Uranus.  “Are you facing chaos? Lately I’ve turned your life upside down.  This year I’m making you an amazing offer:  to not only restore the order you used to experience, but to shift your life in a global way so that the problems you used to experience—the ones that led to this chaos—are not even relevant anymore.”

Today Is A Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.  Today, that planet is Uranus.  It’s as if Uranus is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding this change forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Uranus is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is in a massive uproar.  It’s time for a shift to a whole new level.  Today is the peak of Uranus’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading To An Inner Journey
Sometime between March and now, Uranus showed us an area of life in which we are due for a change.  What he delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about paradigm shift to come.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown an area of life in which something new and startling is possible.

The clue was delivered, but did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial.  As spring proceeded, we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Uranus turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That big change you’re due for?” he says, “It’s crucial.  And I’m putting it right in your face until you do something about it.”  Today, Uranus’ retrograde journey begins and with it begins a period of soul-searching during which we must reflect upon and seek to understand the massive shift we feel coming.  Uranus will continue moving retrograde (i.e. backwards) until the day it turns direct, which is December 5, 2010.

Every Breakthrough Begins With A Breakdown
Uranus teaches us a fundamental truth:  a fresh, more inclusive order only comes after a chaotic mess.  A transit of Uranus is accompanied by a restlessness that causes you to want to dash it all to pieces.  You don’t actually have to destroy everything you’ve built in order to shift to the next level, but you may have to tolerate some uncomfortable mess as you search for the new frame to put it all into.

Uranus brings the “Eureka!” or the “Aha.”  From Uranus comes that moment of insight, that lightning-bolt-from-the-blue that disrupts your normal everyday assumptions and introduces an idea so new, so crazy, so startling that it just might work.  The best response to a Uranian insight is to open your mind up and engage in a search for a new frame, a new context, a new order in which all the old pieces make sense, and the new ones also fit.  Uranus turns your head around—that’s what he’s for.

Is This Story Your Story?
If this feels true for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Uranus may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Uranus is covering the space between 26 degrees of Pisces and 0 degrees of Aries.  If there is anything in your chart in 26, 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius, or additionally in 0 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn, you will feel this.  And knowing it can help a lot if you’ve been feeling surrounded by chaos and you don’t know why.  If Uranus has touched you this year, this could be the year when you finally liberate yourself from old, self-entrapping ways and instead bust out into a whole new way of being.

What Area Of Your Life Is Being Affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Uranus.  If Uranus is affecting your Venus, you may find yourself feeling restless and wanting more in your relationships.  You don’t have to destroy all your relationships to satisfy that restlessness, but you do need to shift them to a whole new level now.   If Uranus is affecting your Mercury, you’re getting more crazy, paradigm-shifting new ideas these days than you usually do—use this time of genius for your long-term benefit.  And if you are between 39 and 42 right now, this could be a year that calls forth your genius and the tremendous restlessness that goes with that, demanding that you live into your potential once and for all.

Uranus’ Gift
The promise of Uranian chaos is that it leads to a new order.  Uranus doesn’t really want to leave you in a chaotic mess for the rest of your life—and if he ever has, you’ve not responded to the situation with your true power.  The mess Uranus causes is only a temporary state—although a necessary one—on the way to something much bigger and better.  Sure the ride is messy, but what does that matter?  Isn’t being the most amazing you possible worth a little chaos?

Want to know more about how this Uranus transit affects you?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

Solutions For Fire-Gone-Wrong

In my recent post Personality Flaws of the Four Elements I described ways the 4 Elements can go wrong, each according to its own nature.

How To Know If Fire Is Burning You Up
When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Fire is at best a blunt instrument and when abused it becomes destructive quickly.  Your Fire has gone wrong when:

•   You frequently feel angry, destructive, or aggressive.
•   You always need to have the last word.
•   Your friends report that you habitually squash other people’s self-confidence by dominating them .
•    Some say your ways of being make you feel big and others feel small.
•    You feel restless and can’t settle down into a job or relationship.

Solution One:  Balance Fire With The Other 3 Elements
If your Fire is distorted, the other elements can help restore balance. Some say that anger is a disguise for grief, and for a Fiery individual this can be very true.  Are you masking sadness with your Fiery display?  Take off the armor, sink into your Watery side and let yourself feel sad.  But leave the battle zone first.

Air can also lend a useful perspective.  Draw on your Airy side to access your inner Observer, that part of you that can get healthy distance from yourself.  Step outside your anger and use logic instead.  Debate with yourself before arguing with others.

Earth reminds Fire that dominating others is impractical, because it impedes the very leadership you’re trying to create.  Why would people want to follow someone who blows up easily and loses self-control?  Earth says, have self-discipline and show them that you take practical action on your promises.

Solution Two:  Emphasize Healthy Fire
If you emphasize healthy Fire and fill your life with positive expressions of Fire, there will be no room for unhealthy Fire.  This elegant solution gently allows negative Fire traits to fall away as a side-effect of your emphasis on positive Fire.  You might call this solution “Fire-Fu.”  Here are some examples:

•    You’re prone to overindulging in physical pleasures to compensate for how hard you work or how boring youHave a regular athletic routine that allows you to “blow off steam.”  Then you don’t explode unexpectedly.
•    You’re prone to overindulging in physical pleasures to compensate for how hard you work or how boring youEncourage mental self-talk that builds your confidence, instead of undermining it.  Then you don’t need to dominate others to get your way or express your needs.
•    You’re prone to overindulging in physical pleasures to compensate for how hard you work or how boring youEnjoy healthy competition with strong people you respect.  Then you’ll find the patience you need to get you through the times when you have to tread delicately with people you wouldn’t choose, but have to relate with.
•    You’re prone to overindulging in physical pleasures to compensate for how hard you work or how boring youAssert yourself early and often, so you don’t build up a head of steam and blow.
•    You’re prone to overindulging in physical pleasures to compensate for how hard you work or how boring youExamine the beliefs that make up your philosophy of life—create a world-view that expands (not contracts) you.

The Four Elements are a fascinating part of human temperament.
Find out about yours in a reading with Jamie:
Contact Jamie to learn how.

Coming in a few days:  Has Earth Grounded You–Permanently?

Human temperament is made from combinations of the four elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water.  Everyone has all four, but in different proportions.  Everyone also differs in how well they express each element—whether that element is expressed mostly in a clean and clear way or in a distorted way.

It’s not that some parts of your chart are good and some are bad.  All are good and all are bad—it is in how you use them.  Some will be easier to have as good and you can express those parts well with little effort.  Others are more challenged and prone to distorted expression.  But it still comes down to what you do with it.  You’re in charge.

And so, as a cautionary study, what follows is a look at what happens when each of the 4 elements goes terribly, terribly wrong.

Fire
The Fire side of us is naturally upbeat, cheerful and energetic.  When Fire goes wrong, all that drive and energy still needs someplace to go, so the person tends toward irritation, frustration and anger.  They can also take cheerfulness to the point of being entirely false and being unwilling to admit to having a down day.  When Fire is distorted, a person becomes fierce, a bully, arrogant, entitled, self-centered and even violent.  When you meet a person who can’t take feedback without exploding, who has to have their own way and who must dominate every situation, blame Fire.  Fire is also at work when an individual is hardheadedly self-determined or naïve to the point of clueless because they simply won’t listen to others.  And Fire also brings us the megalomaniac, the self-absorbed, self-centered people for whom it’s “all about me.”  Fire can be very uncaring and insensitive to others.  Oh, and Fire’s known for being an attention-grabber and a drama queen, insistent on blowing things up bigger than they have to be—and always in public.

Earth
Earth’s nature makes it practical, pragmatic, grounded, serious and realistic.  When a person expresses Earth in a distorted way they become cold and calculating, holding others (and sometimes themselves) to harsh, overly demanding standards.  Earth can be judgmental and critical, nit-picky and a perfectionist, setting the bar too high and valuing achievement over a balanced lifestyle.  Earth has also gone wrong when a person is overly security-oriented and abusing food and pleasure for comfort in reaction to excessive restrictions in other times or areas.  Binging and purging are Earthy behaviors.  Earth can also embrace structure too much, becoming extremely regimented, engaging in ritualistic, obsessive routines and finding themselves unable to relax and let life flow.  Earth craves wealth and can become a miserly, money-grubbing, gold-digging Scrooge who is obsessed with the bottom line and cries “show me the money!”  And obviously, Earth’s ambition can go very wrong, resulting in a person who will ruthlessly step on anybody necessary to climb to the top of the heap—and then paradoxically, they will spend their time hyper-vigilantly watching the competition, unable to relax and enjoy the fruits of their achievement.

Air
Air represents the mental side of human nature, so Air types tend to be idea people—intellectual and curious types.  When Air goes wrong, the person is nervous, twitchy, restless and agitated, too full of nervous energy and has too little tendency to work it off physically, as Fire or Earth might do.  Instead, Air will spend time reading or surfing the net or otherwise involved with ideas, theories and virtual things instead of physical reality.  Air tends to be attracted to caffeine and stimulants that make one’s mind sharper or help one focus.  Distorted Air leads to ADD symptoms, Asperger’s Syndrome, autism and other conditions that make it hard to bond emotionally with others, leaving a person cold, unattached and stiff (both emotionally and physically).  An Airy type can be the epitome of a talking head, full of theories and the logical reasons behind why they should work, but disinterested in their application.  That Airy intelligence can lead to a tendency to criticize whatever doesn’t fit the theory.  At its worst, Air is alienated, unfeeling, cut off from others and amoral, because it lacks compassion.

Water
Water represents the emotional side of human life:  Water grants us feelings, intuition, instinct, empathy and compassion.  Water-gone-wrong heads in a number of seemingly unconnected directions.  One way is that distorted Water becomes whiny, clingy, weepy, hypersensitive, histrionic and emotionally self-indulgent.  This leads to codependence and being easily manipulated by others.  Other people take distorted Water in a different direction, toward being passive-aggressive, manipulative, controlling and a user, always covertly pushing for one’s way.  Water is moody; it can fall into pits of depression, resulting in spending time being lazy, unmotivated, greasy & unwashed.  You can just feel the creeping entropy.  Even when Water is expressed in a spiritual way, the person can take an attitude of spiritual superiority which is actually not spiritual at all.  Did I mention that Water has a sexual side?  Water can get sleazy, sluttish, creepy and sexually predatory.  And Water can be morbidly sensitive, leading to agoraphobia and misanthropy.

So there they are, the four Elements in all their very worst aspects.  And there but for the grace of God go we all.

In the next few posts, I’ll talk about solutions to these elemental problems:
Is Fire Burning You Up?
Has Earth Grounded You—Permanently?
Does Air Have You Lost In A Cloud?
Are You Drowning In Water? (coming soon)

The Four Elements are a fascinating part of human temperament.
Find out about yours in a reading with Jamie:
Contact Jamie to learn how.

June’s full moon is also a lunar eclipse, and a complex melting pot of influences it is too.  The Capricorn moon likes to keep a lid on all things emotional, while the Cancerian Sun says, “let ‘em rip!”  Toss intellectual Mercury and passionate Pluto into the mix and you’ve got a wealth of contradictory arguments.  Uranus adds his form of irritation and Jupiter just makes everything bigger.  What to do—should we all just stay in bed?  No, just be aware from the get-go that this day is a mass of contradictions.  Make no plans, stay flexible and be aware that circumstances may change right underneath you.

Details About This Eclipse

Date: June 26, 2010
Time of eclipse: 4:30 AM PST
Type: partial (weak in intensity)
Visible in: eastern Asia, Australasia and most of the Americas.
At: 4 degrees Capricorn
Shadow Agents: Pluto in Capricorn, also Mercury, Uranus and Jupiter

Does It Affect You Personally?

If your birthday is on any of the following dates, you most likely experienced this eclipse:
March 20-30
June 20-30
September 22-October 2
December 21-31

Remember, not every eclipse touches everyone, but when it does, it’s usually noticeable.  A lunar eclipse is likely to bring up strong emotions and to be experienced as a subjective event (unlike a solar eclipse, which is likely to be marked by an external, real-world event).  The following script is just one possible way it could go.

You hear a knock at the door.  You answer it.  The Sun and Moon are there and they seem to be fighting over something.  Several more deities are standing behind them.
Sun:  You can’t have it!
He’s looking relaxed in sweats and a comfortable t-shirt.
Moon:  But it needs protecting!  And I’m the right one for the job, because I’m in Capricorn.
She’s wearing a gray twin set and a business-length skirt, and trying not to look undignified as she tries to wrest the object away from the Sun.
You:  Hey, what is that you’ve got there?
The Sun holds it out of the Moon’s reach and you can see for a moment that it’s your own heart.
You:  That belongs to me!!
Sun:  Oh, you’re the one who left this lying around?
He begins to hand it to you, but at the last moment, Pluto steps around him and plucks it from his palm.  She’s dressed in business casual, much like the Moon, and she gives a wink to the Moon as she grabs your heart.  As soon as she does, a rush of previously-unconscious feelings well up into your chest, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and a little faint.  Pluto stalks past you and makes herself at home on your sofa.  The Moon sits next to her and coos over the heart, which Pluto has cradled in her arms.
You:  Whoa.  I feel so . . .
Pluto:  What you are feeling, my dear, is the rush of pure, unadulterated, undiluted power.  If you had three wishes, and you could have absolutely anything, what would you wish for?  Money?  Fame?  Power?
You:  I want a better job.  I want more money.  I want to be respected.  I want to be famous.  I want to be loved.  I want to be safe.  I want to never worry again.  I want my family to be taken care of.
Mercury pops in the door and occupies the other sofa, next to the spot the Sun has now occupied.
Mercury:  You know what always happens at the end of all those “Three Wishes” stories, right?  You’ll end up using your third wish to undo the stupid things you wished for with your first and second.
The Sun chuckles.  At that moment, Uranus and Jupiter burst through the door and into the room.
Sun:  Where’s the fire?
Uranus:  We’re here to force a decision–
Jupiter :  We’re in a terrible hurry–
Uranus:  Places to go–
Jupiter:  People to meet–
Uranus:  All very important!
Pluto:  Ri-i-ight.  Terribly important.  Have a seat, gentlemen.
Pluto points to the only chair left in the room and Jupiter and Uranus try to claim it simultaneously, then both crash to the floor.
Pluto:  They’ve just gotten into Aries and they’re not settled yet.  Speed freaks!
In the meanwhile, you’ve sneaked up behind Pluto and are now attempting to grab your heart.
Pluto:  No you don’t!
The Moon glares at you.
Pluto:  You’re going to feel all of this ambition.  All of it.  You’re going to feel the desire for power surging through your blood and in your marrow.
Jupiter: (suddenly stands up, looking frantic) What to do?  What to do?
Uranus claims the chair but can’t sit still in it.
Pluto:  There is absolutely NOTHING to do.  Nothing at all.  Just feel it.
Moon:  That’s right, just feeeel it.  Let it move through you and change you.
Sun:  Let it make you more aware of yourself and your motives.
Mercury:  Let it give you pause.
You:  OH.
You stand still for a moment, in the middle of your own living room, just noticing all the sensations, feelings, thoughts in your body.  It wells up from inside you, taking over your mind and senses like a drug.  You are filled up with dizzying sensations of glory, power, grandeur and greatness.  In your mind’s eye you see everyone around you living the way you wish they would, appreciating you the way you wish they would, and doing only what you tell them.  Just when it feels like you cannot hold anymore, you panic.
You:  It’s too much!
Pluto:  Control and power bring responsibility.
You have become very agitated.
You:  Make it stop!
Moon:  You are the one who can make it stop.  Close your eyes again.  Slow down.  Let go of the need to have everything your own way.
When you slow down and notice, the sensations that were dizzying begin to move again, and then to dissipate.  Finally, they have passed.  You find you are comfortable again.
Pluto:  Congratulations—you have acted as a surge protector.
She hands you your heart.
Pluto:  Pay better attention to your desires in future, ok?
Uranus:  And try not to get so wound up.
Mercury:  Look who’s talking!
You:  Um, ok.
Sun:  Feeling them is good.  Acting on them—not always so good.
You:  No kidding!
With that, Pluto sweeps out the front door, followed by the Moon and the rest of the crew.  You are left with your heart, none the worse for wear, and all yours again.

Want to understand how this eclipse affects your own life?
Contact Jamie for a reading.

(My dear readers, this post was supposed to go out on June 4, but I just didn’t have what it took to get it out on time. Obviously I was feeling the transit as I was writing about it! So please mentally transport yourself back to June 4 as you read this. . .)

“Wake up!” says Chiron.  “Are you feeling wounded?  Recently I brought you a difficult experience.  It was also a reminder, an echo of a difficult experience from your past.  I have a special message for you about how to heal it once and for all.”

Today (June 4) Is A Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.  Today, that planet is Chiron.  It’s as if Chiron is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding this change forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Chiron is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is being sent on a healing journey.  It’s time for old, wounded places to surface so that real, deep healing can happen.  Today is the peak of Chiron’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading To An Inner Journey
Sometime between February and now, Chiron showed us an area of life in which we are due for a change.  What he delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about the healing journey to come.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown a way to heal something deep.  And the road to that healing may be pretty rocky.

The clue was delivered, but did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial.  During the spring we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Chiron turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That deep healing you’re going through?” he says, “You’d better get with the program.”  Today, Chiron’s retrograde journey begins and with it begins our healing journey.  Chiron will continue moving retrograde (i.e. backwards) until the day it turns direct, which is November 5, 2010.

Every Healing Journey Begins With Pain
Have you ever had a medical condition that had to get worse before it could get better?  Perhaps you had a broken bone that set wrongly and had to be re-broken and set properly before it could really heal.  Perhaps you had a dislocated shoulder that had to be pulled out and dropped back into place.  Perhaps you had an abscess that a doctor needed to dig into and clean out before it could finish healing and seal over.  All these experiences reflect the fact that real, enduring healing often requires the opening of an old wound.  Chiron, the Wounded Healer, is in charge of this process.

Chiron’s process is connected to the homeopathic “doctrine of similars,” which is a principle that a very small dose of exactly the same thing that harmed you will assist your body to heal itself.  This principle is also the theory behind vaccination.  Similarly, you can have a life experience that delivers a small amount of emotional pain in the present, but that also brings up a whole mass of previously unexamined feelings from the past.  This brings us to Chiron’s “healing crisis.”

A “healing crisis” is a moment in which we feel worse, but we’re actually getting better.    This is a powerful moment and the way we respond to it determines how things unfold:  do we get caught up in the symptoms and mistake them for the reality of the situation, allowing them to propel us into a more difficult future?  Or do we recognize the symptoms as an opportunity to heal more than the surface discomfort?  It is normal and human to get caught up in the pain of the moment and it usually doesn’t occur to us to question its deeper roots.  But amazing things can happen if instead we stop and ask ourselves, “What does this remind me of?  What does this connect to in my past?  And is there something ancient there which, if healed, would liberate me?”

Is This Story Your Story?
If this feels true for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Chiron may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Chiron is covering the space between 26 degrees of Aquarius and 0 degrees of Pisces.  If there is anything in your chart in 26, 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio, or additionally in 0 degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius, you will feel this.  And knowing it can help a lot if you’ve been feeling smacked down by the universe and you don’t know why.  If Chiron has sensitized you this year, this could be the year when you finally let go of all the old baggage and gain access to more of yourself than you’ve ever had before.

What Area Of Your Life Is Being Affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Chiron.  If Chiron is affecting your Venus, you may find yourself in a painful situation in a present relationship that brings a larger relationship pattern into focus.  Now is your chance to heal this so as to stop unawarely bringing the past into the present.  If Chiron is affecting your Mars, you may find yourself feeling wounded about how you express anger or hold boundaries—this is an opportunity to heal this deeply in a new way.  And if you are turning 50 this year, then you are having your Chiron return, which is an enormous life passage loaded with healing themes and opportunities to clear the past and create a more powerful future.

Chiron’s Gift
A wonderful thing happens when we choose to examine a present pain more deeply.  Chiron links the past with the present such that, if we heal the new wound in the present, the healing echoes into our past.  Similarly, if we delve into our past and heal the ancient root of the problem, then the present wound can disappear as if by magic.  And the very best part is that whatever part of us was caught up or locked into that old wound gets released and we find that Chiron’s healing journey has left us more whole.  The part that’s released may be some part of us we haven’t had access to for a long time—we may even have given up on it long ago.  It’s funny how it ends up feeling like finding buried treasure, right in your own backyard.

Want to know more about how this Chiron transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

Art by Darren Mahuron

“Wake up!” says Neptune.  “Recently I showed you that there is more to your life than what can be experienced with the physical senses.  I demanded that you look deeper.  Now I’m telling you again:  it’s time to re-dream your life.”

Today Is A Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.  Today, that planet is Neptune.  It’s as if Neptune is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding this change forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Neptune is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is receiving a vision of what is possible; during this time you’ll be asked to re-dream that part of you.  Today is the peak of Neptune’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading To An Inner Journey
Sometime between now and the beginning of last November Neptune showed us an area of life in which we are due for a change.  What she delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about the spiritual reorientation to come.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown a way to become much bigger and much more like our ideal.  And we may have to push through some uncomfortable delusions to do it.

The clue was delivered, but did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial.  During the winter we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Neptune turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That redreaming you’re going through?” she says, “You’d better get with the program.”  Today, Neptune’s retrograde journey begins and with it begins our journey into our personal land of dreams (and nightmares).  Neptune’s retrograde journey lasts until the day it turns direct, which is November 6, 2010.

Journey Into the Imaginative Realms
The veil between physical and nonphysical realities is thin right now.  If you close your eyes you can reach right through it.  You can enter that place between the worlds where nothing is actual and everything is possible, that magical, in-between place where imagination is rich and you can dream up your future to be whatever you want it to be.  Neptune is the stuff fantasy books are made of.

But Neptune is also the planet of illusions and delusions.  While Neptune is retrograde (until November 6) you will be pulled into circumstances that bring your delusions into sharper focus.  Examine your life carefully—are there places where you are pretending things are different than they are?  Are there places where you are living a fantasy because it’s nicer than the reality you face?  Sometimes a fantasy is a form of healthy escape that helps us cope with a painful but necessary reality, but at other times escaping from reality keeps us from coping and from courageously changing our reality to better match our ideal.

This transit can be great for those who live by their imaginations:  writers, artists, filmmakers and creative people of all stripes.  It can also be great for those who know themselves to be psychically sensitive.  Neptune’s action is gentle and so subtle that it can be hard to notice unless you are already the kind of person who pays attention to your imagination.  This is a great time to attend a dream-group or keep a dream-journal or to do Morning Pages.*

Is This Story Your Story?
If this feels true for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Neptune may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Neptune is covering the space between 25 and 28 degrees of Aquarius.  If there is anything in your chart in 25, 26, 27 or 28 degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio, you will feel this.  And knowing it can help a lot if you’ve been feeling sucked into other worlds and you don’t know why.  Neptune has you in a walking dream this year, because she has an important message for you.  Your ideal life is calling and if you listen to her siren song, this could be the year you make a subtle shift in direction that leads to a whole new future.

What Area Of Your Life Is Being Affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Neptune.  If Neptune is affecting your Mercury, you may find yourself a little mentally fuzzy and more prone to daydreaming than usual.  What’s happening is an awakening of your intuition, so make room for that.  If Neptune is affecting your Venus or Juno, you may become aware of illusions you’ve had in your relationships.  You’ll want to clear those away.  If Neptune is affecting your Moon you may have a psychic opening or a very active dreamlife this year.  Pay attention to your dreams—they will contain wisdom for you.

But whatever planet Neptune is affecting, you can bet that the dreamworld is catching hold of you now.  You may find yourself more distractible, more prone to daydreaming.  You may even want to sleep more.  It’s as if there’s another you, who dwells in your dreams.  That other you is activated right now and when s/he is awake, you must sleep.  This is normal for a Neptune transit.  Get the rest you need.  Pay respect to Neptune and in return, she’ll make your dreams come true.

Want to know more about how this Neptune transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

*Morning Pages are a creativity-priming technique devised by Julia Cameron and described in her book The Artist’s Way which I recommend highly.

Art by InertiaK

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Saturn transit this year, today is likely to be pivotal for you.  Sometime around January 13, when Saturn turned retrograde, you were cast on an inner journey to discover what your unavoidable responsibility is.  By now you should have done a lot of soul-searching and reached some conclusions about what’s in front of you.  You’re work is cut out for you and now it’s time to hunker down and, in a serious push lasting several months, complete all those tasks leading to a tremendous accomplishment.

“What is a Saturn transit like . . .”
When Saturn is affecting your chart it tends to feel heavy. You feel the weight of life more than usual. You feel serious, and the pressure to take a more professional approach is enormous.  You are more aware of your limitations than usual and you feel you must take steps to improve your situation.  A Saturn transit is never comfortable, but it calls out the best in us and demands that we perform to, or even beyond, our standards.

“. . . and how do I know when I’m having one?”
First of all, you know by feel.  If what I’ve described resonates for you, it’s likely you’re having a Saturn transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Saturn.)  That sensation of heaviness and duty that’s peculiar to a Saturn transit is because there’s hard work to be done in some area of your life and Saturn is making you aware of it.

You can find out whether you’re having a Saturn transit by peeking at your chart.  This year Saturn is covering the space from 27 degrees of Virgo to 4 degrees of Libra.  It will affect you if you have any planet in the space from 27 to 29 degrees of any of the four Mutable signs (Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius).  It will also affect you if you have any planet in the space from 0 to 4 degrees of any of the four Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn).

If you don’t have your chart, or don’t know how to read your chart, you might want to order your own personal Astrology Chart Decoder.  This is a special tool I’ve invented that puts your chart’s details into English, instead of astrology symbols.  Your Decoder tells you where every planet in your chart is located:  the sign it’s in, the house it’s in and the exact degree it occupies.  When you’ve got your Decoder in front of you, check to see if you have anything at all in 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius.  Also check to see if you have anything at all in 0, 1,2, 3 or 4 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn.  If you do, you are definitely having a Saturn transit this year.  And knowing that gives you a chance to understand the change you’re involved in and to make use of the pressure, instead of feeling overwhelmed by it.

“How long does it last?”
A Saturn transit will typically last for about 9 months.  This year’s Saturn transit will be over in September of 2010.  Today is just one part of it, a pivotal day in its flow.  If this transits is affecting you, the timing of it will be unique to you.  It takes an astrologer to look it up—it’s not something I can just tell you in a blogpost.  In an astrology reading you can find out the timing of it and how to move through it consciously, instead of spending this valuable time agitated and disturbed.  You can also find out which part of you (i.e. planet in your chart) is feeling the pressure to take responsibility.  Is it Relationships (Venus)?  Career (Saturn)?  Home (Moon)?  Or it could be something more subtle.

“What do I do now?”
People generally respond to a Saturn transit one of two ways: either they roll up their sleeves and get to work on the area of life where the pressure is or they run away and stick their head in the sand.  Are you using the pressure as a motivation to accomplish things you’ve been wanting to accomplish for a long time or are you avoiding the responsibility you know darned well is right in front of you?  The good news is that the moment you decide to be responsible and you take action towards that responsibility, the feeling of heaviness lifts.  Saturn has been propitiated and he eases off.

Saturn’s Gift
The principle behind Saturn’s pressure is extraordinarily simple:  do the work and you’ll get the reward.  That’s all.  It’s a simple input/output machine and there’s nothing complicated about it.

Face the hard work.  Approach it in a practical way.  Break down what there is to do into small tasks and do them.  Awaken your ambition to build something great out of what you have, and let it take over.  Paradoxically, practice, when done properly, does lead to flow, that elusive state where time melts away and you are one with your practice.  Ultimately your effort will pay off—that’s Saturn’s promise and believe me, his word is good.

When it’s over, it’s over
Every transit only lasts so long and this one will only last a few months longer.  I’m a big fan of taking advantage of transits while they are happening, instead of spending the precious time resisting or waiting for them to be over.  A transit is the most powerful while you are in the thick of it.  That may be the hardest time to change but it’s also time when the most pressure to change is brought to bear.  You cannot afford to be lazy during a Saturn transit because it feels so much worse than laziness usually does.  If you decide that Saturn’s pressure is your friend, you can get him on your side.  And with Saturn beside you, you can climb—and move—mountains.

Want to know more about how this Saturn transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

Art by disjointdheart

This month, Jupiter and Saturn come into opposition in the sky.  Since Jupiter is all about expansion, getting bigger and having confidence in ourselves and Saturn is all about contraction, being emotionally reserved and working hard to earn what we gain in life, you can see that they have a lot of places to disagree.

Imagine Jupiter and Saturn on Mount Olympus arguing about how you should spend your time.  Jupiter is a large, round, jolly guy with a benevolent glow around him.  Saturn is thin and ascetic-looking, with a kind of hooked nose and a miserly air.  Their conversation might sound something like this . . .

Jupiter:  I’m all about making things bigger.
Saturn:  Blowing them out of proportion, you mean.
Jupiter:  Why do you always have to be such a wet blanket?
Saturn:  Because I value substance over surface.  There’s no limit to what can be accomplished by someone who’s willing to work hard and create value.
Jupiter:  Actually, there is a limit to that.  If a person works hard but never takes a break, they will come to feel that their life is just drudgery—“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” you know?
Saturn:  If the work is done, it’s ok to go play.
Jupiter:  Is it really, Saturn?  Do you ever really let up?
Saturn:  I can let up after something really solid has been accomplished.  But I like to push until it actually happens.  You, on the other hand, are usually full of hot air.  All enthusiasm and no substance.
Jupiter:  How can people progress and build anything meaningful if they have no hope?
Saturn:  I’m perfectly ready to deliver the reward after the work is done.
Jupiter:  Your approach is harsh and judgmental.
Saturn:  And you’re too relaxed.  Promises are important and a person who cannot stand behind their own word is worthless.  Wait a minute, who’s that?
A human being has joined the gods on Mount Olympus and stands there struggling for breath in the rarified atmosphere.
Human Being:  I’m only mortal, but I climbed up here because I want to talk to you both.
Jupiter:  I’m impressed.
Saturn:  So am I.  For once we agree.  So, little Human Being, what do you want?
Human Being:  Your argument is confusing me.  Sometimes I want to be in touch with my ability to hope and to grow and to expand, and then I listen to you, Jupiter—
Jupiter:  Fantastic idea.  Good on you.
Human Being:  —and then other times I just need a solid kick in the pants, so I listen to the never-ending stream of self-judgment that you put in my head, Saturn.
Saturn:  Glad you’re listening.  That will take you far.
Human Being:  But right now I don’t know what to do.  You’re pulling me in two different directions.  I don’t know whether I should expand or contract.  Should I grow my business or prune and consolidate it?  Should I make promises before I know I can keep them and then scramble to fulfill or should I work hard behind the scenes until I have something solid to offer and then promote it wildly?
Jupiter and Saturn look at each other.  Both shrug.
Saturn:  It doesn’t really matter which you do first, as long as you honor us both.
Jupiter:  Couldn’t have said it better myself.  Just make us both happy, in whatever order you like, and you’ll find our argument is over.
Jupiter and Saturn pat each other on the back and stroll away into the beautiful Olympian twilight.