Our old friend Pluto has turned direct this week (on Friday, September 13, 2011, to be exact) and he’s bringing to a close this year’s underworld journey.  What follows is a repost from last year, with dates updated for 2011.

Yup, Pluto is showing up, right on schedule, to take out the garbage.  Today Pluto turns direct, ending his yearly backwards journey.  Pluto has traveled several degrees backwards and today turns his face forwards again.  He will now retrace forwards the same steps he made backwards during the last few months, bringing a death-and-rebirth experience for everyone who is having a Pluto transit this year.

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Pluto transit this year, today may be pivotal for you.  Around April 9, you came to realize you were facing a big life-change and since then, you’ve been re-evaluating some the area of your life that’s changing.  You’ve been examining it and mulling it over.  Perhaps you’ve been researching it.  Basically, you’ve been asking yourself, “What is this part of me that wants to transform right now?  How have I lived this part of me in the past and what is it turning into for the future?”

This week you’ll experience a pivotal day.  It may be that you realize your internal quest for understanding is over.  You’ve come to clarity.  You’ve recognized the change that needs to occur and you’re ready to implement what you’ve learned.  You can now gear up to act on that recognition, sometime in the next few months (between now and January of 2012).

“What is a Pluto transit like . . .”
A Pluto transit is distinct, because it feels like dying.  You may feel at times as if you are in meltdown and you don’t know what you are doing in the area of life (i.e. planet in your chart) that’s being affected.  Pluto is asking you to let go in this area, to let something die so that it can be reborn.  Pluto is asking you to search underneath the surface for the essence of this part of you.  And Pluto is demanding that you let go of the old ways, so the new ways can emerge, regardless of how uncomfortable (sometimes very uncomfortable!) that might be.

“. . . 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 are having a Pluto transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Pluto.)  Transits are almost always accompanied by real-world events, which are woven into your experience of the change.  Transits feel distinct when they are happening, and the sensation distinctly fades as they end.  When a transit is over, your preoccupation with its themes quickly fades as your attention becomes grabbed by a different transit.  Occasionally a person will have no major transits at all for a time period (weeks, say, or months), but that’s pretty rare.

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 in 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 4, 5, 6 or 7 degrees of Capricorn, Cancer, Aries or Libra.  If you do, you are definitely having a Pluto transit this year.  This would account for the feelings of meltdown.

“What do I do now?”
You can ponder on it and get into alignment with the change that’s happening.  This way you can take advantage of it while it’s happening, and not feel like a victim of it.  Transits are not fatalistic events that happen to us—they are our greater Selves reaching out into life and drawing toward us the events and experiences that will help (or force) us to grow beyond our old selves.  These changes are always the next thing you wanted to experience at the time and the more you regard them with appreciation, awe and a willingness to take them on, the better your experience will be.  Even at the 11th hour, you can turn around even the harshest transit into something that leaves you in a better place.

For more insight on a transit, you can schedule a reading of it, which will help you get very clear about what this change is that’s happening in your life, how to handle it and make it turn out well, how long it will last, how various phases of it will feel and (not least!) when it will be over.  You might have several changes going on at once and if you do, this could help distinguish one from another.  The best thing you can get out of a reading is how to align with the deeper meaning behind the surface of your changes and accept the gift Pluto is bringing you.

Pluto’s Gift
Pluto’s gift changes according to the planet it is transiting of course, but one theme always remains the same.  Pluto offers the knowledge of essence—the heart, the center of this piece of you, its essential nature.  Pluto does this by stripping away all that is not essential and shows you that you will be ok without all that stuff.  Pluto says, “you don’t need that garbage!” and takes it away before you are ready because, left to our own devices, we’re never ready.  That’s ok—Pluto will always show up eventually, to take out the garbage.

“Wake up!” says Jupiter.  “Recently I initiated you into a big-time growth experience.   Now I’m telling you again:  it’s time to expand.”

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 Jupiter.  It’s as if Jupiter is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding this change forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Jupiter is touching your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what part of your chart it touches.  That part is being asked to grow and expand.  Today is the peak of Jupiter’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading To An Inner Journey
Sometime between now and last November Jupiter 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 profound expansion to come.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown a place in our life that we need to approach with a spirit of adventure and a willingness to become bigger than we’ve been before.  It’s very like a fantasy adventure movie in which a young hero is sent on an important quest.  During a Jupiter transit, you become a Seeker.

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 Jupiter turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That growth period you’re going through?” he says, “You’d better get with the program.”  Today, Jupiter’s retrograde journey begins and with it begins our inner quest to discover what part of us is ready to expand beyond our comfort zone and how to proceed with that expansion.  The upcoming few months of Jupiter retrograde will demand that we approach life philosophically and get ourselves into an open-minded, exploring mode.  Jupiter’s retrograde journey lasts until the day it turns direct, which is December 25, 2011.

Where Must We Grow, Explore, Expand?
The sign Jupiter is in tells us how it will affect us.  This year Jupiter is traveling through Taurus.  While in Taurus , Jupiter brings opportunities for getting better acquainted with the material world and all its benefits.  For some this will mean starting a body-centered practice, such as yoga or one of the more gentle martial arts.  For others this may mean expanding money-making opportunities, growing a nest-egg or padding a bank account.  For others still it may mean cooking up a storm or two, and perhaps throwing on a few extra pounds into the bargain.  Jupiter in Taurus reminds us that life can be lush and that we live in the lap of abundance, if we will only open our eyes and see it.

Is This Story Your Story?
If this resonates for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Jupiter may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Jupiter is covering the space between 0 and 10 degrees of Taurus.  If there is anything in your chart in 0 to 10 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius, you will feel this.  That’s 44 degrees out of the total 360 of a circle that is being affected by Jupiter this year—that’s 12% of the whole circle, a massive span and more than any other planet in our skies (because Jupiter likes all things big).  Knowing whether this affects you can help a lot because a Jupiter transit can lead to a fortunate outcome—if you take advantage of it while it’s happening.  Make hay while the sun shines!

What Area Of Your Life Is Being Affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with which planet in your chart is being triggered by Jupiter.  If it’s your Sun, you may feel your very identity growing beyond its old limits.  You’ll feel yourself filled up with confidence—you might even need to rein yourself in at times.  If it’s your Moon, you could experience an expansion in your family, either a new feeling of confidence around your relatives or perhaps even a new addition to the family (ahem!).  If it’s Venus or Juno, you might attract a freewheeling, rambling, adventuresome love affair or a welcome shared journey with your beloved mate and if it’s Saturn, you might find your career expanding and opportunity knocking at your door.  These are good things to know before they happen, because Jupiter brings opportunity, but you have to grab it and make use of it when it pops up.

Want to know more about how this Jupiter transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie to schedule a reading.

This month’s New Moon is also a Solar Eclipse and it’s also an occasion for lightening up.  That may seem like a contradiction, because an eclipse tends to have a heavy feel, plus Saturn is involved, which also feels heavy.  But this eclipse falls in the Air sign of Gemini, and draws on Libra, another Air sign.  Lightening up could be the most responsible course of action during an eclipse like this one.

Details About This Eclipse

Date: June 1, 2011
Time of eclipse: 2:03 PM PST
Type: partial (moderate in intensity)
Visible in: eastern Asia, northern Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, northern Scandinavia.
At: 11 degrees Gemini

Shadow Agent: Saturn (in Libra)

Does It Affect You Personally?

If your birthday is on any of the following dates, you most likely experienced this eclipse:
May 28-June 7
August 30-September 9
November 29-December 8
February 25-March 7

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 likely to bring up strong emotions and to be experienced as a subjective event).  The following script is just one possible way it could go.

You hear a knock at the door.  You answer it.  Saturn stands there, appearing today as a well-manicured older woman in a twin set and skirt.  Her graying hair is in an attractive, streamlined cut.  She is the very model of social appropriateness.
Saturn:  Good afternoon.  I’ve brought you something.
You:  What might that be?
Saturn extends her hand to you, opening it, palm up.  In it is a small, beautiful butterfly, flexing its wings.
Saturn:  Consider the butterfly.  A butterfly does not live long, but enjoys the days it’s given.  A butterfly stays light and follows the moment.  A butterfly is always well-dressed.
You look closer at the little insect and notice its beautiful coloring.
You:  Do you think I should be more like that?
Saturn:  You take life too seriously sometimes.  You need to lighten up.
You:  Look who’s talking!
Saturn:  Sometimes everything depends on rising above the dirt and grime of life.  Sometimes everything depends on a graceful word spoken at the perfect moment.  Sometimes everything depends on good manners.  You’ve got to have the ability to respond in those moments.
You:  I’ll think about that.
Saturn:  Please do.  Especially in your relationships.  All of them.
With that, Saturn opens her handbag and releases a flock of butterflies into your living room.  You panic and begin chasing them down, in an attempt to catch them all.
Saturn:  Stop that!  There’s no need!
You:  But they’re everywhere!
Saturn:  Just observe.  It’s a meditation.  Relax.  Let them have your home for a while.  They will die soon enough.  For now, just watch them move.
You sink into a chair and soon are lost in a trance, watching the colorful wings flutter, land, flutter again.  Eventually you realize that Saturn is gone and you are alone in a room full of beautiful moving symbols of pure grace.

Read about other eclipses coming up: 2011 Eclipses.

If you’ve read my monthly Forecasts over the years, you may have periodically noticed that sometimes I’ll describe days in which “nothing is happening,” and you may have wondered what use you could possibly make of information like that.  These are days in which no planet is connecting with any other.  That’s a very unusual kind of day, because the Moon moves through the zodiac quite quickly, completing all 12 signs in its monthly round and connecting with most of the other planets as it moves through each sign.  So there are only a few days like this a year.  But it’s connected to another phenomenon that’s more frequent, which is called the Void-of-Course Moon.

The Moon takes about 2 and a half days to pass through each zodiac sign.  When the Moon has made the last aspect (connection) that it’s going to make in a given sign, it is said to go “void of course,” which basically means that there are no more connections due to happen in the Moon’s upcoming path.  After the Moon changes signs, it’s like hitting a reset button and the Moon enters a new “course” which is not “void” until it again finishes the final connection it’s going to make with another planet while in that sign.

So if, for example, the Moon is in Capricorn and squares Saturn at 2:42 in the afternoon and trines Jupiter at 6:05 that evening, and leaves Capricorn at 9:22 that night, it will be said to be void-of-course between 6:05 (when it made its last aspect, which was to Jupiter) and 9:22 (when it left Capricorn and entered Aquarius).  The period of time that the Moon can be void-of-course varies—it can be for just a few minutes or a whole day (although that’s rare).

So those rare days I’ve been describing in my Forecast pages as days when “the Moon makes no exact aspects” tend to have an eerie feeling, almost a feeling of suspense.  It’s hard to know how to respond to anything on these days, and making decisions is about as bad an idea as it is during Mercury retrograde, and for similar reasons.

Not all these “no aspect” days are also void-of-course days, because it’s possible for the Moon’s course to have a sort of dead patch in the middle, followed by more planetary connections, followed by a real void period at the end.  But when a “no aspect” day is also a void-of-course day, the effect is intensified.

While the Moon is void-of-course you may not know what you feel and your intuition may be off, so you may decide later that your decision was faulty.  Astrologers have a catchphrase for what happens during the void-of-course Moon: “nothing will come of the matter.”  One astrologer made use of this characteristic of the void Moon, with rather famous results.

You may know that Astrologer Joan Quigley was hired by President Ronald and Nancy Reagan to help set dates for meetings and other things during Reagan’s presidency.  According to Wikipedia, Nancy hired Joan after the assassination attempt on the president, because Joan said she could have predicted that event.  What you may not know is that Joan’s astrological help is probably the reason why Reagan came to be known as the “Teflon President.”  Joan advised the Reagans about when to hold press conferences, scheduling them during void-of-course Moon periods so that “nothing would come of the matter.”  So, no matter what difficult questions the press threw at Reagan, he was able to smooth things over.  Nothing ever happened that seemed important enough to report on or to question in the press, and no ugly smear campaigns or rumors ever resulted.  Nothing stuck to Reagan—and thus he was Teflon.

The Moon void-of-course is a powerful time, even though it’s also a “dead” time.  So the conclusion that we must come to is that during a void-of-course Moon you have two choices:  1) take a load off and don’t make any important decisions or 2) call a press conference you don’t want negative repercussions from.  And that’s what to do with a void-of-course Moon!

The planet Saturn is about to change signs.  This momentous event happens only every 2 and a half years.  You’ve probably read about Saturn on my blog before.  You probably already know that he represents the archetypal Father principle. Saturn rules the following things (and more):

•    Father
•    Career
•    Authority
•    Hierarchy
•    Discipline & structure
•    Order
•    Ambition
•    Goal-setting and achievement

Saturn can be a very harsh taskmaster.  Sometimes his lessons come through exacting, demanding, limiting experiences where we feel there is no exit.  Saturn demands maturity and self-governance in whatever area he is passing through.

Today, Saturn enters Libra, the domain of relationship.  Libra covers:

•    One-on-one relationship
•    Partnerships of all kinds
•    Fairness and equality
•    Balance and symmetry

Saturn in Libra represents fair jurisprudence, rigorous negotiation and balanced judgment.  In the next 2 and a half years, Saturn will demand that we take all our relationships more seriously.  He will press us to set those relationships in order and he’ll push us to work at it.

Libra is the very finest sign for Saturn to be in:  Libra brings out the best in Saturn, while diminishing the worse qualities of this sometimes-harsh archetype.  The harsh judge becomes the tough-but-fair judge when Saturn is in Libra.  While in Libra, he’ll also demand that we take all our partnerships of all kinds more seriously and work to improve them.  Saturn is a very simple principle:  when you feel his pressure to perform, just stop complaining and resisting and simply do the work.  Saturn hates a procrastinator and he  promises reward for those who put in effort.  His directive is:  “In the next 2 and a half years, take on your relationships with relish—I promise that if you do, there’s a toy surprise inside.”

Aloha everybody,

I’m writing to you from the beaches of Kaua’i, possibly the most beautiful of the Hawaiian islands.  Now that I’m here I realize my plan of continuing to post to my blog was the product of an insane, city-dwelling mind and that there’s no way it’s going to happen.  I’ve gone troppo.  I’ll be here for another week and will be making no blogposts, no newsletter, no Twitterfeed until the stars guide me home.

mahalo,

Jamie

This December 31st we have an extremely special kind of full moon.  Not only is it a lunar eclipse, but it’s also a blue moon!  A blue moon is a second full moon inside a calendar month.  It only happens in months that are long and that begin with a full moon, allowing room for another full moon 29 days later to still be in the same month, thus the phrase “once in a blue moon.”  Full moons are times of heightened emotion to begin with, but when you add the increased intensity of the eclipse, the rarity of the blue moon and the fact that it’s New Year’s Eve for cultures using the Gregorian calendar, the day of December 31st is outrageously special.

This lunar eclipse brings strong emotions and nostalgia to pressure as the sensitive Moon in Cancer is pitted against the tough-minded Sun in Capricorn.  Saturn and Pluto act as Shadow Agents, bringing in themes of integrity and intensity.

Details About This Eclipse

Date:  December 31, 2009
Time of eclipse: 11:13 AM PST
Type: partial (weak in intensity)
Visible in: People in Asia, Australasia, Europe and Africa will see this small sliver of an eclipse.
At: 10 degrees Cancer
Shadow Agents: Pluto in Capricorn, Saturn in Libra

Does It Affect You Personally?

If your birthday is on any of the following dates, you most likely experienced this eclipse:
December 26-January 5
March 25-April 5
June 27-July 7
September 28-October 8

Remember, not every eclipse touches everyone, but when it does, it’s usually noticeable.  A lunar eclipse is likely to bring up strong emotions.  The following script is just one possible way it could go.

You hear a knock at the door.  You answer it.  Saturn is there:  he’s a serious-looking older man in a dark business suit, wearing a power tie.  Next to him is Pluto, the Alchemist, in a long black robe spattered with various chemicals.  Pluto is carrying a large pot.  Something seems odd about that pot, but before you can argue, both of them sweep past you and head for . . . your kitchen??
You:  wha?
Saturn:  Sit down.  Shut up.  Do as you’re told.
You:  But this is MY house!
Pluto:  You’re not in charge here.
Saturn pushes you into a chair and actually ties you to it while Pluto gets busy at the stove.  Once Saturn has finished restraining you, you can begin to see what Pluto is doing.  He’s put the giant, black, cast-iron pot onto the stove, added a lot of some strange-smelling liquid and is turning the heat up.  Way up.  You notice it’s not so much a pot as it is a cauldron.
You:  You’re not going to hurt me, are you guys?  What did I do wrong?
Saturn:  Nothing.  This is just how we roll.
The pot is now boiling.  Pluto begins to walk around the house and grab particular items to put into the pot.
You:  Hey, that’s my favorite shirt!  I aced a job interview in that shirt!
Pluto:  Does it have sentimental value?  In it goes!
You:  Oh no, not that photograph—that’s the only memory I have of her!  Damnit, will you fiends stop?
Saturn:  Who are you really?  Have you thought about it?  Where’s your integrity?
You:  I don’t know what you mean.  You guys are just torturing me.  What gives you the right?
Saturn:  You are the amalgam of all things that have ever happened to you PLUS the essential ingredient.  The thing that makes you different from every other human being alive.
You:  What’s that?
Saturn:  What you did with what happened to you.  That one single driver inside you that decided what to do with all the things that happened.  Did you achieve or fail?  Did you love or hate?  Were you a whiner or were you heroic?  That moment of decision—how you act under pressure—is the crucial ingredient.
Saturn reaches into your chest and grabs your heart, pulling it out.  You have no idea why you’re still alive as he tosses it into the pot.  Pluto claps on the lid and seals it tightly.  Belatedly you realize it’s not an ordinary pot—it’s a pressure cooker.  As Pluto turns up the heat under the pot, the pressure increases until you think your heart will explode.  All the feelings, sensations and experiences you’ve ever had are suddenly compressed together with enormous force.  You realize there are few moments in which you made the heroic choice under pressure.  You want to die but find yourself alive anyway, and open your eyes.
Saturn:  You must change your life.
Pluto:  Got it?
You:  unh.
They pack up the pot and go.

I just discovered that for some reason I had posted October’s forecast dates through only the 14th, as if that was all there was to October.  I have now added the “Fortune Cookies” for the second half of the month.  It seems both ironic and appropriate that the last day on my forecast page was also the day Mercury turned direct, as if life ended there.  Now it’s been corrected–enjoy!

Learn about yourself while playing silly astrology games like “Meet the Archetype,” “Soap Opera” and “Astrology Mad Libs.”

Astrology Games will be held monthly at the Church of Soul in Oakland, California, beginning this month on February 20. Everyone is welcome, from novice to professional. For details, click on “Upcoming Events” here or in the sidebar on the right.

See you there!

It’s in the right-hand sidebar.

-Jamie