Sunday, December 20, 2009 through Wednesday, March 10, 2010

What is Mars Retrograde?
“Mars retrograde” means Mars is in the part of its cycle where it is traveling backwards from our point of view here on Earth.  When Mars goes retrograde, we are cast upon a symbolic Hero’s Journey.

A retrograde period of any planet is a retrospective of that planet’s themes.  It is a time of moving backward, perhaps of going back to pick up pieces lost in the past.  It can be a retrieval, a turning inward, a letting-go.  A Hero’s Journey is a life-passage in which we retrieve our own heroism.  True heroism involves courage, strength, assertiveness, but also gentleness and appropriate restraint—and during this journey we are tested, in a number of ways, for those things.  While Mars is retrograde, we’ll face many opportunities to be a hero in a deeper, truer sense than we ever have before.

How Are Heroes Made?
As human beings, we feel the tug of the heroic journey because each of us (regardless of our physical gender or age) has a hero inside us and that part of us wants to become immortal.  This side of us, symbolized by Mars in our astrology chart, is drawn toward conflict and righteous struggle as we seek to retrieve the lost pieces of our heroism.  We want to be assertive but we don’t really want to hurt others.  We love a glorious battle, but what’s behind that is the simple desire to assert ourselves against a worthy obstacle, sharpen and hone our battle skills and emerge victorious.  To be a hero is to have at our command all the strength, courage and fortitude that we need to contend with any situation in life and come out a winner.

How Long Will It Last?
Mars will be retrograde from Sunday December 20, 2009 through Wednesday, March 10, 2010.  That’s a long time—almost 12 weeks.  Plenty of time to have a few interesting adventures that will test our mettle.  During this 12 week period I’ll be telling stories from the adventures of Greek and Roman heroes who exemplify certain heroic virtues.

Six Tales of Heroic Virtue

Strength—Hercules
Strength is naturally the first of the heroic virtues and Hercules exemplifies it.  His stories overflow with his vitality, hotheadedness and even his sexual prowess.
Courage—Achilles
The virtue of courage is shown by the story of Achilles and his famous weakness (his heel).  Paradoxically, his is a story of faith in one’s own invulnerability.
Resourcefulness—Odysseus
The virtue of resourcefulness is best shown in the craftiness and guile of the clever Odysseus, for whom the Odyssey (his journey) was named.
Alliance—Castor & Pollux
The famous mythical Twins (who make up the constellation Gemini) are a perfect example of the importance of brother- and sister-hood, the ability to form ties with trustworthy battle allies.
Invention—Alexander the Great
Alexander’s story is a historical as well as a mythical one.  His slicing of the Gordian Knot reveals the power of creating your own original solution.
Devotion—Orpheus
What good is a hero without something worth fighting for?  Orpheus was willing to go to the land of the dead and charm the Lord and Lady of that land to reclaim his beloved wife.

I’m going to have a LOT of fun writing these for your benefit and I hope you enjoy the process fully as much as I do.

Mars, the Inner Hero
Every one of us has a hero within us, and that would be Mars.  Mars is the heroic, strong, courageous, overpowering force that beats fiercely in the heart of every human alive.  When we need defending, Mars steps forward.  When we get into a fight, Mars got us there.  Making friends with Mars, and being aware of the gifts and challenges shown by his position in our chart, is the best way to become a hero.  (Contact me if you want a reading about that.)

What Will You Do With This Opportunity?
Heroes are made, not born.  This is not an easy process.  To become a hero is to exert oneself and likely fail many times before the ultimate win.  This involves not giving up along the way.  You must be able to hope and to imagine how to conquer even seemingly-impossible obstacles.  The tales I’ll be telling over the upcoming weeks involve more than strength—they involve courage, imagination, intelligence and even love and devotion.  A true hero fights for what is right when that is needed and puts down his sword in peacetime.  A hero in modern-day is not only a warrior, but blends all these human qualities into one seamless whole.  To be a hero is not exclusively open to men, but to women also, and children too.

Naturally, this means you.  What will you do with the opportunities this astrological event offers?  Will you see them as opportunities?  Will you take up your sword and follow the flag of your inspiration?  Mars demands not just comprehension, but action.  Mars doesn’t care what you think or feel; he cares what you do.  And when he’s awake in you, you are unstoppable.

Mars is retrograde now.  He’s raised the horn to his lips.  He’s uttered a battle cry.  Will you leap into the fray?

In honor of Sagittarians everywhere, this post is about Jupiter, Sag’s ruling planet, the bringer of joy.

Jupiter is located in a sign in your chart that brings you joy.  Wherever Jupiter resides will tell a story of an area of life or a way of being which brings you sheer delight and happiness.  To do your Jupiter thing is the very pursuit of happiness for you.  The feeling you get when you do that is a sense of expansion, pleasure and lightness.  Jupiter is just plain fun.

Jupiter is also the part of us that reaches beyond ourselves and makes us grow bigger.  This part helps us develop a philosophy of life that answer’s life’s big questions and makes sense of our place in the universe.  When you are in touch with your Jupiter side, life has meaning and you have a reason to live.  You have a happiness to pursue and when you do so, you exude such positive, hopeful qualities that life rolls out the red carpet, tossing you opportunities and making you lucky.  When you are friends with your inner Jupiter, life is an adventure.

How do you find out where your Jupiter is?
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 what your Jupiter sign is.

Where’s Your Joy?
When you have Jupiter in Aries, you derive joy from leaping into action.  It’s a little hard to sit still because you’d rather be in motion, making progress or getting somewhere.
Spontaneity delights you and you are never so happy as when your own action is the right one and brings delight to others.  You bounce back fast & learn well from mistakes.  Your philosophy is based on transparency and you get a lot of joy from being your truest self without apology.  To you, mutual honesty and directness are the key to any relationship.

Jupiter in Taurus people love the physical world.  If you have this Jupiter sign, you relish feeding all your senses with delicious sights, sounds, tastes, scents and textures.  Can this lead to gluttony?  You bet.  It can also lead to acquisitiveness.  But such people do generally end up with the nest egg they seek and lots of nice things to decorate it with.  And your love of food leads to natural cooking talent.  Your philosophy of life includes the importance of continuity and the idea that things should go on much the same unless there’s a really good reason to change them.

Jupiter in Gemini?  Ok, you can be a real talker, even a serious chatterbox.  You love being clever, expressing your wit and getting into wide-ranging conversations on a huge variety of topics.  You are a “renaissance person,” pulled in a number of directions, all of which give you equal joy.  In fact, you’re so multi-talented that you don’t know what to develop.  Being involved with several ideas at once brings you delight and your life-philosophy involves the importance of using one’s intelligence and seeing life logically.

People with Jupiter in Cancer are a fountain of love and nurturance for those lucky enough to be around them.  When you have this, you tend to feel emotionally secure and to feel like your emotions are ok without needing validation from others.  You spread your support around liberally and are not easily emotionally depleted.  You are sensitive to the needs of others, but not clingy or cloying.  Yours is an open kitchen and a well-trod welcome mat.  Your philosophy of life involves the importance of family and of treating people like family.

Jupiter in Leo is very expansive and exudes noblesse oblige.  This makes you a really royal person.  Creativity gives you joy and you like to express yourself, but beware of excess self-involvement.  You can bear a lot of attention.  You are a natural leader and role model.  You are sometimes unaware of how your large expression can overwhelm others and stifle their expression.  When you make room for the creativity of others while not diminishing yourself, you are the best role model of all.  Your philosophy is about being an individual and the importance of individual will and expression.

Jupiter in Virgo is similar to Gemini.  When you have this, you can get lost in, and overwhelmed by, the details.  You find yourself trying to pan out and focus in at the same time, which can be frustrating, but on the other hand, having an abundance of Virgoan organizational energy is not a bad thing at all and you like nothing so much as a clean, fresh surface ready for use.  Your health tends to go well because you enjoy putting healthy habits in place.  Your philosophy can put a positive spin on the work ethic, partly because being efficient and industrious just feels good to you.

Jupiter in Libra people truly enjoy relating to others, which may account for your varied and interesting social life.  Your philosophy includes the tenet that life should be fair and this trips you up occasionally, when it doesn’t bear out.  You think everyone’s beliefs deserve room, except where they exclude the beliefs of others.  You can be a social magnet and a matchmaker, introducing the right people to each other and smoothing over social mishaps among your many and varied friends.  Your tolerance for people’s differences leads to a host of good connections that can pay off over time.

When you have Jupiter in Scorpio, you have a dark side that you enjoy.  Sometimes this takes the form of gallows humor and sometimes it’s about a love of the gritty, grimy side of life (a fascination with detective novels, for example).  Your philosophy includes the idea there’s no moment so dark it will not pass and that there is a light at the end of every tunnel.  Because of that, you make a good helper and guide for people who are truly at the end of their rope, because you have a high tolerance for other people’s shadows.  In fact, your sheer delight at seeing someone else being real while in pain is infectious.

When you have Jupiter in Sagittarius you like to stay mobile.  You are a pretty purely Jupiterian person, so you have a strong sense of humor, a large and benevolent presence and you are fascinated with travel and foreign cultures.  You are delighted by that which is different from you simply because it is different—that makes it interesting.  You are sometimes very restless and need to avoid getting tied down.  You have a deep well of optimism and can bounce back from just about anything.  Your life-philosophy leaves room for endless growth and expansion.

Jupiter in Capricorn people are prone to overworking because they love the sensation of discipline and focused effort.  When you have this, you are delighted by discovering what to devote yourself to and you get a lot of energy and joy from working extremely hard at it once you’ve found it.  Achievable goals inspire you and pie-in-the-sky goals annoy you.  While you are not naturally optimistic, once your skepticism is satisfied, you can show tremendous persistence.  Your philosophy is based on the idea that hard work leads inevitably to success—and for you, it does.

When you have Jupiter in Aquarius, progress is enlivening and central to your world-view—thwarting it runs counter to your philosophy.  You have a rebellious streak and quickly spot the places where old ways have stopped working.  You are happiest when there’s a little chaos going on due to a really big change in the works.  You have an abundance of ideas and enjoy taking an intellectual, experimental approach.  For you an adventure is better had in the world of ideas than in the physical world and you secretly like shaking up the old, established ways.

As a Jupiter in Pisces person, you have a deep well of faith to draw on.  You are a profoundly gentle and tolerant person, with warm affection for all living things.  You can be wise and generous with your attention and help make room for smaller beings around you to grow.  If you are religious, you’ve chosen the finest parts of your religion and tolerate or ignore the rest.  This frees you to participate in a communion with spirit that feeds your soul and gives you joy and vitality.  Your philosophy is simple: every living thing is deserving and there is room for all of us to be happy.

Today Jupiter and Chiron are in conjunction for the third and final time in 2009.

Jupiter and Chiron have met on a giant cloud over Mount Olympus, home of the gods.  They are watching events on Earth.
Chiron: (pointing) Hey, Jupiter, you see that little human over there?
Jupiter: You mean the one with all the intolerance?
Chiron: Yeah, that one over there, surrounded by people different from himself.
Jupiter: Not too happy, is he?
Chiron: No.  Shall we?
Jupiter: Of course!
They link arms, then disappear in a puff of smoke, reappearing near the human in question.
Everyman: Wha–?  Who the hell are you?
Jupiter: Different from you, apparently.
Chiron: Yep, it seems that everyone is different from you.  Don’t you ever get lonely?
Everyman: I don’t know what you mean, but I do know you aren’t from around here.  So here’s the point-end of my gun.  Go back where you came from, before I shoot!
Jupiter sticks out one finger, plugs up the end of the gun.  Everyman shoots and the bullet is stopped by Jupiter’s finger.  Everyman looks at his gun, dumbfounded.
Jupiter: You see, there’s really no need for this.
Everyman: Now you’re making me mad!
He gets out a bigger gun, but before he can use it, Chiron suddenly grows very large and picks him up by the collar, shaking him until he drops all weapons.  Several fall from his clothing and clatter to the ground.
Chiron: Silly human!  When will you learn?
Jupiter: Intolerance will get you nowhere.
Everyman: (choking a little) You don’t understand!  They are going to kill us!  They won’t let us just be—so we have to get them first.  It’s the way of the world.  If we don’t protect our way of life we’ll lose it.
Jupiter: But if you keep fighting, you’ll lose your life anyway.  And who will be left around to continue the culture you’ve built?  Why are you fighting anyway?  Who is the real enemy here?
Everyman is still dangling from Chiron’s grip.  Chiron drops him suddenly.
Chiron: (shaking his head) I can’t make you tolerant.  But I can show you what’s possible.
He picks up a rock and breathes on it.  The rocks clarifies, becomes like a pool.  In the rock, pictures begin to appear.  Everyman becomes fascinated and steps closer.
Jupiter: What do you see?
Everyman: I see my people, fighting our neighbors, as we’ve always done.  So many dead, so much territory changing hands over so many years.
Chiron: Do you want your children to die for this?
Everyman: I, um, I don’t know.  I want our way of life to continue.  I’m not giving up our ways!
Jupiter: What if you didn’t have to?
Everyman: I don’t want my daughter to marry one of them!
Chiron: I understand, but what if your battle is over?  What if no one is right and no one is wrong?
Jupiter: What if you could spend your days in building up your culture instead of tearing down theirs?
Chiron: And what if their culture contains some hidden key, some mystery that can unlock something in yours—wouldn’t you want access to that?
Everyman: (grudgingly) Maybe.
Jupiter: You’re a hard case.
Everyman: Yeah.  I’m not budging.
Jupiter: (to Chiron) He doesn’t seem to have any clue that he’s not unique in his intolerance.  It’s as if he really believes his culture is superior.  This is useless.
Chiron: (to Jupiter) I think it’s time to visit the one we really came here to see.
They turn their back on Everyman and walk into a nearby house.  There, seated on the floor, is an 8-year-old of indeterminate race, who looks up in surprise.
Jupiter: Hi there!
Child: Whoa!  You have got to be deities!
Chiron: You guessed it.  Can’t fool you for a minute, can we?
Child: Nope.
Jupiter: Bit of a mess out there, isn’t it?  He points outside with his thumb.
Child: No kidding!  Everybody’s killing each other all the time.  They killed my dad because he’s not like them.  They shun my mom too.  Did you come to fix it?
Chiron: No, we came to do something better.  We came to help you fix it.
Child: No way!  That’s not better—that’s worse.
Jupiter: Yeah, it wasn’t my idea, it was Chiron’s.  Blame him.
Chiron: You were born to be a bridge between the two cultures you came from.
Child: Don’t be an idiot.  How am I supposed to do that?
Jupiter: Because you want to be whole.  Because you have two sides and yet you are one person.  Until you completely own and accept both sides of you, this war will continue.  Make friends with both sides and you make yourself whole.
Child: That sounds hard.  I don’t know where to start.
Chiron: Start wherever you are.  Find the places that are broken in you and make them whole.  Gather people who are different together and get them talking about what makes them the same.  Help them learn from each other.  This will make you whole and it will save the world you live in.
Jupiter and Chiron begin to go up in a puff of swirling smoke.
Child: Don’t go!  I can’t do this alone.
Chiron: You won’t really be alone.  We’ll be behind you the whole way.
Jupiter: You can do it.  It is your gift to the world.  And you have your whole life to do it in.

For more insight into this year’s Jupiter/Chiron conjunction, see these pages:
May’s Triple Conjunction of Neptune, Chiron and Jupiter
Jupiter & Chiron Ask “Am I Too Big Or Not Big Enough?”

Uranus has spent the last few months (since July 1) traveling backwards.  Today he turns his face forward and re-covers the same ground.  Why should it matter to you?  If he’s passing through a zone where you have a planet in your natal chart, he’s bringing you shocking new ideas that can turn your head around.  And it’s still in progress.

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Uranus transit this year, today may be pivotal for you.  Around July 1, you came to realize that some area of your life was in a chaotic uproar.  This was the chaos or breakdown that leads to breakthrough, although it probably didn’t look like that at the time.  Since then, you’ve been re-evaluating that area.  It might feel like a puzzle, the pieces of which have been thrown up into the air, forcing you to reassemble it entirely from the beginning.  And when you’re done, chances are it will not look like it did before.  Not in the least.

The puzzle is still in progress and now you’re waiting for the right moment to act.  That moment is not today, but today (Dec 1, 2009) is when the seed may be planted that will lead to the right moment happening in the next few months.  This day is pivotal in the process of you arriving at a whole new perspective in which so much more is possible than ever before.

Today (and I mean this loosely—it may happen as soon as 2 days before or as late as 2 days after today) is pivotal.  Today may be the day you realize your internal quest for understanding is over.  You’ve heard the message the universe is sending to you and you’re almost ready to act on what you’ve learned.  You can now gather yourself to take that action sometime in the next few months (between now and March of 2010).

“What is a Uranus transit like . . .”
Uranus is archetype of the Revolutionary and he brings a shift in paradigm.  A paradigm shift is a state-based shift, where enough momentum has been built up to cause a cascade into a new state, fundamentally different from the old one.  Uranus’ purpose is to present a new way of thinking about something, so new and so radical that everything that previously existed inside that way of thinking is now reframed and thus altered by its new context.  So the ways in which you were like a fish in water, taking the water for granted, will change because the very water you live in has changed.  Uranus’s paradigm shift is intellectual in nature—a shift to a new perspective where the old way of thinking is rendered irrelevant in the new context.  My favorite example is the way people used to think the world was flat and they shifted to thinking the world is round.  You and I may never travel all the way around the globe we live on, yet every aspect of our lives is different because we know the world is round, not flat.

“. . . 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 Uranus transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Uranus.)  A Uranus transit has a particular sensation of agitation and unrest associated with it.  There’s disruption and disarray in some area of your life.  You feel that something has to change and you feel unsettled while you’re figuring it out.  Maybe a new, startling idea has struck you like lightening and your point of view has already begun to shift and you are coping with all the fallout from that.

You can find out whether you’re having a Uranus transit by peeking at your chart.  This year Uranus is covering the space from 22 to 26 degrees of Pisces.  This will affect you if you have any planet in the space from 22 to 26 degrees of any of the four Mutable signs (Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius).

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 22, 23, 24, 25 or 26 degrees of Pisces Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius.  If you do, you are definitely having a Uranus transit this year.  And knowing that gives you a chance to understand the major shift that you’re involved in and to see the usefulness of the chaos, instead of feeling overwhelmed by it.

“How long does it last?”
A Uranus transit will typically last for 9 months to 1-1½ years.  Today is just one part of it, a pivotal day in its flow.  The timing of your transit will be personal 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 being affected by this paradigm shift.  Is it Relationships (Venus)?  Career (Saturn)?  Home (Moon)?  Or it could be something more subtle.

“What do I do now?”
Take a close look at the area of your life that’s changing.  Why do you feel so agitated there?  Is there some aspect of your life that doesn’t fit the way it used to?  You may have to let go of some old ways of thinking before all this is done.

Sometimes a Uranian paradigm shift is launched by the arrival of a new, startling idea.  It’s startling because it doesn’t fit into your old ways of thinking and therefore it makes you see ways you’d gotten stuck in thought-patterns.  It shows up the flaws in those thought-patterns as if to say, “You weren’t prepared for me, were you?  I’m a truly new idea and you’ll have to make room for me now.”  Everything has to change to accommodate the new idea but because the system itself has to change, this results in a cascade of changes that will not only make room for the new idea but also make possible a whole host of new, exciting ideas, thoughts, perspectives and approaches that you couldn’t ever have seen from the old point of view.  Holy ripple effect, Batman!  This can be a shocking experience.  And it massively widens your vistas.

Sometime Uranus transits are experienced by Uranian (i.e. Aquarius) types in different ways than other types experience them.  For most people, a Uranus transit is a time of breaking out, rebelling and going in a new radical direction.  But a Uranian may already be living that radical way, so for them sometimes the most radical thing they can do is to go conservative.  Sometimes that’s the only new territory left.  So if you’re already a rebel in the area where Uranus is influencing you, this transit may (paradoxically) stabilize you.  It’s like of like how ADD people need to take a stimulant (Ritalin, etc.) to calm down their already hyperactive brain.  (ADD is a Uranian condition, linked to the short attention span that seems necessary and appropriate to coping with the Aquarian Age of Technology.)

Uranus’ Gift
Uranus’ gift is that you come out the other side of this change with a whole new way of thinking about something.  That new way of thinking yields ideas and approaches that were not possible before, that didn’t exist in the old paradigm.  Your world is about to expand into new dimensions that were not foreseeable before.  You are facing a singularity.  After this, everything changes.  Are you ready?

When it’s over, it’s over
After this transit ends, your period of paradigm shift will be over.  It’s quite possible you’ll have another transit like this in a different area of your life in the next few years (it’s likely in fact), but this one will have passed.  If this period is frustrating to you, be at ease, because it will end, and soon (between now and March).  But also, and more importantly, take advantage.  Use this shift while it’s happening.  It doesn’t happen every day.

Art by Betelgeux

I’m not one of those doom-saying astrologers.  I won’t rant about how the world’s going to end in 2012 (or any other year).  But Saturn square Pluto is starting this month and going through August of 2010 and it’s serious.  It really is heavy. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you know how serious it is and how to cope with it.

Saturn is the archetype of the Wise Old Man, the Mentor, the Father Figure, the Authority.  When Saturn comes along, he reminds us of our duties, our obligations and the seriousness of the situation.  Saturn brings a reality check, sometimes a harsh one.

Pluto is the Phoenix.  He transforms everything he touches, putting it through a metamorphosis, a long dark night of the soul.  He brings a symbolic death-and-rebirth experience.  He also represents our instincts, that part of us that ferrets out the underlying truths.

These are both heavy archetypes and they are in a square to each other, which astrologers traditionally view as a stressful relationship.  A square feels frustrating and obstructive to both parties.  They are not coming to the table ready to negotiate, but ready to ‘square off.’  They’re in a fighting mood.

Here’s a snippet of conversation between the two:
Saturn: I’m the ultimate authority figure.  I’m strong and solid and I have respect for the wisdom of the elders.  I represent the continuity of culture and its rules.
Pluto: I doubt you.  I think there’s something fishy behind everything you say and do.  I think you have an interest in maintaining your position and you don’t really care about the people you have charge of.
Saturn: I’ve been in charge for a very long time.  The people put me here.  I do what I do to take care of them.  I hold communities together.  I provide the rules people live by and the punishments that keep them in line.
Pluto: You have ulterior motives.  I won’t be happy until I uncover every last slimy thing you’ve ever done and hold it up to the light of day.
Saturn: Don’t even think about crossing me.
Pluto: You know you can’t win.  You have a trail of slime behind you a mile wide.  I can smell it.
Saturn: No way—I’ve kept my past clean.  I am a person of integrity.
Pluto: I think you’re corrupt.  I’ll be watching you.  One false move and you’re out.

That was a view of Pluto obstructing Saturn.  But one can just as easily see Saturn obstructing Pluto:
Saturn: Pluto, I’ve noticed that you love intense experience.
Pluto: Yes, I do.  I like life on the edge.  I like passion.
Saturn: You can get pretty compulsive sometimes.
Pluto: I like the sensation of falling.  I like life pulling at me and I like pulling at others.
Saturn: You become addicted to things too easily.  You get lost in your compulsions and lose your good judgment.
Pluto: Did I ever have good judgment in the first place?  I have only my instincts to guide me.
Saturn: But you muddy your instincts when you involve yourself in addictions.
How can they guide you when you’re continually pulled back towards a substance or habit that makes the pain go away?
Pluto: I refuse to live in pain.  What do you suggest?
Saturn: Discipline.  Because addiction, while it promises to relieve pain in the short term, only amplifies it in the long term.  Eliminate your addictions.  Then we’ll talk.
Pluto: Not till I’m good and ready.
Saturn: You’ll probably have to hit bottom first, maybe alienate everyone around you and ruin your life.
Pluto: If the people around me don’t love me through this, maybe they were worth losing.
Saturn: I see—people are supposed to love you while you are free to abuse them because your life is so hard?  You’re such a baby.  And a victim.
Pluto: And you’re a hardass.  You only pretended to care about me.  Go away.

You see?  Both archetypes have their weak spots and this transit could well bring those weak spots out.

This transit of Pluto square Saturn lasts from November of 2009 through August of 2010.  Today’s post is just a taste of what Saturn and Pluto have in store for us.  I’ll write more about it as this transit goes on, but for now I’d like to leave you with a few interesting questions to ponder:

• In what areas of your life have you been using your role as an authority figure to avoid changing?
• In what ways have you become rigid, adhering to rules instead of flexibly responding to life’s challenges on a case-by-case basis?
• In what areas of your life does an addiction rule you and cause you to violate your own integrity—whether with yourself or with others?
• When’s the last time you lied to someone—or to yourself?  What were you protecting?

These are heavy questions.  But if you’re ready for the very foundation of your life to shift in order to change in truly deep ways for the better, this transit is perfect for you.

In November of 2008 I posted an article called Scorpio Rising, Boundaries and Intimacy.  In that article I talked about the mysterious fact that underneath the crusty, protective exterior that Scorpio frequently wears is a profound sensitivity, which is hard to see at first, but becomes apparent as you get to know the person better.  This sensitivity is both the bane and the blessing of a Scorpio’s existence.

Speaking now to Scorpios everywhere, there’s a powerful gift embedded in the sensitivity of Scorpio and that gift is instinct.  Validate and pay attention to your instincts.  Let go of any need to explain or justify them.  Watch where they lead you and you will learn to trust them.  In order to get there you will probably have to let go of an addiction or two, because addictions will interfere with your ability to trust your own instincts.

Once you’ve made friends with your own best asset (instinct) and eliminated some of your worst liabilities (addictions), proceed to carve out space in the world where you can be yourself without self-consciousness or apology.  Find a few friends with whom you can share your innermost thoughts and feelings, who can effortlessly have genuine compassion for your dilemmas.  Stick to those friends like a magnet.  Be very good to them and recognize that you are not always easy to get along with.

Let me also suggest this:  when you are extremely upset about something, separate the meaning from the reality.  Notice that there’s a difference between what actually happened and what it meant to you.  Notice that it might mean something entirely different to other people.  Let this liberate you from the compulsion to act on your feelings.  Recognize that most people around you have good intentions most of the time.  If you respond to the intentions rather than the actions, people will generally respond well to you.  The fastest way to get rid of a good friend is to punish them for a clumsy but well-intentioned act.  They’ll be running from you in droves if you do that.

Choose your friends, loves and companions wisely, love them unconditionally and tell them your truth.  This will give you a rock to cling to in life’s many storms.

To learn more about your Scorpio nature
and how to flourish with it,
contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
for a reading.

Art by azurylipfe.

Neptune has spent the last few months (since May 28) traveling backwards.  Today she turns her face forward and re-covers the same ground.  Why should it matter to you?  If she’s passing through a zone where you have a planet in your natal chart, she’s bringing you a powerful opportunity to vision and re-dream your life this year.  And it’s still in progress.

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Neptune transit this year, today may be pivotal for you.  Around May 28, you came to realize that some area of your life is crumbling.  Since then, you’ve been re-evaluating that area.  You’ve been in some confusion about it, feeling perhaps that it’s muddy or blurred.  You’ve turned inward on yourself to feel into it, either because you want to or because circumstances have forced you to seek clarity.  That area of your life is in suspense and you’re waiting for the right moment to act.  That moment is not today, but today (Nov 4, 2009) is when the seed may be planted that will lead to the right moment happening in the next few months.  This day is pivotal in the process of you coming to clarity in your vision.

Today (and I mean this loosely—it may happen as soon as 2 days before or as late as 2 days after today) is pivotal.  Today may be the day you realize your internal quest for understanding is over.  You’ve heard the message the universe is sending to you and you’re almost ready to act on what you’ve learned.  You can now gather yourself to take that action sometime in the next few months (between now and March of 2010).

“What is a Neptune transit like . . .”
During a Neptune transit you feel more sensitive than usual.  There is an awakening of your intuition, a blurring of the boundaries between the world of everyday physical reality and the unseen realms that interpenetrate this one all the time.  Feelings spill over lines into inappropriate places; dreams loom large and the imagination beckons.  Sometimes you have psychic openings as well.  All this is very non-physical because a Neptune transit is subtle and has more to do with internal than external experience, so it could glide right by without you noticing it tugging at your sleeve.  But you don’t want to ignore it because it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of your expanded imagination and to dream your life into existence on purpose.

“. . . 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 Neptune transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Neptune.)  Also you should know that while transits of most planets are accompanied by real-world events, Neptune’s transits can be so subtle that they are hard to notice or distinguish from the rest of your life.  What you’ll generally notice during a Neptune transit is a sensation of life in suspense or a sense of confusion for the duration of the transit, followed by increased clarity after.  It’s great to find out about a Neptune transit while you’re having it, so you can use it while it’s happening, because otherwise it could go by and you’d be in a trance.

You can find out whether you’re having a Neptune transit by peeking at your chart.  This year Neptune is covering the space from 23 to 26 degrees of Aquarius.  This will affect you if you have any planet in the space from 23 to 26 degrees of any of the four Fixed signs (Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio).

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 23, 24, 25 or 26 degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio.  If you do, you are definitely having a Neptune transit this year.  And knowing that gives you the chance to see the opportunity that’s in front of you, instead of being so lost in a trance that you don’t even notice it happening, much less benefit from it.

“How long does it last?”
A Neptune transit will typically last for 1 to 1-1½ years.  Today is just one part of it, a pivotal day in its flow.  The timing of your transit will be personal 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 in a fog.  You can also find out which part of you (i.e. planet in your chart) is being affected by this spiritual change.  Is it Relationships (Venus)?  Career (Saturn)?  Home (Moon)?  Or it could be something more subtle.

“What do I do now?”
Neptune is the Dreamer, the Visionary.  When she comes knocking at your door, she is asking you to re-dream a specific part of your life.  She has activated your imagination and called you away from the world of everyday things into the dream-world, the place where you imagine things before they come to pass.

View this time as a vision quest.  It’s a great time to influence your own future through what you focus your hope on and also to call on your spiritual guidance.  Call your ancestors, your spirit guides, your angels, your totem animals—whatever feels right to you.  Use that imagination of yours, which is so active right now.  Sit in meditation.  Imagine, dream, fantasize.  Notice the subtle currents that are all around you all the time—you are equipped to notice them now more than usual.  Let the images grow blurry around the edges—images without bounds have larger possibilities.  This is an excellent time for a manifestation practice, to make use of the Law of Attraction and bring something into your life that you’ve wanted for a long time.

Also take care of yourself.  Recognize that some part of you has been spirited away but that your body still needs stewardship.  Feed yourself properly, even if you feel like you are sleepwalking through life these days.  You want your body to be in good shape when you come back to it.  In particular, when I say this is a time for dreaming and re-dreaming, I mean that literally:  get enough rest and sleep, especially if you are in the habit of sleeping too little.  Keep a dream journal if you can—your dreams may have messages for you and it may be hard to recognize them until later.  Writing them down will preserve them for understanding at a later time and the process may well sharpen your intuition.

Neptune transits are wonderful for Neptune types, and even if you’re not a Neptune type, this period may make you into an honorary Pisces for the duration.  Neptune types are often flaky and wander through life as if in a dream.  They have a faraway look in their eyes, are distractible and resist the hard lines of the physical world.  They frequently overrun other people’s boundaries without noticing it and tend to have a poor sense of boundaries themselves, especially when they’re young.  They prefer their world of dreams and visions to the world of material concerns and they do best in life when they find a way to bring their dreams into the material world to share with everyone.  So they make great artists and filmmakers.  While a Neptune transit can draw a grounded person into their dream-world, paradoxically it has the effect of drawing a dreamy Neptune person into the physical world, of grounding and strengthening them.  During a Neptune transit a Neptune type can blossom

Neptune’s Gift
Neptune’s curse (if you can call it that) is the same as her gift:  access to the land of imagination—whether you like it or not.  You’ll have an increased sense of the spiritual meaning behind everything you do.  Everything becomes infused with meaning and spiritual power.  This is a great time to ask questions, to direct them to your spiritual guidance and attend to the answers that emerge.

Your increased sensitivity is a gift from Neptune, goddess of the ocean.  Make friends with Neptune and you will find yourself able to pay attention to the physical world even as your awareness of the non-physical grows.  Oceanic Neptune may be sweeping you away into her vast depths but you can learn how to swim in her waters and that way you don’t have to drown.  And maybe—just maybe—you’ll emerge with a really big fish.

When it’s over, it’s over
After this transit ends, your period of spiritual awakening will be over.  It’s quite possible you’ll have another transit like this in a different area of your life in the next few years (it’s likely in fact), but this one will have passed.  If this period is frustrating to you, be at ease, because it will end, and soon (between now and March).  But also, and more importantly, take advantage.  Use this spiritual opening while it’s happening.  It doesn’t happen every day.

Art by Betelgeux

Chiron the Wounded Healer has spent the last few months (since May 30) traveling backwards.  Today he turns his face forward and re-covers the same ground.  Why should it matter to you?  If he’s passing through a zone where you have a planet in your natal chart, he’s bringing you a powerful healing opportunity this year.  And it’s not over yet.

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Chiron transit this year, today may be pivotal for you.  Around May 30, you came to realize (or perhaps you were forced to realize) you were facing a big life-change.  You’ve been confronted with a part of you that feels deeply broken, maybe even unfixable.  Something wounding has happened to you this year and you’ve been preoccupied with it.  It all really began earlier in the spring and by late May you realized you couldn’t really avoid the pain.  If you decided to accept the discomfort and seek healing, kudos to you—you’re doing the right thing.

Today (and I mean this loosely—it may happen as soon as 2 days before or as late as 2 days after today) is a pivotal day in this process.  Today may be the day you come to clarity.  If you really look at the situation you can see your chance to resolve some old, unfinished pain along with resolving the present situation.  And you’re gearing up to do that sometime between now and March of 2010.

“What is a Chiron transit like . . .”
During a Chiron transit, something painful usually happens.  It feels like you’ve been wounded to the core.  You may feel that you’ve been victimized, that what’s happened is beyond your control and never should have happened.  And you could well be right about that.  But there’s something deep going on here that’s not apparent on the surface.

The pain you feel is not really about the present at all.  It’s about the past.  Chiron has sent you a wakeup call, using an event in the present moment to remind you of a part of you that has gotten stuck in woundedness.  Chiron wants you to heal that part of yourself and he knows that it will only happen if he reminds you that it exists, because human nature causes us to bury pain unless it is acute.

Whatever you’re dealing with in the present is connected with something in your past.  If you heal it here and now, that healing has echoes into the past, healing it retroactively.  That may be good news but there’s also great news and that is, it works both ways:  focus on healing the past and the present will be healed too.  You can work it from either end, whichever is easier for you.

Here’s an example of just one way this could look.  Let’s say your boyfriend does something that hurts you and reminds you of your abusive father.  Cleaning things up with your boyfriend is an opportunity to heal the inner child in you that’s been stuck at the age of greatest wounding.  And if you take a break from fighting with your boyfriend and instead focus on healing your relationship with your father (which you can do inside yourself, whether he’s actually available or not), voila!  Your relationship with your boyfriend improves, almost magically.  That’s because they are connected.  And who drew the connection?  Chiron.  And because Chiron connected the past with the present via a wound that feels the same in the past and the present, you get a heal-2-for-the-price-of-one deal.  Not bad, actually.

“. . . 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 Chiron transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Chiron.)  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.

You can find out whether you’re having a Chiron transit by peeking at your chart.  This year Chiron is covering the space from 21 to 26 degrees of Aquarius.  This will affect you if you have any planet in the space from 21 to 26 degrees of any of the four Fixed signs (Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio).

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 21-26 degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio.  If you do, you are definitely having a Chiron transit this year.  And knowing that gives you the chance to see the healing for the opportunity it is, instead of being victimized by it.

“How long does it last?”
A Chiron transit will typically last for 9-18 months.  Today is just one part of it, a pivotal day in the flow of a months-long healing opportunity. The timing of your transit will be personal 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 beyond hurting to surviving and ultimately to thriving.  You can also find out which part of you (i.e. planet in your chart) is being affected by this wounding-and-healing opportunity.  Is it Relationships (Venus)?  Career (Saturn)?  Home (Moon)?  Or it could be something more subtle.

“What do I do now?”
There are 2 responses that are crucial to know about.  If you can manage these, it will go so much smoother for you!

One is: don’t play the victim.  While you sit around bemoaning the fact that you’ve been hurt, you’re throwing away your own power in the situation.  If you can accept and own that you had a wounded place long before this moment came along and give thanks for this opportunity to heal yourself, you are way ahead of the game.

And the other is: don’t get distracted by healing others.  When a human being begins to gain competency in an area where they feel wounded, the first tendency is to offer assistance to others.  This is a beautiful thing, but it also comes with a possible pitfall, which is that you can get distracted from your own healing path by the sense of superiority you feel towards others that are not as far along as you are.  It can be very comfortable to congratulate yourself that you’re doing fine compared with all those folks that are not doing as fine as you are.  But that’s a way of avoiding your own healing work.

Chiron’s Gift
Chiron’s gift may be painful to receive but it is profound:  it is the gift of getting your own wholeness back.  Were you split?  Now you can mend.  Were you wounded?  Now you can heal.  Was your past unresolved?  Now you can resolve it.  This is your chance to become more whole, more of your own complete self than ever before.

When it’s over, it’s over
After this transit ends, your healing period will be over.  It’s quite possible you’ll have another healing period in a different area of your life in the next few years (it’s likely in fact), but this one will have passed.  Take courage, because this will soon be over.  But also, and more importantly, take advantage.  Use this opportunity for healing while it’s happening.  It doesn’t come around every day.

Art by Betelgeux

Recently I’ve posted about Venus and how your Venus sign tells what you long for in relationship and how you act when you don’t get it.  Today I’m concentrating on Juno.

Introducing Juno, Goddess of Committed Relationship
If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of Juno, that’s because Juno is an asteroid in the asteroid belt that sits between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.  The asteroid belt contains thousands of asteroids, but only the 4 largest are in common use by astrologers (Juno, Vesta, Pallas-Athene, Ceres).  Juno represents committed relationship or marriage and the sign she occupies in your chart will tell what kind of person you look to marry and what your marital expectations are.  Juno will also tell whether you’re “the marrying kind.”  It’s possible to get a very complete picture of the ways marriage will be easy or hard for you by looking at Juno in your chart.

How Literal Is This Marriage Thing—Does Juno Mean Marriage Only?
Um, NO.  Juno is about committed relationship.  If you are in a committed relationship with someone you cannot or will not legally marry (for example, if you’re gay & cannot get married), things I’m saying about Juno still applies to you.

What follows is a very brief (and of course incomplete) set of interpretations for Juno in the signs:

Juno in Aries expects that marriage is an adventure.  This Juno wants to experience freshness and newness everyday, a continual rebirth and renewal of commitment.  If this Juno cannot speak the truth and experience excitement, she will wander.

Juno in Taurus wants and expects unflinching stability.  This Juno will stand by the partner through good times and bad, and expects the same in return.  Cooking with the partner and having a financially stable marriage will support this Juno’s commitment.

Juno in Gemini needs a quality of lightness in marriage.  She doesn’t like to be tied down and is prone to living a double life unless all her attention can be engaged.  Her best marriage involves lots of communication, both talking and listening.

Juno in Cancer can get very domestic because this Juno intuits that a well-feathered nest and raising children are the ultimate reason for marrying.  She also expects that marriage is a place for an ever-deepening emotional connection.  She’s a caretaker.

Juno in Leo expects that her marriage and her partner must look good.  She tends to marry radiant, larger-than-life types who can be domineering behind the scenes. If you ever embarrass her in public, be prepared for the cold shoulder afterwards.

Juno in Virgo is as selective as Venus in Virgo, and twice as critical. She will serve the partner endlessly, hoping to improve them. Shaping and molding the partner are tempting but this Juno is much better off turning her perfectionist talents toward meaningful work instead.

Juno in Libra wants to be on a level with the spouse and experience true, balanced partnership. She’s always willing to sit down and negotiate or talk things out, as long as it doesn’t get too messy or dark. When they do, she needs harmony before going deeper.

Juno in Scorpio expects that marriage is a deep merging of two-in-one, mind, body & soul and she will consider it her right to know everything possible about the partner before and after marrying them.  Choosing the right partner in the first place is crucial.

When a Juno in Sagittarius person is happily married, s/he feels that marriage is a freedom, not a limitation.  For this Juno, marriage needs to involve unending growth and expansion—if there’s not room for that, marriage is not worth committing to.

Juno in Capricorn takes marriage with the utmost seriousness.  She sees marriage as a social contract in which both partners agree to support each other’s reputation and keep each other looking good.  Humiliate her and you’ll lose her (considerable) devotion.

Juno in Aquarius would rather not get married at all, quite frankly, and will only be attracted to someone unusual enough to grab her attention.  She is aware of the political ramifications of marriage and doesn’t want to give up her power or freedom.

Juno in Pisces dreams of the ultimate partner, which can get in the way of living with a real human being in the here-and-now.  She may have trouble giving herself completely to marriage but seeing it as a spiritual connection makes commitment & fidelity stick.

Go To Bed As Venus, Wake Up As Juno
If you’ve read all the articles in this 3-part thread, it should be pretty obvious by now how having Venus & Juno in incompatible positions might spell some relationship challenges.  There comes a time in every relationship of duration when you ask yourself, “does this relationship have what it takes to last?”  It’s as if you flip from the lover-seeking side of you to the side that assesses mate material and it can happen overnight.  For many people, this question pops up somewhere between 4 and 6 months into dating someone new.  Up to that point, the Lover in you was happy enough to keep you sticking around this person.  Now the Mate in you pops up and gets you looking at more serious concerns.

Do Your Expectations for Marriage Conflict With Your Romantic/Erotic Needs?
Most people have some kind of challenge around making the transition from love to commitment and that’s because love and commitment are actually two different archetypal functions within human personality.  Juno shows what you need in a committed relationship, but Venus shows what you need in order to fall in love and to maintain a romantic, erotic connection over time.  The ultimate situation occurs when you can have it all—you experience a deep, committed connection with someone which can last a lifetime and inside that connection you feel wildly and passionately in love.  This is a wonderful state and it is attainable by everyone, no matter how challenged Venus and Juno might be in your chart and no matter how fiercely they might be challenging each other.  It’s simply a matter of figuring out all your needs and honoring them all, without sacrificing one for the other.

Own Your Juno
What I said in my recent Venus post applies here too:  own your Juno, rather than projecting her qualities onto a mate.  Become the mate you need.  This will make you more marriageable and will make married life sustainable for you.  Then you can relax into a lifetime of happy marriage with exactly the amount of depth or freedom or emotional bonding or passion or excitement that you want.  The interpretations I’ve listed above are just a smidgen of what Juno has to offer in terms of really understanding your marital needs.

To find out more about love and marriage in YOUR chart
and how you can find real love
and faithful commitment too,
contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
for a private, confidential reading.

Articles in this 3-part thread:
Do Love & Marriage Really Go Together Like A Horse & Carriage?
The Key To Love, Romance and Hot Sex—Venus Tells All
How To Have A Happy Marriage—Juno Tells All

Art by Crystal Rose

Jolly Jupiter has spent the last few months (since June 15) traveling backwards.  Today he turns his face forward and re-covers the same ground.  Why should you care?  If he’s passing through a zone where you have a planet in your natal chart, he’s been bringing you growth and confidence this year.  And he’s not done yet.

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Jupiter transit this year, today may be pivotal for you.  Around June 15, you came to realize you were facing a growth period and since then, you’ve been re-evaluating some the area of your life that’s expanding.  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 explore and get bigger right now?  How have I lived this part of me in the past and what is it turning into for the future?”

Today (and I mean this loosely—it may happen as soon as 2 days before or as late as 2 days after today) is pivotal.  Today may be the day you realize your internal quest for understanding is over.  You’ve come to clarity.  You’ve recognized where the growth needs to happen and you’re ready to do something with 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 2010).

“What is a Jupiter transit like . . .”
Astrologers call Jupiter a “benefic” planet because he tends to bring good things.  He’s kind of like Santa Claus.  When you’re having a Jupiter transit, you tend to feel a sense of adventure, an expansiveness.  This expansiveness and willingness to have fun with what life presents you increases your self-confidence and you tend to approach life with hope and optimism.  Because of that, people feel good around you and they tend to offer you opportunities.  You are more apt to get lucky during a Jupiter transit.  It’s almost like being a “lucky Sagittarian” for a specific time period.  The luck is a side-effect of your openness to growth and expansion right now and your ability to perceive events in your life as opportunities.

I’m not saying nothing bad will happen to you during a Jupiter transit—but I am saying that anything bad that happens is likely to go much better than it would have without Jupiter’s benefic presence.  This is because during a Jupiter transit you are more able to put even bad events to good use, to squeeze those lemons into lemonade by adding your own sugar.

“. . . and how do I know when I’m having one?”
You can find out whether you’re having a Jupiter transit by peeking at your chart.  This year Jupiter is covering the space between 17 and 27 degrees of Aquarius.  This will affect you if you have any planet in the space between 17 and 27 degrees of any of the four Fixed signs (Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio).

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 17-27 degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio.  If you do, you are definitely having a Jupiter transit this year.  And knowing that gives you the chance to identify the opportunities when they appear, and to grab them.  You might well ask . . .

What area of my life is being affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet that you find is in that zone I told you about, between 17 and 27 degrees of fixed signs.  If it’s Mercury, you could be having a period of intellectual expansion, which is great for learning and expressing yourself in words.  If it’s Venus or Juno, you could be having relationship luck, attracting fun partners who take you on adventures or experiencing adventure in the relationship you already have.  If it’s Saturn, you could be facing a career expansion, a time when you exude confidence and grow your business.

“How long does it last?”
A Jupiter transit will typically last for 8-10 months.  Today is just one part of it, a pivotal day in the flow of a months-long period of growth, expansion and opportunity.  In an astrology reading you can find out all this good stuff:
•    what area of your life has “gotten lucky”
•    exactly how long it lasts
•    when it started
•    when it ends
•    what various phases of it feel like
•    how to take advantage of it
The timing of your transit will be personal to you.  That’s why it takes an astrologer to look it up—it’s not something I can just tell you in a blogpost.

“What do I do now?”
Grab the opportunities as they fly by.  You’re on life’s carousel and Jupiter is not going to just give you the goodies.  You have to reach for and grab the brass ring.  It’s up to you to decide which of all of Jupiter’s offerings are best for you right now.  You have to use discernment and you have to take action.  You have to respond.

It’s OK to say no to some of the opportunities.  Jupiter will simply send you more.  Focusing on what you really want can have the effect of shaping what Jupiter sends you.  It’s a great time for a deliberate manifestation practice.

When it’s over, it’s over
After this transit ends, your lucky period will be over.  It’s quite possible you’ll have another lucky period in a different area of your life in the next few years (it’s likely in fact), but this one will have passed.  Take advantage of it while it’s happening!

Art by Betelgeux.