8 Random Things About Me

Lynn Hayes writes one of my favourite astrology blogs, Astrological Musings, and guess what, she has tagged me for this random thingy game. How exciting, thankyou Lynn! So here goes, never done this before...


1. The first record I ever bought was ‘Heart Of Glass’ by Blondie.

2. I love flowers so much that I couldn’t pick a favourite. I see them all as stylish works of performance art by God, each and everyone of them.

3. I'm a Gemini and my sister is Scorpio. We both have moon in Aries, at the very same degree. Hers is conjunct Jupiter, mine conjunct Saturn. I’m Virgo rising, she’s Pisces rising. What’s going on there? What’s that all about? Why does that happen? This is how astrology draws me in.

4. I believe 100% in the existence of angels. I have my reasons, and that’s all I’m saying.

5. I'm a dog person rather than cat person, an animal person rather than people person.

6. I love period dramas, especially lavish BBC productions like the recent Bleak House. I spent New Year’s day happily watching the whole series of Pride and Prejudice, wrapped in a faux fur throw and eating chocolates.

7. I dream intricate technicolour dreams with complicated plots and recurring themes almost every night. They are most lucid and prophetic around a new moon according to my dream diary (Virgo Pluto/Uranus rising from the 12th, square Gemini Mercury?).

8. I am at last recovering from 8 years of agoraphobia and anxiety attacks. Definately the biggest challenge of my life - my 'dark night of the soul' (Virgo Pluto/Uranus rising from the 12th, square Gemini Mercury!).


My turn to tag!
April
Wendy
Val
Isthmus

Full Moon In Scorpio: Unfinished Business

Early morning UK time on May 13th, the annual full moon in Scorpio is exact, when Sun in Taurus opposes Moon in Scorpio at 22 degrees.

Taurus is the sign associated with business, both in the financial sense and in the sense of minding your own. Scorpio is very good at minding other people’s business (which I suspect is to divert attention from their own. Like a reverse psychology thing, it’s their way of making sure their own business stays safely hidden from prying eyes).

I always associate both the Scorpio Full Moon and the Taurus Full Moon (due in around six months time when the Sun is in Scorp), with unfinished business. Scorpio is the process of letting go and trusting, which is something Taurus doesn’t like to do. One of the ways it can avoid the process is by leaving things a little bit unfinished to return to at a later date. But Full Moons have a way of bringing things to a head. Conclusions are reached, and stalemates are broken.

Anything left behind during the recent Aries season of impulsiveness, or swept under the carpet last season, Libra style, will be picked up by the beady eagle-eye of Scorpio, to be dealt with appropriately by the well-defined muscle of Taurus consciousness. It’s something that happens every six months, like clockwork, with Newtonian precision. What makes it different every time, is the mix of planets around it, which change like clouds, into patterns as individual as snowflakes.

And at the moment Neptune is currently sitting at 20 degrees of Aquarius, which means it’s closely connected to the Full Moon degree, and will blend its energy with the Sun/Moon opposition.
Neptune is linked to the imagination and vision; it blurs boundaries and makes sharp edges fuzzy. It can also find a way through any obstacle on earth because it really knows how to work those laws of physics.
Neptune’s power is not to be underestimated, sometimes feeling so imperceptible, so subtle, but it’s like water dripping on a stone. Eventually it will reshape its environment.


astrology, scorpio, taurus, full moon

Beltane Part Two: 15 Degrees Of Taurus

As mentioned previously, there are two dates for Beltane; one always begins the eve of May 1st, while the other is always when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus. Now, as I live in a society that doesn’t place the same importance as I do on having a handbag sized ephemeris within arms reach, I can see May 1st is a sensible option, but my heart lies with the old style 15 degree festival.

A bit of background to skip for those familiar with the origins: Beltane is one of 8 festivals of the solar year, and marks the midpoint in the Sun’s journey between Spring Equinox (0 degrees Aries), and Summer Solstice (0 degrees Cancer).

0 degree’s of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, mark equinox and solstice points. Midway between those points lie this 15 degree spot, always in a fixed sign, so along with Taurus/Beltane, there’s Scorpio/Samhain or Halloween, Aquarius/Imbolc, and Leo/Lammas.

The festivals carry the qualities of the zodiac sign they fall under, which means you can get a feel for what they're about and what they connect us with in ourselves, by studying the sign associated with it. Sometimes it’s obvious: how about Scorpio and Halloween for starters. Others need a lot more contemplation, but it’s worth the effort to reach those satisfying lightbulb moments.

So what about Taurus and Beltane? Well, with Venus as ruling planet, Taurus is about value and relationship, and being an earth sign it’s specifically about acknowledging and appreciating the value of our connectedness to the physical world.
And this is something we have to take personal responsibility for, as no-one can tell us what makes us feel good being in this world but us, through our emotional experience with physical form.
It’s whatever floats your boat that gets your good times flowing, which hasn’t got much to do with morality but everything to do with accountability, so it's easy to see why Beltane wasn’t received well by a number of religions and belief systems in days of yore.

This year the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus on the May 5th, a Friday, the day sacred to Venus. As Venus has just begun a journey through Aries, she's in warrior Goddess mode. This is a fiery and feisty energy, and relationships work best with a direct approach and an open agenda.
And while Beltane is a celebration of quality rather than quantity, with Venus in Aries and Jupiter opposing the Sun, it might be more of a challenge to remember it's not just about who’s got the biggest Maypole.


astrology, beltane, taurus

Beltane Part One: May Day

The offical date for observing Beltane (as decided by the collective unconcious), is May 1st, but I like to stick with the astrological date, which is when the sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus. It varies each year, always during the first few days of May. This year it's May 5th.


More on that later, but for now, just spent an intriguing few hours researching Beltane, May Day and the various associated traditions.
Was chuckling away at the Puritans making Maypoles illegal in 1644, when I came upon this Wikipedia description, linking Maypoles with the Axis Mundi, or World Tree.

There's also an undeniable similarity between the Caduceus and the Maypole. What about the chakra energy spiralling around the spine in this image... and remember the Nebula in the shape of DNA?
This is what I love about symbolism, once you start looking you see repeating patterns everywhere, and can't help but be absorbed by the mystery of the underlying connection.

(Beltane Part Two is here)


astrology, beltane, May Day, symbols

New Moon In Taurus

This New Moon is carrying a real mix of energies. There's a lot of highly focused, concentrated creativity flowing at the moment, thanks to the strong and disciplined aspect between Sun/Moon in Taurus and Saturn in Leo.
And Venus, ruling planet of Taurus, is coming to the end of a journey through Pisces, but not before making an intense connection with Pluto in Sagittarius over the next few days.

Taurus, as a fixed sign, is all about focusing energy. A good friend told me recently that focus is about making a continual choice to follow the same direction, and as Taurus follows what it values, with Venus in Pisces the value lies in the imagination.
Venus has been happily navigating the boundless astral seas of the imagination for a few weeks now. The indefinable, indefinite, fuzzy edged reality offers limitless possibilities, which means fertile ground for new ideas. It's this along with the creative authority of Saturn in Leo, and the Phoenix-rising energy of Pluto that makes for such a magical mix of energy, because the earthbound Taurus New Moon can anchor and ground dreams and schemes that might otherwise have vanished under the harsh glare of critical conscious thought.

Venus sparkled and shimmered through Pisces like sunlight through water. It's been all rainbows and dancing glittering waves, but with a link-up to Pluto in Sagittarius the undercurrent runs deep, and the pot of gold lies buried way beyond the horizon.
It's important to keep things in perspective with this kind of aspect, but also remember that there's plenty of room for some big ideas. Yes it's molehills and mountains, but it's also acorns and oak trees.


astrology taurus moon

Full Moon In Libra, 13th April

Any full moon is about a culmination of energy, but April's full moon in Libra is particularly strong in this energy, as the current pattern of planets repeat and reinforce the message in so many ways.

Firstly, the sun is nearing the end of its time in Aries, and it's the conclusion of a series of eclipses between the Aries/Libra polarity. This means the moon's nodes are also ending their stay in this area of the zodiac too; the end of a cycle that began late 2004.

Ruler of Aries, the mighty and motivated Mars is completing its journey through Gemini, wrapping things up with an opposition to Pluto, a planet that makes a point of being at the no return spot.
And at 90 degree angle to this opposition is communication and mind planet Mercury, also near the end of its stay in Pisces, but also significantly, at the conclusion of its retrograde phase which began late February/early March. It's taken this long for Mercury to step fully out of the shadow phase and return to the retro starting degree.

So the message of this moon speaks strongly of a culmination in events, and according to my internet search, a culmination can be:
- a final climatic stage
- the decisive moment in a novel or play
- a concluding action

Moon in Libra is focused on fairness and justice, and is hungry for equality and balance in relationship, while a full moon brings about fulfilment and fruition. This means events can also bring about a result related to your Libra story that you’ve been waiting for, for a long time.
All kinds of plans, hopes and dreams can manifest and thrive in this kind of atmosphere. So have you been careful what you wished for?


astrology aries libra moon

Mars opposite Pluto, Saturn Direct.

It's been building all week - Mars in Gemini opposing the newly retrograde Pluto in Sagittarius, while Saturn stations after a long retrograde phase.
What good could possibly come from the god of war at odds with the god of the underworld, as we move from the Aries new moon eclipse to next Thursday's Libra full moon eclipse?

Well, the image on the Judgement tarot card says it all about the current pattern in the skies. Naturally linked to Pluto, this card is about beginnings from endings; what you thought was laid to rest is brought to life again, and situations that seemed to be at a dead-end have new life breathed into them.

It's about rebirth, and rebirth only ever happens as a result of becoming aware of that irresistible, deep down sizzling zest for life, love and the universe that we all have surging through the heart of our most dearly held desires.
It's a card that challenges us to wake up and choose LIFE, and it takes the power of Pluto and the will of Mars to make such magic happen. It's here and it's now.