Mars In Cancer Can Feel Like A Scratchy Woollen Knit

Now that pushy but passionate Mars has moved into the sign of emotional attachments, comfort zones, family ties and domestic bliss, for me it’s all feeling like one of those really harsh, prickly wool garments, the ones that irritate and frustrate with every darn movement you make (and with Saturn now in Virgo, it probably won't wash well either), a garment that you are dying to free yourself of at the first opportunity, to throw to the ground and stamp all over in revenge for each twinge of abrasive discomfort it ever brought you...

...mind you, I have a lot of Pluto stuff going on too, so maybe that’s merging into a more revealing revenge metaphor, but you know what I mean? Now’s the time you are really going to notice what irritates you because in the ultra-senstive sign of Cancer there’s no way Mars is going to sit back, switch off, and let what is bugging you carry on without it inciting some sort of inner riot of emotion just begging to be acted upon. It's then the choice of action that counts I suppose - choose the response instead of it choosing you, and all that. (Do you remember when some New Age assertiveness teachers advised a firm ‘Please step out of my auric egg...’ to be directed to anyone who had the insensitivity to sit too close at a party, in a queue or on a train, etc? I suppose it was meant to be more politely Libran than a hurried Aries style ‘Get outta my space, loser!’. And saying it didn't make them shift of course, but by the time everyone stopped laughing at the term ‘auric egg’ the ice was well and truly broken).

So what’s to be done? Mars is having an extended stay in Cancer due to a retrograde phase in November. The whole thing is set to last months. And not feeling emotion isn’t an option if you want to stay sane, while not feeling negative emotion isn’t an option if you want to stay balanced. As I’m a Law of Attraction fan, my preferred perspective is to think less about ways to kill or cure existing conditions, and notice more how the icky feelings associated with a current situation were actually already there tucked up warm and safe inside you before it all started in the first place.

As far as Law of Attraction goes, it's your own world view that is being reflected by the world, and feelings (arising from habits of thought around any given subject) indicate the kind of conditions you are set to attract; so regardless of appearances, it's not what is 'out there' that is likely to be the original cause of a feeling. And as the universe is designed to always move towards 'more', it means for example, if I’m feeling irritated for long enough (it doesn't happen overnight, it's a build-up), it will support my thoughts and feelings by providing the perfect scratchy sweater in a myriad of different styles and forms to assist me to move towards more irritation. Blaming the sweater is pointless as it only exists as supportive evidence of my outlook on life. So while all emotions are good and healthy, it seems a choice has to be made about what to dwell on, nurture, and therefore make more of. Change the outlook to change the sweater...

New Moon Eclipse In Virgo - When Less Means More

Willard Wigan MBE is an artist who makes sculptures so small they can't be seen with the naked eye, some are so small they are only three times the size of a blood cell. He paints the sculptures with a hair plucked from the head of a housefly, and sets them in the eye of a needle or on the tip of an eyelash.

As a child he had undiagnosed dyslexia, and was made to feel small by teachers who singled him out and told him he would never amount to anything. His response was to run away from school and hide in a shed, watching the ants that lived there. He began constructing houses for them out of splinters, and his obsession with miniature worlds started to unfold, born out of a desire to prove that 'less is more' and that 'nothing could be everything'. And he just sold his collection to date for £11million.

Virgo is the sign which has an eye for detail, and often astrology focuses on the downside of that - the nit-picking, the criticism, the scepticism, the fussing. But when a new moon eclipse comes along in Virgo there's not much time to dwell on the negatives, especially when hard working Saturn has just arrived in this sign, and law-breaking Uranus, the paradox planet that has the power to turn any situation completely on its head, is linking up to the new moon from opposite sign Pisces. The message being, that because in reality anything is possible, now's the time to whittle it all down by choosing what it is YOU WANT to be possible. Scientists and sceptics doubt this artist's creative ability because they don't see how it can be done, but thankfully disbelief didn't dampen his desire to make great things happen out of apparently nowhere.

You can read more on Willard Wigan here
and here
watch an interview here
and here's a YouTube montage of his works:



The 2007 new moon eclipse in Virgo takes place on 11th September at around 1.45pm UK time.

Saturn In Virgo In The News

The symbol of Virgo depicts the only female figure of the Zodiac, so now that Saturn is in Virgo we'll be seeing plenty of women making headlines that embody the principles of this aspect; kicking off with Germaine Greer's new book, which aims to get the story straight about Shakespeare's wife, Ann Hathaway, who according to accepted opinion was so hated by The Bard that he spent most of his time in London to escape her, and at his death bequeathed only his second best bed in revenge for her being such a lousy wife. But it turns out there might not be much evidence for this after all, according to Greer, just a load of criticism and blame (the dark side of Virgo) built up over the years that ripped her reputation (Saturn) to shreds. Read more here.

And in a very Saturn In Virgo style, Greer remarked in a tv interview today that it's a book she could only have written at retirement age, as any earlier the academic circles would have slated her for writing about something so 'soap opera-ish'. Seems she's not the feather ruffler she likes to think she is, being so motivated by approval from the academic establishment that she'd set aside something she herself considers important, just to appease those potential critics, but anyhoo, she's done it right in 'their' eyes, (the extreme Saturn way to do anything), and has eventually got round to writing about Anne in a way that presents her as the love of Shakespeare's life, and devoted supporter of his work... interestingly, the main star of the Virgo constellation, Spica, was known as 'the most dedicated wife' by the Egyptians (article here).

Elsewhere, the first full day of Saturn In Virgo was also Moira Cameron's first day at work as the first ever female Beefeater to guard the Tower of London, since it all began back in 1485 (link). You can't just sign up to be a Beefeater either, you have to have served 22 years in the armed forces - very Saturn - and up to now you had to be a bloke, which is old-fashioned enough to come under Saturn's love for maintaining traditions of the past well after their sell by date.

And both stories have a rather nice but ever so tenuous trivia thread connecting them, in that the Tudor Age, started along with the Beefeaters in 1485 and ended at the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Elizabeth was a Virgo and uber symbol of the sign, being writer, poet, and aka The Virgin Queen. She was also imprisoned in the Tower of London for two months, which means the Beefeaters were once her prison guards. Shakespeare was of course around at that time, and wrote all kinds of stuff with her in mind, including apparently this poem, published for the first time this year, written in worship of his Virgo Queen... no doubt while wife Ann was home alone with the kids...

Walt Whitman For August 28th Eclipse In Pisces

Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances

Of the terrible doubt of appearances,
Of the uncertainty after all—that we may be deluded,
That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all,
That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only,
May-be the things I perceive—the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing waters,
The skies of day and night—colors, densities, forms—May-be these are, (as doubtless they are,) only apparitions, and the real something has yet to be known;
(How often they dart out of themselves, as if to confound me and mock me!
How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows, aught of them;)
May-be seeming to me what they are, (as doubtless they indeed but seem,) as from my present point of view—And might prove, (as of course they would,) naught of what they appear, or naught any how, from entirely changed points of view;
—To me, these, and the like of these, are curiously answer’d by my lovers, my dear friends;
When he whom I love travels with me, or sits a long while holding me by the hand,
When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and reason hold not, surround us and pervade us,
Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom—I am silent—I require nothing further,
I cannot answer the question of appearances, or that of identity beyond the grave;
But I walk or sit indifferent—I am satisfied,
He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.

Walt Whitman
(1819-1892)

Harmony Of The Spheres?

Harmony Shmarmony - best close all the windows before pressing go on this one, or you'll set every dog in the neighbourhood off howling. But thanks to Mystic Medusa for discovering this absolute gem from YouTube - a trip through all 12 signs of the zodiac using the medium of song and dance.

Style is kind of retro Las Vegas nightclub (though I don't know what Tony Soprano would have made of a serving of this while waiting for something a bit more Sinatra), mixed with Pans People - those purveyors of the 'literal' school of dance, which required lots of wagging fingers, shocked expressions and hands crossing and uncrossing over chest).

Difficult to choose a favourite bit, but Scorpio has the best line for me: "I can see right through your soul and out the other end". Quite.

Abraham Hicks And The New Moon In Leo

If you believe in what you see, then you are believing in the creations of the past. Everything you have from here on out can be created at this moment, and it can be created differently - Abraham

I love Abraham-Hicks. For so many years they have just been quietly getting on with doing their own thing, inspiring and uplifting whoever feels drawn to listen, with crystal clear speaking on the beautiful way the universe has about it, of Law of Attraction and the innate value and natural power possessed by every being on the planet. On the one hand speaking with more common sense than your most down-to-earth 1940's North of England matriarch, complete with pot of rationed tea and flowery pinny, against a background of cobbled streets strung with fluttering white washing; yet somehow at the same time managing to make life seem more magical than a Midsummer Eve in Unicorn Land, where all elves and fairies are lately rejoicing the lifting of a thousand year curse.

Yes, I can't get enough of them. And last year I quoted them in relation to the 2006 New Moon in Leo (read that here), as Leo embodies the creative heart of the zodiac and is ruled by the Sun - the creative heart of our solar system - and it's this creative power that Abraham talks endlessly about, where energy follows attention and only love and appreciation can make a fairy wand work any real magic. Once a year the Sun arrives in this sign to light up the inner Leo in everyone, and once a year the Sun meets the Moon in that sign, making a New Moon in Leo; a time to set new intentions and to begin a new cycle for all projects we've poured heart and soul into, as well as those we are only just nurturing dreams of pouring heart and soul into. For 2007, this New Moon takes place on 13th August, just after midnight in the UK, when Sun and Moon stand together opposite Neptune, the planet of least resistance. Which makes a right old line-up of planets in Leo this year, as communication planet Mercury stands near the New Moon, while Saturn + Venus are together again to recall and replay past events, perhaps with a focus relating to late June.

It's an unusual line-up in the skies, and there's an unusual offering from Abraham-Hicks to match it - their first LIVE two hour internet workshop, courtesy of Hay House Radio. So if you've ever wondered whether the Law of Attraction is really myth or reality or maybe want to sharpen skills already fashioned from other inspirational fires, you can grab a powerful, live, New Moon experience to remember by taking part here , or you can gen up for free by listening to past Abraham recordings in the comprehensive Hayhouse archives.

Saturn In The UK Chart

The chart I use for the United Kingdom is 1st Jan 1801, which is the date the Act of Union came into effect. On that day Saturn was at 23 degrees of Leo, a degree Saturn has just recently hit again on July 10th 2007, indicating the UK is in the process of a Saturn Return.

The Saturn Return happens once every 28 to 30 years to everyone, being the time it takes for Saturn to complete a cycle around all 12 zodiac signs. It's associated with time, the past, responsibility, authority, maturity and limitation - all are food for themes running through events at the time of any Saturn Return. (Read more about the S.R. here). The kind of themes that are active in a person's life, or in this case, a nation's life, at the time of a Saturn Return are the seeds or foundation for the unfolding cycle as a whole, so what is important in UK news at Saturn Return time embodies the essence of the cycle in store somehow.


The UK got a new Prime Minister just a few days before this S.R. date, and Gordon Brown exudes that sensible-shoed Saturn spirit, in a 'parent just back from hols after leaving Tony the teenager home alone' kind of way. Even though he's a devil for his stealth taxes, and messed up badly with the pensions fiasco, it still feels like there's a responsible adult just taken charge of the country. But as he's a huge fan of identity cards and all that dodgy biometric database doings, the question of who is really in charge (Saturn) of our identity (Leo) is likely to be a major theme for the UK during this Saturn cycle.

It seems that in the two years Saturn has been moving through the sign of Leo, surveillance, especially from CCTV cameras (Leo) has brought the UK closer than ever to a big brother (Saturn) society. Apparently with 4.2 billion cameras now knocking around, your average Brit can make up to 300 appearances a day on camera; probably more than that in the parts of Wales that have 73 cameras on one street. And it's getting more daft and more sinister in equal measure by the day, with stories of the cameras set to guard the cameras (link), and of the talking CCTV, whose control room operators are under strict instructions about what commands they can give... it appears even the watchers are watched...

"Yelling 'Oi you, stop that', is not permitted. Instead, their instructions make the following suggestions: 'Warning - you are being monitored by CCTV - Warning - you are in an alcohol-free zone, please refrain from drinking'; and Warning - your behaviour is being monitored by CCTV. It is being recorded and the police are attending.'
Mr Bonner said: 'We always make the requests polite, and if the offender obeys, the operator adds 'thank you'. We think that's a nice finishing touch". (article here)

Saturn in Leo = Authority Figures of Fun
Saturn is the law enforcer - the planet of rules and regulations - and boy do we love our rules and regulations in the UK; the unfortunate legacy of Blair's Britain is that we are actually now up to our ears in daft laws and political correctness that defy common sense or usefulness. Fingers crossed that this new Saturn cycle indicates it's time for a law prohibiting daft laws, as well as some on the spot fines for P.C. behaviour. However, on the positive side Leo is the sign of the entertainer and sometimes there's nothing quite like the drama of deciding whether to laugh or cry at the tragi-comedy born from some of the more hardcore P.C. stories...

For example, how about the council who kept the lights of a disused school burning for years so vandals wouldn't fall and hurt themselves? (link) Or the village Christmas fete that was going to be cancelled unless a risk assessment was carried out on the mince pies? (link) And just in the past few days two classic stories have emerged, firstly in the banning of armbands for children at a local swimming pool because of the danger of disease that might arise from the required mouth to armband inflation method (link), and finally with a local councillor asking a restaurant to change its name from 'Fat Buddha' because, she says, Buddhists will be offended. Strangely she is sticking by her comments, even though the restaurant owner, Mr Fung, is a Buddhist who pointed out he's not offended. A spokesman from the Buddhist society backing him up did nothing to sway her either (story here).

Neptune, Bringer of Cloud and Rain
Planet Neptune, ruler of boundless waters and flooding, has been standing opposite to Saturn in the skies for months, and this aspect reached it's final peak at the time of the UK Saturn return; the time when Britain was hit by the worst flooding it has seen for years (link). Though while some are quick to use the summer weather as evidence of global warming, it's not as clear cut, or as unusual as they would hope it to be (link). Last time the UK saw weather like this was back in the early 1950's, when powerful Pluto was in the process of crossing the 23 Leo degree position of the nation's Saturn. There were serious floods, storms and even killer smog over a period of months that eventually led to thousands of deaths. And in true Pluto style, there's even a conspiracy theory developing around those events, with a mysterious tale of the RAF conducting weather experiments at the time of the flooding. Read that story here, and the scoffing of it here.

While Saturn is wrapping up its stay in the sign of Leo (not to return till 2034), in readiness to move into Virgo for the next couple of years, these and other Saturn/Leo themes will continue to resonate in the UK chart, and from an astrological point of view, in the UK psyche. In Saturn Return terms this is a cycle that has only just begun.