Virgo Solar Eclipse September 1st & Pisces Lunar Eclipse September 16th, 2016

This month (September 2016) there are two eclipses… a solar one (at the time of the new moon) in the sign of Virgo on the 1^st. And a lunar (at the time of the full moon) in the sign of Pisces on the 16^th.

Both indicate key stages in the lunar cycle – solar eclipses tend to indicate new phases or new beginnings, and lunar eclipses often indicate closure or letting go. Especially emotional closure. The Moon is about emotions and feelings, and so they are coming to the forefront this month, to be acknowledged, processed and integrated.

In astrology eclipses are about major turning points, where certain situations have been building up momentum through events for quite some time, for good or ill, and the events at eclipse times are release points, or trigger points for long-term change. You can look back with hindsight at an eclipse period and see how events around that time were movers and shapers of future direction.

September 1^st Eclipse = Preparation is Key

During the September 1^st eclipse, the planets suggest there has been pressure to act in a certain way, or to act on certain things, but the timing might not be quite right to take action, even if you want to. Withholding or holding fire doesn’t mean failure to launch, it is more about good preparation. The time for action might be more mid-month or beyond, when Mars aligns with the lunar eclipse.

Saturn square Neptune

This planet alignment has been one of the key themes of the year, and it figures highly in the eclipses, especially the solar eclipse on the 1^st. This alignment has brought our fears to life in some respects, only for us to find out that our fears hold no power over us in reality.

It’s also about being very careful what we believe in or buy into, as what seems real often turns out to be just a façade. It’s been a year of remembering not to judge books by covers.

Mercury Retrograde

This retrograde period started near to the solar eclipse on 30th August, and will continue for most of the month, ending on the day of the Autumn equinox, 22nd September.

Although Mercury retrogrades three times a year, this one is a strong retrograde because:

-          Mercury is in Virgo, the sign which it rules.

-          North node is in Virgo, which is an indicator of opportunities or open doors that feel ‘fated’ or like ‘destiny’ to walk through. Mercury is therefore planet associated with this north node, which means it’s the planet to watch for the way these opportunities will manifest (Mercury is about communication, logic, pathways, transport, siblings and sibling relationships, and neighbours). As Mercury is Retrograde it means the concept of retrograde is also how those opportunities manifest. Retrograde means reconnection or returning to the past in some way… looking to the past, looking in a different direction, etc etc. 

-          Mercury meets Jupiter at eclipse time. Jupiter is the planet of good luck, good fortune, faith and expansion. Jupiter uplifts what it touches, which gives this Mercury retrograde period a touch of miracle mindedness; a sparkle of extra confidence and self belief. 

Lunar Eclipse = Ready to Receive

When the moon stands opposite the Virgo sun, from the sign of Pisces on the 16^th, it also stands next to the asteroid Chiron. This asteroid is about healing, and specifically about being receptive to healing. Being open and accepting of solutions can be a challenge when the problem or symptom is dominant… it takes imagination to look past what looms large in our life, and be open to answers and opportunities. It also means accepting we are deserving of being given to in this way.

Ask and it is given is the mantra of the universe according to Law of Attraction, but the universe can only give by us being open to receive. The lunar eclipse on the 16^th suggests events that highlight this idea of being receptive and open to solutions and problems. The time might be right for action too, according to Mars...

New Moon In Cancer 22nd June...

... and it's powered by Pluto, standing right opposite in the zodiac, in the sign of Capricorn. I've been having super-charged Pluto transits lately, which always makes me go all quiet on this blog for some reason (Scorpio ruling 3rd house of communication perhaps?), and yet now look! - a Pluto powered new moon has brought me out of hiding! :)

Reason being I saw this luverly photo and quote, posted on a forum I visit (thanks Ocean!), and it just oozed what I feel about this new moon vibe. Whenever I am feeling frazzled and fragmented by life, I find that in a good contemplate over a picture of some fabulous symmetry in nature (especially circles), the image of natural wholeness soothes and heals my furrowed brow no matter how heavily it's been on overheat from hamster-wheeling through a problem; and there is something somehow so solution-orientated and nourishing for the soul about this pic and quote that feeds the intense need for completion and fulfilment being activated by this extra-emotionally driven Cancer Moon. So here's self respect in a new light, under the dark moon phase:



"You would all be all right with who you are if you had been making your decisions based upon how they feel to you all along. But it is because you have been trying to evaluate yourself through the eyes of others...You are so hard on yourselves when you are someplace different than where you want to be. And that is what this message is all about. You must soothe yourself into emotional comfort before your desires can become manifest. You cannot hold yourself in disrespect of self and get what you want."

Abraham-Hicks, Ashville 10/23/05

More For Full Moon In Capricorn - The Emotional Scale

As mentioned yesterday, full moon energy heightens emotional awareness, making what feels negative feel more negative (and what’s positive more positive too of course). While feeling the feeling is always fabulous, feeling stuck in a negative feeling is not; so as Capricorn full moon has a lot to do with emotional responsibility and taking things step by step, here’s the Abraham-Hicks method of shifting emotionally to a better place, using their emotional scale…

According to Abraham, negative emotion is down to perception of loss of freedom, while positive is perception of freedom. Emotions also indicate the relationship between desire and belief (when you want something what is your belief around that desire being fulfilled?). It’s when desire and belief are in harmony (I want it and I believe its possible because… ) that Law of Attraction kicks in and the universe sets about responding to our alignment with matching sets of circumstances. The universe can’t deliver beyond our expectations, as it’s just responding to the relationship between what we want and what we are expecting to receive in relation to what we want.

It’s all very Capricorn, even though the Law of Attraction part might sound a bit too ‘something for nothing’ for Cappy. Contrary to some thinking though, there’s a lot of effort to manifesting and positive thinking, but it’s emotional effort; it’s more of an inner process than an external action process, and it takes Capricorn style practice and discipline to keep on thinking the thoughts that change the feelings. Apparently we have an 'emotional set point' on each subject, which doesn't change unless we change it, as it gets set with expectation based on past experience.

Anyway, this is a process I use all the time to change the way I feel about circumstances without asking circumstances to change for me (there’s the freedom you see). And it really does seem to be the case that once you aren’t relying on outside circumstances to change that’s when they do… (but if you do the process with the intention to change the outside circumstances then they don’t of course!).

So if the full moon has raised emotions that you want to feel better about right now and don’t know how, here’s the Abraham emotional scale. In the short term you’ll feel the relief of having the power to change your feelings, and in the long term circumstances start to shift and shape according to your improved feelings. It’s all very Cancer/Capricorn axis stuff…


The Abraham-Hicks Emotional Scale:

• Joy/Knowledge/Empowerment/Freedom/Love/Appreciation
• Passion
• Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
• Positive Expectation/Belief
• Optimism
• Hopefulness
• Contentment
• Boredom
• Pessimism
• Frustration/Irritation/Impatience
• Overwhelmed
• Disappointment
• Doubt
• Worry
• Blame
• Discouragement
• Anger
• Revenge
• Hatred/Rage
• Jealousy
• Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
• Fear/Grief/Depression/Despair/Powerlessness


The idea is that you don't have access to thoughts and feelings that are very far away from where you are on the scale, so you can't just 'cheer up mate', if you are right on the bottom. Also, you don't have to do each one in turn, just find on the scale your feeling (or the nearest match), and aim for thoughts that feel a little better... for example which feels better: fear or anger? You can jump from angry thoughts to frustrated thoughts to hopeful thoughts and then into belief quite quickly and easily once you get used to it, but just take it slowly at first or you'll ping back like an elastic band if you try to jump too far too soon.

But anger is the unavoidable route out of depression or fear. Not nice for some to hear as we're often taught that we're supposed to feel guilty for feeling less than loving towards someone, but the guilt puts you back down the scale you see, so anger it is... And this isn't about letting rip at someone, it's not about taking action remember, it's about FEELING it. No one else need know the relief you feel as you IMAGINE punching your boss on the nose.

If you are feeling doubtful or discouraged, then anger or revenge is heading the wrong way. But when you are on your knees with depression, angry thoughts carry you from the very pit of despair. The idea is to look for thoughts that give you a sense of relief when you think them. You aren't problem-solving, you are looking for a feeling of relief that is all. Feeling the relief means you've actually released a bit of resistance to the subject and it's when the inner resistance clears that the outside circumstances clear (not overnight remember, this is Saturn reality here, but it doesn't take forever).


If you like the idea of all this, and want to read more about it, I highly recommend these books by Abraham Hicks
The Astonishing Power of Emotions: Let Your Feelings Be Your Guide

Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires


Their website is here

A 4th House Story And A Full Moon In Cancer

Don't know about you but my December has whizzed by in a Saturn in Virgo style flurry of lists, commitments and stuff to sort, as well as a waving off of old stuff and welcoming in of new stuff, and in trying to suss my damaged internet connection... Amy Winehouse has been a more reliable performer than my net connection of late, which along with a continuing saga of various housing situation issues (noisy neighbours, grrrr) meant I've been able to spend even less time than usual writing this blog than I would like.

Transformation planet Pluto hit the base of my chart, my 4th house, a couple of years ago (4th house rules comfort zone, home and family, what's private, personal and very emotionally driven, just like its ruling planet, the moon), and it has been a bit of an intense emotional rollercoaster since then to say the least. Pluto has been in opposition to my Mercury/MC combo at the highest point of my chart, which has manifested as a constant challenge of whether home/personal stuff or work/outside world stuff wins my attention. And months ago I spotted the pile-up of planets that were due to congregate around Pluto at this time of the year and eyed it with trepidation, wondering what on earth else might be about to manifest in this 4th house mix as a result of the Sagittarius sun, expansion planet Jupiter (my 4th house ruler), and communication planet Mercury mingling and merging with the Pluto energy.

I've worked with astrology long enough to know that any energy, no matter how intense looking can express positively, yet it still felt bizarre last week, when with utter synchronicity, right in the heart of all the swooshing busyness, a perfect and peaceful new place for me to live appeared from apparently nowhere (on the day Jupiter moved into Capricorn), transforming everything in my situation including my faith, in a Pluto moment. I've always been into the 'create your own reality' approach of the Law of Attraction philosophy, but what I'd found difficult was not the idea that we are each the creator of our own reality, but the challenge of holding faith long enough toward a preferred vision of the future for positive thinking to get going a snowball-down-mountain type momentum and expansion.

How to think positively when you've already got yourself in a real negative situation is always the dilemma; how to hold the dream while reality keeps biting. Well it can't be done overnight that's for sure, but there's nothing like a stellium in the sign of Sagittarius to help be buoyant enough to rise high above 'reality' and realise that reality is built on belief, and so is as transient and pliable as belief itself.

And now the Solstice is upon us, serving as a cosmic timer for significant turning points, and it means there's a change of mood afoot. Here in the northern hemisphere, Winter Solstice marks the beginning of the sun's journey through earthy Capricorn. This year it is joined by expansion-orientated Jupiter; and during the early hours of Christmas Eve here in the UK the sun in Capricorn stands opposite moon in Cancer, indicating a full moon. With Mars close to the moon on one side of the zodiac, and Pluto still close to sun/Jupiter/Mercury on the other side, it all spells tension as the energies pull against each other. But while I'm gritting my teeth having to write this through my neighbour's endless repeat drivel of overly loud bad-taste power ballads on a hi-fi that only seems to work to its full capacity very late at night, by the end of January I'm outta here, which makes the anticipation of change a real tension breaker.

Change and transition is such a big theme of late 2007 and early 2008; it's everywhere you look, and the mood has now moved from the recent promise of Sagittarius to the anticipation of commitment in Capricorn. Where Sag was about huge leaps of faith, Cap is the next known small step, so Capricorn is easier to handle in that respect; but it's also the sign of great expectations, and apparently the universe delivers experience according to our expectations of it. Therefore this full moon might be a good time to look at expectations of experiences ahead, increasing a feeling of deservability accordingly if low levels are sighted.

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...

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.

Full Moon In Scorpio

This week the annual full moon in Scorpio is on the 2nd, then the sun reaches 15 degrees of the sign Taurus on the 5th. Meanwhile Venus, ruler of Taurus, is moving to stand in opposition to Pluto, ruler of Scorpio.

Which means Taurus and Scorpio themes abound. Ownership, possessions and relationship to the material world are the realm of Taurus, and what lies beyond, underneath or within it all - the space between - is Scorpio. There's also resources (Taurus) and others resources (Scorpio); your energy and their energy. And the trust issue of relationships. It’s all at the forefront now, and wherever there’s a full moon there’s an amount of tension associated with it, as a full moon represents a culmination of energy, and a change in emotional focus or attitude.

I’m feeling all this in my search for somewhere new to live. My current house is driving me nuts with noisy neighbours and loud traffic (hence blogging is thin on the ground until I get some PEACE to concentrate!). And I’ve been looking for somewhere new for months but I’m renting and it’s a nightmare with my budget and current availablity of properties. Also, my Venus in Taurus doesn’t relish renting ANYTHING off anyone, but unfortunately I have Neptune right opposite Venus. Plenty of character building lessons for me in that one, let me tell you.

Ready to count the Taurus/Scorpio themes? Here goes: I have this deep, abiding resentment of landlords. I have a deep discomfort about being beholden to them for my living space. Many bad experiences in the past have led to a deep mistrust. I don’t like the way some of them take advantage of tenants, and I don’t like that my home is their business. It was all summed up the other day on one of the myriad of property programmes currently flooding UK television screens, when a buyer looking at a potential place was advised it wasn't suitable for him to live in, and was only for the rental market. Apparently it wasn’t nice enough for an owner-occupier, it was only good enough to paint over the cracks and get some tenants in to pay dearly for it.

I’m FED UP of landlords/whoever thinking that if you have little money and few possessions you don’t want a decent place to live, and have no interest in keeping the place you live decent. I could send them something informative on Venus/Neptune contacts I suppose, but I’m too into the idea of the Law of Attraction at the moment. The idea that I'm responsible for my reality through the nature of my thoughts, beliefs, and attitude both excites and repels in equal measure, and this is the crux of my full moon in Scorpio dilemma: dropping the bitter taste of Scorpionic resentment towards the average landlord feels like I'm letting 'them' get away with it, but at the same time, letting it all go and Taurusly owning my reality does curiously feel like the ultimate living space I’ve been craving for years...