Shadow Phases And Earthquakes

I am STILL not internet connected after house move! I have a phone at last though, which is something, as my mobile reception is only found next to the spider at the very top right hand corner of my porch. But not being attached to the internet has got me really out of sorts, like the cord has been cut on my Higher Self or something. I just didn’t realise how many Google searches I do in a day, seeking solutions from those in the same boat as me who Googled the same question in 2002 or whenever. Bless the people who knew the answer and wrote back to us seekers! Bless those ones who asked in the first place and waited 4 months for the reply, just so I can swoop in and grab the answer years later, in a couple of seconds.

It’s all very Aquarius, very collective consciousness, for strangers to be helping strangers in this friendly Water Bearer kind of way; which makes it quite frustrating and disconcerting that my chart ruler, communication planet Mercury, is still travelling through Aquarius and I am still so unplugged from the collective. I suppose it shows me there is something to the shadow phase theory (which I was never totally sure about to be honest), stating that a planet’s retrograde phase isn’t over till it reaches the original degree it stopped at before it began moving backwards. For this Mercury in Aquarius retro phase the degree in question is 24 Aquarius, which is the place Mercury stopped and appeared to move backwards from on 29th Jan. Mercury finally returns to this spot on 10th March… so if I’m not internet connected by then I’ll eat my hat.

Eating my hat seems a quirkily Aquarius sort of thing to attempt, though it is more of a Pluto type threat bet, being the planet of ‘it’s this way, or else…’ type extremism; so maybe the upcoming (early March) Mars/Pluto opposition is hotting up nicely if I’m dishing out ultimatum’s like that to myself. This Mars/Pluto opposition is the third of three meetings between these two because of Mars’ retrograde phase, which sent it on a back and forward journey, opposite the zodiac from where Pluto has been sitting. First meeting was last mid-September, second was New Year and finally this one; so there’s going to be a linking thread to events back then during this final meeting to watch for.

And speaking of shadow phases, Mars is still in one. Even though it resumed forward motion in January after appearing to move backwards since mid-November, it doesn’t reach the mid-November degree it held of 12 degrees Cancer till early April, so there’s still a Mars themed journey going on there, and still time for unfinished business that birthed mid-November to be all tied up neatly by then.

Pluto has changed signs in the time it has taken to meet up with Mars three times, into Capricorn, which is the birth sign of the United Kingdom, and sign of stress and tension (thanks to having planet of pressure, Saturn as ruler), so how interesting that a big stress-busting earthquake hit England this week. Or was it just my Pluto-sensitive Scorpio sister and I that found it to be a tension reliever? You know, working much like a thunderstorm, or rainstorm in shifting the atmosphere of things?

But maybe it was just because I was relieved to find that it was an earthquake shaking the bed and rattling the coat hangers, having just moved house, to find myself all alone in the wee hours after watching Most Haunted (why did I watch it on my own??), wide awake and wide-eyed, peering into the shadows, only to have the heavy metal bed frame I was lying on start to shake like a horror movie. I tell you, at the time it made perfect sense to assume poltergeist activity before earthquake, especially as the rising degree of the earthquake chart was hitting my spooky Neptune in Scorpio.

Hopefully I’ll be back with internet connection before the 10th?

Pluto In Capricorn Today

So here it is, Pluto’s now in Capricorn. Only thing different today than yesterday for me is that my kettle stopped working overnight. The little light switches on but kettle no longer heats up (the loss of fire element from Sagittarius perhaps?!), so it was back to basics with a pan of water on the stove to make tea. Which led me, while jumping from one foot to the other in frustration, to contemplate the time it takes to do stuff, and how time is the boss; then remembered Capricorn is associated with bosses, time, and learning to take things nice and slowly. As Pluto is moving through my 4th house, ruling home and domestic matters, it makes for a relevant metaphor I suppose, along with all the packing boxes I am surrounded in, ready to move house.

Although I don’t read news very often anymore I had a quick scan today, looking for Pluto related stories, and saw this one about the last deep coal mine in Wales closing yesterday (Pluto of course is connected to anything underground, especially mines and their resources).

The pit closed in 1994 and staff pooled their redundancy money to buy it, reopening it in January 1995; the month that Pluto first went into Sagittarius. But now it has had to close again, at the very end of Pluto’s journey through that sign as the mine has run out of coal.
Pluto is the planet of endings, and the heavy, mixed emotions that come with the feeling of letting go of the past and turning with trust to walk into an unknown future, and the biggest challenge of Pluto is often in remembering that ‘unknown future’ doesn’t mean ‘no future'. One of the staff who had worked there all his life, along with his ancestors before him said poignantly ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do on Monday’.
(Full story is here)

Love And Liberation Full Moon Gives Pluto A Warm Welcome

The sun moves into the free-spirited, future-orientated sign of Aquarius today (21st), followed swiftly by a rather fabulous full moon tomorrow in the opposite sign of open-hearted Leo. It means the big move of Pluto into Capricorn taking place later this week happens via this strong and rather stylish Leo/Aquarius lunar phase, which couldn't be better in my book, as Aquarius looks to feel liberated by what's to come, while Leo will celebrate the opening of an envelope if it means an opportunity to give the gift of Leo Love.

There's probably plenty of negatives, as all this intense energy for change can express in a variety of ways of course, but if there's one thing I learnt from Pluto's journey through Sagittarius, it's that perspective is power. "Two men look out from the same bars: one sees the mud and one sees the stars", said Frederick Langbridge, and I love how Pluto in Sagittarius got me so starry-eyed. I started this Pluto cycle back in '95 all cynical and disillusioned, yet I'm ending it feeling utterly empowered just for deciding to keep choosing the bright side of the road. I also love how being Ms Pollyanna Positive pisses so many people off as well; for example try smiling warmly at a sceptic in full flow. It has the same effect on realists as well...