Midlife Transits

Here are the new monthly horoscopes for Practical Astrology for March, now in a blog format. The blog format allows you to comment on the horoscopes if you wish, ask questions, and subscribe easily by using the RSS feed button. You can also send an email here if you don’t wish to comment publicly.

You can click directly on the link on the side to see or subscribe to monthly horoscopes for just your sign (or your sign and rising sign, the signs of other people you care about, etc.). For example, you would click the aquarius monthly horoscope link to see the monthly horoscope for just Aquarius. You would click on the RSS link “This Category” to subscribe to Aquarius monthly horoscopes only.

You’ll need an RSS reader. You can subscribe to the horoscopes of as many signs as you’d like. You can also see all the monthly horoscopes by clicking on the free monthly horoscopes link. In the same way, you can subscribe to see all the monthly horoscopes by clicking on the “This Category” link on the main page for the free monthly horoscopes. WordPress displays these horoscopes in order of the last one I posted at the top of the page. That usually means they’ll be in reverse zodiac order. Scroll down to see the Aries horoscope, or click on the “aries monthly horoscope” link on the right.

You can also subscribe to see all blog entries and comments. If you do, you’ll get more frequent periodic updates on astrological news that you can peruse at your pleasure!

P.S. By default, WordPress organizes the sun sign horoscopes inthe menu alphabetically, not in zodiac order! If I can fix that (or if you want to email me with a fix if you know one), I will.

In March, Jupiter passes through the key middle degrees of your sign, the areas where he will spend the bulk of his transit through Aquarius. This puts the focus of the month, as far as you are concerned, directly on you. You. Not on other people’s needs, but on your own personal needs, your own personal preferences.

Now that Jupiter is bulked up and at the peak of his powers, his methods need a bit of explaining. Jupiter operates by digression. You might think to yourself “I’d like a nice clear path to success. That would be great!”

But Jupiter is like a college professor who’s taught this class many times before but still loves the subject. So he gets up there in the front of your life and starts expanding on a topic, going off on all kinds of side tangents, until you are getting bored and frustrated and thinking he is never going to get to the point. But then at the end of the lecture, he does, and he wraps up all those expanded ideas into a single theme.

Now you don’t have to take this analogy too literally. Some people see a payoff from Jupiter quite quickly, and lots of people feel a bit more optimism under this influence right from the get-go. But many more find themselves somehow expanding in a lot of different directions, not exactly sure how all the expansion is ever going to gain any focus by the end of the transit in early 2010. I’ll tell you how. You have to remind yourself periodically that you want to get to the point; you remind yourself of what is most important to you that you do during this year of opportunity and initiation.

And then you have faith and proceed peacefully. So, for example, if you have financial goals (and you probably should because there’s big outer planet emphasis on this area of your life), you take the opportunity of the new moon on February 24 (or the days thereafter) to remind yourself very explicitly of what you want to accomplish in this area. And then you proceed confidently (Jupiter loves confidence!) as though you will achieve it with the help of faith. Plus you do the work; take care of yourself and do the work.

That’s the basic formula, and Jupiter is all teed up and ready for you to implement it at any time.

The first emphasis in March for Capricorn is one on communication skills and activities such as writing, speaking, and interacting with other people. The sun starts the month in Pisces, the sign that represents your solar 3rd house of well, writing, speaking and interacting with other people. There’s a new moon in the sign on February 24; Mercury inhabits the sign from March 8 to the 25th, and Mars zooms in from March 15 through the end of the month. Uranus is there all month, too, as it has been for years. Basically, time to fire up the email, whip out the phone for texting, do some IMing, and generally chat your way through the beginning of spring.

One word of warning though (okay, well actually a few words of warning): Mars in one’s communication house can get a bit huffy from time to time. It can glare at a message in your inbox and take serious offense to it, snorting to itself–’who does she think she is, anyway, talking to me that way!’ It may be justified in its huffiness, or it may be suffering from oversensivity and hurt feelings where no offense was intended. Judge your own emotional reactions accordingly.

The conglomeration of planets in your solar 3rd house can be good for speeding up your thoughts (which recent scientific research shows is correlated with cheerfulness) and for forthrightly asking for what you want from someone. Other uses for the energy include learning a new sport (3rd house is good at learning; Mars is good at sports) or engaging in sports with neighbors and acquaintances. (Pisces loves to swim, by the way, so if you can take a short recreational trip to the lake, beach or river, a number of the planets would thank you.) It’s also good for having casual get-togethers at your house (cuz Venus in your solar 4th house this month also makes this a good month for relaxing and entertaining at home).

The bottom line is that the more time you can spend flapping your gums or tapping the keyboard in March, the happier your Pisces planets will be. Next topic, faith in your finances. There’s still a lot of Aquarian energy zipping about in March, including a bit of Mercury and Mars as well as Jupiter and Neptune. Jupiter and Neptune indicate the need for the faith, while Mercury and Mars (in the early part of the month) indicate the need for action. Saturn, meanwhile, indicates that faith may be a bit hard to come by (perhaps for good reason, as Neptune can be a deceptive planet) and that all financial matters should be thoroughly diagnosed by a responsible professional.

Saturn will not be in Virgo forever or even for all of the year (Saturn holds much of the blame, if you want to give it to him, for the real estate downturn that has been a major factor in making the economic news so gloomy). He’ll move into Libra soon enough, but there he’ll be in conflict with Pluto in your sign, and you won’t have as much support from Jupiter or Mars next year. So the time to act on your own financial behalf seems to be now!

There are a couple of themes for Sagittarius in March. One is love relationships, courtesy of lovely Venus spending all month in your lovely solar 5th house of love relationships. In fact, Venus is spending the better part of four months in your solar 5th house this year, thanks to retrograde motion. It spent most of February there, and now it will spend not only all of March there, but a couple of weeks of April, all of May and a week in June. Wowie zowie! If you didn’t feel Venus’s beneficial influence last month (and you probably did), you should at least be feeling it by March. Enjoy!

A second theme is expressing your ideas more clearly than you might be used to. Lovely, but totally unclear, Neptune has been hanging out in your solar 3rd house of expressing your ideas for more than a decade now. So everybody’s probably gotten used to you expressing yourself in a woo-woo intensive manner, being a bit unclear, being compassionate and lovely but vague, and so on. Neptune tends to make a person communicate nicely, but with a bit less of the crisp Sagittarian bluntness that people of your sign are said to possess by birthright.

From time to time that dynamic changes. Indeed, during the early years of the Neptune influence Uranus was transiting the sign as well, so there was a bit more spark to your expression and your ideas. Uranus left Neptune’s side for good in 2004, though. In February and for half of March, though, Neptune’s got Mars by his side, and Mars likes to express ideas clearly and forthrightly, just like your sign usually does.

Mars in Aquarius is good for the expression of ideas for everyone, as Aquarius is an ideas and communication-oriented air sign. But doubly so for you, because it falls in such a favorable place. Put your thoughts into words! Even better, combine Venus with Mars and put your feelings into words and share them with your lover. Speak your mind, share your opinions, start a blog, take a public speaking class, recite some poetry, hang out with friends and enjoy stimulating conversation, and otherwise have a blast with these favorable influences.

A couple of days ago, I posted about Saturn in Libra getting all set to whine about the unfairness of the steps taken to bail out mortgage holders facing default. This trend seems to be picking up a bit of steam already, and, in line with Saturn as the planetary voice of conservatism, it is the conservatives who seem to be most concerned. I have heard it framed as a moral issue, that it’s not morally good to reward people who have been irresponsible in their choices.

This is a fair and legitimate argument under most circumstances. The human thirst for justice is part of what keeps society functioning. But Saturn is going to be facing Pluto soon, as I mentioned, and Pluto (dwarf planet or no) just blows Saturn out of the water. In a head to head contest, Pluto is more moral than Saturn. And Pluto says that collective survival is more moral than temporary fairness.

Pluto thinks our entire civilization is at stake, and by that he doesn’t mean the American standard of life. He means the carefully crafted standards of democracy and functioning systems of cooperation that have made Western civilization do pretty darn well for a long time. Pluto thinks that if we don’t address the collective needs for survival in rough times, the consequences will be far worse than if we let a certain portion of the population get away with unfairly taking advantage of the over-riding needs of society.

In other words, Pluto knows that some people will get an undeserved bailout even if they are people who caused the problems (cough, cough–bankers). But he doesn’t care, because getting through dire times is more important than apportioning Saturn-like responsibility.

This harsh Pluto stance is going to get harder and harder to swallow, and I imagine a lot of us will be gagging before the next couple of years are through. It’s a tough lesson humanity is going to be learning in the years ahead–but that’s material for another post.

First off, I have to mention Venus in Aries. Venus entered Aries in February (on the 3rd) and it will stay in that sign all the way through the first week of June, with the exception of a two week vacation in Pisces in mid-April. What this means is that Scorpios who are job hunting in this tough climate are getting a lucky break, for Aries represents your solar 6th house of getting a job. Venus represents good fortune, not spectacular good fortune, but any form of good fortune is a blessing in today’s economy.

Venus’s position also indicates that the cause of job hunting is best served by tapping into your relationships. If you work the energy (i.e., put some effort into finding a job through your network), you have a much better chance than many of finding a position that you actually really like. Such is the power of Venus.

Scorpios who are not job hunting have the chance to experience a pleasant and enjoyable atmosphere at work or a pleasant spate of good health. Another possibility is getting involved in a relationship with someone at work or developing your work-related support system. The most potent time for this job and health energy is near the end of March, when the sun, Mercury, and a new moon on the 26th supercharge the vibes.

Another energy that’s in play all month (actually all year) is Aquarius energy related to your solar 4th house of home and garden. In March, Mars (your co-ruler) continues his transit through the sign until the 15th. This gives you a good opportunity to express yourself clearly and forcefully regarding any home or community related matters. An example would be forthrightly and successfully addressing any problems related to a homeowner’s association (4th house=homeowners, Aquarius=associations). You have Jupiter on your side in residential matters all year, so you have a chance to get some good work done around the house, even if there are no outward problems.

A third energy that’s in play all month (and again all year) is the Pisces energy in your solar 5th house of expression. Mars moves into this sector on March 15, joining Mercury and Uranus there. Some sample manifestations of this energy would be things like expressing your opinions (as in a blog), public speaking, writing down your feelings in a journal, painting or engaging in other creative arts. This is also a good time to give a presentation as you are likely to be more eloquent than usual. Even your emails, texts, IMs, and social networking posts are likely to be more expressive than the norm, especially between the 15th and the 25th.

Learning about relationships in the most pleasant way possible–I suppose that’s one way to describe March for Libra, especially toward the end of the month. The relationship focus comes courtesy of the sign of Aries, your solar sign of relationship energy. The focus is already in play at the beginning of the month. In fact, it started all the way back on February 3rd, when your ruler Venus entered Aries for the first time.

Thanks to retrograde motion, Venus will be in Aries for almost four months this year, with a slight break in April. That’s a very long time to experience pleasant relationships, and it ought to make your relationship-oriented sign happy. If not outright happy, it ought to at least take the edge off some of the work-related battles in your solar chart.

The end of March is particularly potent with relationship energy. The sun enters Aries on March 20, Mercury on March 25, and there’s a new moon in the sign on the 26th. The presence of Mercury indicates a good opportunity (if you want to take advantage of it) to exchange affection through special verbal means. An example would be writing a poem for a loved one or having a loved one write or recite one for you!An example of using the Venus energy would be giving your loved one spring flowers fresh from your garden or receiving a similar gift of beauty. In other words, it’s all about giving and receiving–the exchange of pleasant energy and emotions.

As a side note to this relationship energy, Mars will be in your solar house of lovers until the 15th of the month. Mars in the 5th house can sometimes make a person feel more like punching a boyfriend in the face than exchanging pleasant energy and affection with him, but this month you have such a good line-up of supportive planets that this is unlikely to happen (not impossible, but less likely). With Venus and Jupiter being so supportive, Mars’s presence is more likely to add a bit of romantic spice to an already good situation. If by chance you are not involved in a committed relationship, Mars can also give you a bit of energy to go pursue one if you want.

Mars in the solar 5th house (it’s been there since February 4) can also be very helpful if you’re in a situation in which you need to express ideas to others, as it tends to make one’s expressions clear, direct, and forceful if necessary. If you have opinions to share, March is a good month to express them. All in all, a very satisfactory month, especially if you can manage not to pay too much attention to the insistent and rather relentless theme of stuff to do at work that’s been bedeviling your chart for awhile.

It’s a Pisces kind of month, Virgo, and that means there’s a lot of activity in your hard-working 7th house of relationships. Of course, the sun’s in Pisces as the month opens, but Mercury and Mars enter the sign, too. Mercury’s in Pisces as of the 8th and Mars joins on the 15th. Both of these planets join a long Uranus transit already in progress. So what does this mean?

One thing it means is that if your life is going to work at all, it’s going to have to work for all parties involved. The ongoing tug of war between Saturn in your own sign and all those visitors to Pisces emphasizes over and over again how important it is to have win/win solutions these days if you’re going to survive all the tumult.

Another way to think of it is to imagine that your ruler Mercury has entered Pisces for the period between the 8th and the 25th just so that you’ll have a chance to learn about your key relationships by studying the communication going on within them. If it’s as though your partner’s speaking French while your native language is English, you get a bit of a chance to learn what he or she is talking about. The point of all this activity, if you’re wondering, is to eventually make you very skilled in the handling of relationships. You won’t be entirely off the hook until Uranus leaves Pisces (starting in 2010), but thank goodness your sign is one of the best at gaining and putting knowledge to good use. Because you’re certainly get more than your share of chances to learn about the mysteries and intricacies of other people these days.

The second thing you may get a chance to learn about in March is the truth of the things that have been hidden. The end of March marks the annual emphasis on your solar 8th house of hidden truths, represented by the sign of Aries. The sun will move into that sign on the 20th; Mercury will join in on the 25th, and there’s a new moon in Aries on the 26th.  Venus is in the sign all month (and will be in Aries for an unusually long time this year, due to retrogrades). The emphasis on Aries, a blunt and frank sign, gives you a chance to ask for and get real answers to any questions that have been troubling you, in relationships or otherwise.

Venus in the 8th house, by the way, can also pertain to intimacy and romance, as in flowers from a loved one, or nice romantic evening with dinner and drinks. In short, it’s worth buffing up those relationship skills, as the payoff can be quite handsome. Last but not least, Venus in the 8th can also relate to favorable settlement of a financial claim, as, for example, one resulting from an inheritance or insurance claim.

This year Venus spends an unusually long time in the sign of Aries, thanks to retrograde motion. Aries happens to represent my solar 3rd house, the one associated with rushing about, messages, errands, appointments, short travel, communication, gadgets, writing, reading, and the hustle and bustle of daily life.

So sure enough, I have found myself rushing about these days, always in a hurry. In  hurry, because I’m doing all those Mercury things these days. But Venus is the planet that makes everything pleasant, and sure enough, I’m finding it quite enjoyable.

If you want to know what Aries represents in your solar chart, count round the zodiac starting with your sun sign. For example, for Capricorn, Aries represents the solar 4th house  of family and domestic matters. (For a list of what the houses represent, scroll down to near the bottom of the page of my other site, Practical Astrology.)

What’s pleasant in your life these days?

Thoughts of love. They just keep coming for Leo in March, mixed occasionally perhaps with thoughts of strangling those you love the most. This is all due to the crazily high level of activity in the sign of Aquarius during the first part of 2009. Mercury’s been in Aquarius off and on since January, and he doesn’t leave until March 7. Mercury is the thinking planet, and Aquarius is your sign of significant others and one on one relationships. Hence–thinking about relationships.

But there’s also Mars in this same sign (February 4 to March 15), the planet of anger and occasional desires to strangle people. But then there’s Jupiter in Aquarius, too, all year. Jupiter is the planet of really big thoughts about relationships, as in ‘maybe I love you so much that it’s time we got married’ type thoughts. Or sometimes just the opposite, as in ‘maybe I’ve just realized that I need to be free of you for awhile or maybe longer’ type thoughts. Either way, your chart is spending a whole lot of time contemplating love.

Which is kind of good, because the rest of your chart is busy worrying about money. Fortunately, although all issues are not necessarily resolved, things are supposed to be considerably better for your chart financially in March than they were in February. In fact, if things go well, you should have the opportunity to push your case forward, especially around March 8, March 18, and then again in April. The most likely cause of financial friction is some uncertainty surrounding a partner’s finances, which is causing hardship for your own. Some of you may actually have experienced a robbery, theft, fraud, or a situation in which you got ripped off in some way. If battles have been brewing, they may not be resolved right away, but take heart in knowing they will eventually be resolved.

On the good side, you may have traveling on your mind as the month closes. Mercury will team up with a new moon and Venus in the sign of Aries, starting March 25. Mercury is a traveling planet and Aries is your traveling sign, so you just may be able to sneak out for a bit of a vacation toward the end of the month if you play your cards right.

There’s a new moon in Aries on March 26, Cancer, and it opens up a world of opportunity for you. Or at least it should. Aries represents the most visible, public, and career-oriented part of your solar chart, and it is associated with happy things like getting a promotion at work. A new moon represents…well, the start of something new in the sector in which it falls. So new visibility or new career beginnings would be a pretty decent shorthand for the new moon in your solar 10th house.

But it’s not like your career and public visibility energy starts on March 26; no, it’s in play all month. That’s because Venus is spending an incredibly long time in Aries this year, thanks to a handy retrograde motion. Venus is actually in your solar career house from February 4th to June 6 this year, with a short break in the middle for it to dip back into Pisces.

So the party’s already started and in March it’s just that some additional guests arrive. There’s the sun coming in on March 20, Mercury on March 25 and then the new moon on March 26. Mars will also eventually enter this sector, too, although not until later in April. Bottom line: set your career intentions around the new moon and get pleasantly serious about implementing them this year.

Next order of business: a whole ton of Aquarius energy. This energy puts emphasis on your solar 8th house of the past, and it’s in play all month too. Mercury starts the month in this sector, along with Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron. That’s quite a crowd in one itsy-bitsy sign.

One implication is that you have an opportunity now to think about your past and get certain things straightened out in your mind. Another implication, pertinent to the entrepreneurial among you, is that the 8th house energy and the 10th house energy could combine to have you dealing thoughtfully with credit or tax matters as the month opens. You could be paying down debt, restructuring it, or angling for new lines of credit. Whatever your situation, you are in far better astrological shape than most signs when it comes to the twin matters of debt and taxes.

Who you gonna call in March, Gemini? Your friends of course. Why? ‘Cause Venus is in the sector of your solar chart that governs friendship all month long.

As if that wasn’t enough, your ruler Mercury enters the friendship house on March 25, followed immediately thereafter by a new moon in the same area on March 26. Spring is busting out with friendship and socializing vibes! Here are some of the things that all this friendship energy likes:

Tea and gossip. Pool parties. Jaunts to the beach. Heading out of town to do some partying for spring break. Trips to the spa for sauna treatments, massages, and general beautifying. Any kind of ridiculous indulgence you can imagine, as long as it involves other people. No solo hikes to the mountain top to find yourself this month–the time for that’ll come later. This month, all you need to find is some willing co-conspirators.

Lest you think that March is all about luxuriating though, the time around the full moon in Virgo on the 10th of the month may well convince you otherwise. At this time, energy bunches up around your solar 4th house of home and garden on the one hand, and your solar 10th house of career on the other. The energies get all tangled up and annoyed with themselves. It wouldn’t be all that surprising therefore if you found yourself tempted to get quite angry or irritated at work or to stomp around your house sighing at the burdens you bear.

If it all gets to be too much for a bit, adopt a philsophical attitude. There’s more than enough energy in your solar house of adopting a philsophical attitude this year to get you through almost anything the universe can through at you.

Boy, does your solar chart want to bust out in March, Taurus. Most likely from sort of an irritating career situation at first, then later perhaps from an equally irritating friendship or teamwork situation. This could be a good thing, especially if you are able to bust out and engage in some of the good old-fashioned self-expression your chart craves. But there’s a catch, and it all comes into sharp relief around the time of the full moon in Virgo on the 10th.

I’ll lay it out. The fifth house is self-expression. Saturn in Virgo is in your solar 5th house. Saturn is disapproval, restriction, inhibition and various forms of the word ‘no.’

The full moon in Virgo falls quite close to Saturn in terms of degrees. The full moon therefore is going to be quite tempted to stir up your emotions around a year and a half’s worth of Saturn disapproving of and inhibiting your attempts at self-expression and fun. Not only that, the full moon will come dangerously close to opposing Uranus in Pisces. Uranus in Pisces is mighty ticked with Saturn’s inhibition of your self-expression and is vigorously urging you to overcome your natural fear of disapproval and insecurity so that you can do whatever the hell it is that you really want whether Saturn likes it or not.

This is the kind of planetary conflict that makes most people feel as though somehow large chunks of the world have ganged on up them just to make them mad. And it is right into this combustible mix that Mars will stride come March 15. Mars is Mr. Anger himself, as well as Mr. Conflict With Others and Mr. Disagreement. Mars and Uranus are going to team up to try to teach you that if you want to be yourself, you are just going to have to proceed with courage even if you have to face down disapproval and disagreement to do it.

Of course you may not feel that being yourself is worth the hassle, and that’s why the conglomeration of Saturn, the moon, Uranus and Mars are going to try to convince you that you’ll have no peace if you try the old go-along-to-get-along strategy of avoiding conflict. Sometimes you just gotta take a stand and say to hell with them, whoever them might be. March and April 2009 could well be one of those times.

The good news is that if you do your part in the middle of the month, you’ll get a well-deserved astrological rest period come the new moon in Aries on March 26th. Feel free to flop down or go all hermit-like for a few days; you’ll need your energy for April.

March begins under the influence of the new moon in Pisces on February 24 and ends under the influence of the new moon in your own sign on March 26. The Pisces new moon indicates a time when your solar chart is resting up to gain energy before the sun moves into your sign on the 20th. The new moon in your sign indicates a  time when you can make a birthday wish or set goals for your personal solar new year. In between, there’s a full moon in Virgo on March 10. At the full moon, the focus shifts to health and/or work, making this a good time for your annual physical. You could also complete projects at work or just cross off items on your list that you’re never going to get done anyway. In short, the full moon represents the final bit of housekeeping before your birthday.

Meanwhile, Venus just can’t get enough of you. It entered your sign back in February and enjoyed itself so much that it’s decided to go retrograde as of March 6, just so it can spend more time with you. Venus is generally said to represent love and money, two things that are usually pretty darn pleasant to have or give. Good time to relax more than usual and enjoy the good vibes.

The month is also heavy with energy that relates to friends and teammates, cuz there’s a whole stack of planets in the sign of buddy-ness, Aquarius. One of them is your ruler Mars as the month opens. This is generally considered a good placement for things like team sports, so if you have the urge to go play some softball, shoot some hoops, break out the badminton set or put on your soccer shoes you’ll be making good use of the energetic vibes. Tennis is allowed too, or you could go running or pump some iron at the gym with a few friends. Weight loss activities that include social support also fall into the category of things that Mars in your solar 11th house likes.

After that rousing start to the month, Mars will enter Pisces on the 15th. Mars here gets introspective and sometimes even broody. In this position, he sometimes goes tearing through the closets of your soul, tossing stuff out, sort of the way your significant other might go tearing through your storage closet tossing everything out in a huff as s/he tries to find the good sleeping bag you haven’t used in the last four years. Kind of like that. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself getting a little huffy with yourself, wondering why you’re carting around a bunch of psychic crap you don’t really need and that interferes with your ability to access the resources that you do need to get something done in a hurry. Or something like that.

Finally, Mercury enters your sign on the 25th of the month, just before the new moon. Mercury is a big fan of short travel, so you may feel the urge to take a short birthday jaunt (an out-of-town party perhaps?) at the end of the month. If so, I’ll fully support you in that endeavor.