Midlife Transits

My local news is all about swine flu these days. Seems like the national news is too.

The traditional astrological symbol for flu and pandemics is Neptune. For example, during the flu pandemic of 1957, Neptune in Scorpio was in a bad mood with Uranus in Leo. Deaths peaked when they were about 9 or 10 degrees from a square, which is when global events associated with outer planet squares usually hit crisis points (8-10 degrees from a square is more dangerous than the exact aspect usually).

This year, Neptune has moved into place for the triple conjunction coming up later in May. The conjunction is a global phenomenon and therefore lends itself to global events like pandemics.  I’m really not familiar with pandemics resulting from Neptune conjunctions, though, and I have to say a flu pandemic is not exactly what I wanted from this one. I was hoping for much more jolly stuff  since optimistic Jupiter will be involved. The addition of Chiron to the mix is a wild card, though, and not one that happens often enough for me to have any personal experience with it.

Maybe it will all turn out to be relatively mild if Jupiter rides in to the rescue later in May. If not, then I suppose we might have a very unusual late spring/summer spurt of illness, because Neptune will be at this degree until mid-July. Usually, illness is more likely to spread during the school year.

To me, if this a manifestation of Neptune and Chiron in cahoots, it seems a bit mean. The poor globe is already reeling from an economic downturn; this seems like the last thing we need. Give us some happy news, planets, we’ve got more than enough difficult aspects coming up.

Saw a bit on 60 Minutes today about Americans and their tanking 401Ks. It occurred to me that Pluto in Capricorn (bad economy) has taken a vicious whack at the Uranus in Cancer placements of those born from around 1949 through 1956 (approximately, there’s some play in the dates). Specifically Pluto has gone and started opposing a natal placement that an entire 7 year chunk of people has.

Of course, Pluto in Sagittarius took aim at the Uranus in Gemini folks before, but he did it in a Sagittarius/Gemini way. The Capricorn/Cancer way is to gnaw away at the thing Cancer loves the most–security. And Pluto’s doing his gnawing in a Capricornian way–by forcing these people to work past the time they had hoped for a secure retirement.

No wonder Pluto gets a bad reputation sometimes.

This too will pass though. It won’t pass soon enough for most of us, but it will pass. Most of the generation will come through the crisis intact. Doesn’t seem fair though. Feel free to post your opinion as to who to blame for Pluto’s current vicious antics.

And in celebration, early-bird horoscopes for May have been posted. Yes, you can ask questions and make comments.

By the way, in many of the sun sign horoscopes I mention a triple conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron in the sign of Aquarius. It occurs toward the end of May. I mention it because I’m all excited about it.

Whether it’s worth getting all excited about remains to be seen. Still, semi-newshound that I am I have seen flurries of activity relating to this conjunction all over the place.

These flurries of activity mostly relate to experty-type experts on various economic matters getting cautiously optimistic about the economy. In my astrological brain, they are getting cautiously optimistic because a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction just wants people to get optimistic and have hope again. Jupiter, by the way, deals with the economic matters.

So in my reading, the recent stock market upticks and whatnot are signs that Jupiter/Neptune is kicking in.

The downside is that Neptune is a notorious liar. It promises hope and then does its darndest to eventually deliver disappointment. That’s why cautious experty-type experts are keeping  a mindful eye on Pluto in Capricorn. When they keep their mindful eye on Capricorn they say things like “it’s still a long road to recovery.” Because that’s Pluto in Cap’s opinion, and Pluto is usually right.

So…I think Neptune and Jupiter are going to try to do their darndest to give us all a necessary break from gloom and doom. They’ll let us enjoy the summer, before Saturn in Libra squares off with Pluto in the fall and puts us in a bad mood with world affairs again. Sort of like that; there is some play in the dates.

Neptune’s already at the degree he will station at–26 degrees. Jupiter will hover around this degree, so will Chiron. Uranus will hover at the same degree in Pisces. If you have planets at 26 degrees figure that they will be energized, hopeful, surprised, and confused. So will the rest of us probably.

Did you know, Taurus, that Pluto in your solar 9th house of of long-range thinking is encouraging you to become more and more careful in your thinking and actions as your mind puts together data you’ve been gathering for years? The 9th house is a house of the understanding and wisdom that comes from life experience. It’s also about having a coherent point of view and philosophy of life. Having Pluto here is super-fantabulous because it gets along well with your sun, giving your mind power of a sort you’re probably not used to.

Get used to being super-smart or at least look forward to becoming more and more super-smart as this trend develops over many years. Depending on your rising sign, you can look forward to growth in two areas of your life thanks to Pluto. For example, if you have Aries rising, your broadened new powerful thinking may benefit you in your career (because Capricorn, the sign Pluto’s in, represents the house of career for Aries rising folks). Just thought you might want to know that, since this is your birthday month, and this smartness thing is one of those reflective insights dealies that goes with contemplating what you’ll do with the next year of your life.

This is also a huge career year for you.  Actually a HUGE career year for you, all caps. And by the end of May it becomes super-huge because Chiron, Jupiter and Neptune will all conjoin at 26 degrees Aquarius. Those of you born around May 17 may be bombarded by so much energy that you’ll have no idea what the hell is hitting you.

For all Taureans, some of the energy is likely to feel great (the Jupiter part), some of it confusing (the Neptune part) and some of it enlightening (the Chiron part). This energy lasts at least until July, so be prepared for all kinds of signs and wonders for the next couple of months. Note that I am not trying to tell you what exactly to do with all this career energy; you’ll need to sort that through for yourself. There may be both opportunities and hesitations, and on some level you’ll need to use that super-fantabulous Pluto energy to help you determine what exactly you are and are not willing to do for the sake of your career and reputation in the near and long term.

Wowie zowie Aries, your solar 11th house is all lit up in the most extraordinary and strangely intangible way this May. Since the 11th house is the house of friends, this could indicate that friends and acquaintances of all sorts will start calling you up night and day, beginning right around the time this is posted in late April. If so, they are likely to have various agendas. Agenda #1 could be old-fashioned fun (Jupiter). Agenda #2 could be to float various impractical and confusing ideas for you to consider (Neptune). Agenda #3 could be to heal old wounds (Chiron).

Of course, considering the rather unusual nature of this triple conjunction, it could be none of the above, but whatever it is, people want to connect with you and the energy is big. Meanwhile, Pluto continues to try to give you power in career matters and the sun in Taurus goes right along by giving you access to resources at least until the 20th of the month. Then the sun moves into Gemini, where he puts emphasis on your skills. Plus, Venus is in your sign and so is Mars. Dang, it’s almost like you can do anything you want to do this month.  So what can I say except go ahead and do things!

May has its rational elements for you Gemini folks and its irrational elements. Irrationality comes courtesy of the sun traversing Taurus and your irrational solar 12th house until May 20. It also comes courtesy of a huge triple conjunction involving irrational Neptune, bouncy Jupiter, and mysterious Chiron in the sign of Aquarius. These three placements will gang up to encourage you to make the most irrational and yet strangely pleasant and optimistic decisions regarding your long-term future that you can possibly imagine.

Just as these three planets are pushing the benefits of irrationality, the sun will move into your own hyper-rational sign. The result is that you may come up with some incredibly good ideas. If you’ve ever had a hankering to solve all the problems of the world or maybe the just traffic problems in your own neighborhood, you may find the insights just pouring in. If you were born around the 17th of June, you may be almost on fire with good ideas.

Not only will Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron be in good angle to your sun but Uranus will be squaring it. If ever there was a recipe for being insanely creative in your thinking and blending the rational and the irrational into one deliriously insightful package, this would be that recipe. It’s almost like you’ll be able to see everything at once, from a personal to a global scale.

Whether you’ll be able to do anything practical with all this mental stimulation I’m not sure. But it’s bound to be an interesting month however you slice it.

May provides a strange mix of the emotional and the unemotional in terms of influences for Cancerians. This is especially noticeable toward the end of the month when the sun is in non-emotional Gemini and your solar 12th house of the subconscious mind. This energy happens to blend with a big huge glob of energy in your mysterious solar 8th house of deep emotions. In this 8th house will be Jupiter, a planet that often represents joy. So it’s like you can unemotionally analyze some source of deep joy in your life. Kinda strange, but kinda wonderful.

And there are more mysterious dualities afoot. The full moon on the 9th is in Scorpio in your solar 5th house of strangely enough joy. But a full moon in Scorpio often represents sorrow. So are you scheduled to be sorrowfully joyful? Some sweet sorrow, as Shakespeare would say, as you take temporary leave of a lover? Could well be.

I’m hesitant to predict. But it all seems kind of deep and bittersweet and yet detached, as though you have a rare chance to observe yourself feeling your way through life. Unusual month and the unusual vibes continue at least until your birthday, so don’t be too worried if you seem to be living in a dream world for awhile.

Spirituality is likely to play a big role in any decisions you make in May, Leo, even if you are not otherwise in the mood to be particularly spiritual. The full moon on the 9th of May occurs in the deep and mysterious sign of Scorpio in your solar 4th house of the soul. So we have our spiritual theme right there. But wait, there’s more!

There’ll be a big triple conjunction of Neptune, Jupiter, and Chiron in Aquarius toward the end of May. That’s a pretty spiritual trio right there, and Uranus in Pisces will also be at the same degree one sign over. Uranus in Pisces leans toward the spiritual as well. The spiritual energy is just all over the place.

Furthermore, most of the action takes place in the angles of your chart, where influences are most likely to affect you. The sectors of self, family, career, and partners are all getting energy at once. If you were born during the last week of your sign, you are even more powerfully affected. Nothing to do I suppose but search your soul and act from your highest purpose.

Well, for once your horoscope is clearer than most, Virgo. May is pretty solidly about your job and career. At least that’s true near the end of the month when you have your annual career new moon (in Gemini on the 24th). I don’t know that this new moon will have you make any rash or abrupt changes in your career plan, for Pluto in Capricorn is in good angle to your sun and feeling rather conservative. Plus, Saturn’s still in your sign and he always feels conservative.

Still, if you get a call offering you a career opportunity, take it, as you’re likely to be pretty popular this month. Your ruler Mercury also opens the month in your career house, although he does go retrograde on the 6th. Don’t let that inhibit you from taking action though because dang you have some incredible energy in your solar 6th house of job stuff to back up Mercury.

The energy in your job sector is all about unity and cooperation. If you don’t get any big opportunities handed to you, you may be able to band together with your co-workers and create some. In what are tough times employment wise for many, you’ve got a lot of planets on your side right now.

May is not exactly one of those level-headed months. Mercury will start out the month in your solar 9th house of long-term plans, but then he’ll change his mind and decide to head backwards to your solar house of joint finances. The implication is that you’ll be likely feeling the itch in May to change your mind about things too. For people who are taking classes or courses, this is one of those influences that’s like–no matter how hard you try, somehow your mind keeps slipping backward and you can’t understand any of the material you thought you understood a week ago.

For those not taking courses, all of life becomes sort of like that. Don’t blame yourself. It’s in the air. This is one of those months when a friend could accidentally become a lover with all the confusion and excitement that this entails. Your chart is naturally prone to combine love and friendship anyway, but in May the whole tendency just gets out of control. The trend is especially pronounced in the second half of the month.

For those of you on the hunt for romance, this could be an exquisitely wonderful thing. For those of you who want to avoid new entanglements, appropriate caution is advised. Nobody else’s chart is any more level-headed than yours in May, and complications could ensue.

May could find you feeling a little bit indecisive when it comes to partners. In fact, May could find you feeling a little bit indecisive about everything, especially if you were born around the 17th of November. First, we’ll talk about the partners. The sun will be moving forward in Taurus, your sign of committed relationships, at the same time that Mercury is moving backwards in the same sign.

So it’s kind of like your chart is one of those cats standing at the door, with you saying impatiently “Well, in or out, which is it?” Or you could be one of those cats that goes out (as for example with a person of your favorite sex) and then as soon as you’re out, you start thinking “Oh I want back in” (your cozy home). And then as soon as you’re back in your cozy home you want to go back out again. Kind of like that.

This isn’t exactly your fault. There’s a whole huge stack of energy right at the bottom of your chart (Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron precariously perched on top of each other) and all of it is squaring your sun. So you could be extremely happy at the same time as being extremely depressed or anxious at the same time as being confused as to why you are feeling a bunch of different things at once. Makes it kind of hard to make up your mind.

This too will pass, although not really until July or so. The reason you are indecisive, although it will be difficult for you to tell, is because your soul is processing like a gazillion tons of information below the surface of your conscious mind. This takes time and tends to put your normal thought patterns out of commission for awhile. As in being spacy and indecisive.

Having your soul process a gazillion tons of information all at once is actually a good thing, although you won’t, again, probably be able to tell until the entire fatiguing process is completed. But once it is completed, you’ll be able to make better decisions than you thought possible because you’ll understand yourself way better. Which is kind of cool.

Good times! Venus is still in your happy solar fifth house of good times. Still! Boy did you strike it lucky, especially if you’re in the hunt for love.

If you haven’t found it yet, by the way, just keep trying. This month you’ve got Mars on your side, too. If ever there was a symbol for just keep trying, this would be it. Yes, you can give online dating a whirl, although the usual cautions continue to apply.

If you’re all set in the love department, well then enjoy good times with the ones you love. Your ruler Jupiter is trundling along in your sector of daily life in a super-good mood. What’s not to like? I mean, really, I have nothing else to say except have a good time.

Big emphasis on home and family in May. Still. Venus and Mars in the sector. Still. Creating an odd combination of pleasure and conflict. Still.

This energy will ease off in June, but in the meantime, you’ve got Mars in Aries to contend with. Mars is just the kind of fellow who is happy to get all excited about something but just as happy to goad someone into doing something just because he or she knows that someone else won’t like it. So you get situations where the whole family goes out the to mall and enjoys a good mood (the mall because you’ve got big spending energy in May, Capricorn) until you spontaneously decide to go to a movie and then a huge argument erupts because you can’t agree on which one to see. Situations like that.

The other situation that continues in May is the super-big emphasis on money in your chart. This could mean several things. It could mean that you’re rolling in dough. Or it could mean that there is a very loud voice in your head shouting at all times “I need more money!!!’

Either way–your chart is primed and poised like no one else’s to make more money. So look for ways to do that. Even if you’ve already got a bunch. I’m not saying greed is good; I’m just saying astrological opportunities like this don’t come along all that often. The only thing you gotta stay away from is fraud and delusional get rich quick stuff that your sign is supposed to be too smart to fall for anyway. So don’t fall for it and go out and get yourself some more money.

So…Jupiter’s in your sign, as I probably mention every month. And this can  mean a year of great activity for you. This month, Jupiter conjoins with Neptune and Chiron for a truly inflationary influence. Which I suppose could mean a month of tree-mendous activity for you.

If you were born around Valentine’s Day, then you may actually be hit with so much energy toward the end of May that instead of being active, you’ll be paralyzed. Either way, this is the month to put on your thinking cap and solve the problems you’ve been confronted with, because theoretically when Jupiter and Neptune and Chiron combine, solutions pop to mind more easily than normal. And I’m sure you could stand a little easy button in your life this year.Your main problems have probably been financial, but this month you have the ability perhaps to just figure them out and overcome them.

With Pluto inching through the sector of your chart that governs your subconscious mind, there is power in whatever thoughts lay just below the surface of your consciousness. Things may be a little confusing still, but you have been building up skills in dealing with this aspect of your psyche and now it’s time to use them. Bottom line: try to get to the root of your problems with Pluto’s help and then actively implement solutions with the help of Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron.