Midlife Transits

I want to draw your attention to this week’s podcast because it features an interview with Jude Cowell. You may know of her from her gorgeous artwork (featured at Secret Moon Art and at Zazzle) but you may also know her as a prolific blogger on politics and current events. She blogs at Stars Over Washington and has been posting  lots of interesting material on a range of subjects from the BP oil spill to the recent Afghan war WikiLeaks material and lots of stuff in between.

In the interview, Jude talks about how she got started, how she approaches political astrology, some of the history of mundane astrology, which US chart she uses and more. She’s a fascinating guest, and I hope you’ll listen to her. You can find the podcast here: http://webtalkradio.net/shows/practical-astrology/

“Fear is afoot everywhere, and polarization prevails. Faith in institutions – corporations, government, the media – is down. Americans are angry, and they long ago grew accustomed to expecting the resolution of problems in very short order, even if reality rarely works that way.”
–From an AP story on the oil spill, dated May 30, 2010

BP Oil Spill, Part 2: In which we learn that yelling at someone to do something does not actually get something done.

The BP oil leak catastrophe started under the astrological influence of Pisces and Virgo. On May 27, Uranus moved into Aries and astrological phase 2 began. By June 6, Jupiter had also moved into Aries for a conjunction with Uranus. This shift was good in the sense that getting Uranus and Jupiter out of the sign ruling oil coincided with BP finally being able to contain some of the leak. On the other hand, Jupiter hadn’t stopped making the size of the leak bigger, at least officially. As of this writing, the official estimates of the leak size have ballooned enormously, taking an incomprehensible disaster and making it an enormously incomprehensible disaster.

The other thing the Aries energy has done is present a stark case for the ineffectiveness of yelling. Although the leak technically began under Pisces influence, Aries anger was butting up against this situation from the beginning. Aries is a cardinal sign, and cardinal signs feel entitled, maybe even obligated, to tell other people what to do. Pluto in Capricorn has cardinal energy too.

So the cardinal energy trotted into action when it got wind of this disaster, following its primal orders, and promptly learned what the clash of cardinal energy accomplishes. Nothing.

The President of the United States got angry and supposedly told BP to just ‘plug the damn hole.’ It turned out that when the purportedly most powerful man in the world yells at a corporation to do something, that doesn’t mean it gets done.

That little burst of presidential temper was only the beginning of the yelling, though. The public has yelled at BP. The public has yelled at the government. The government has yelled at the government. BP has yelled at journalists to get out. The government has yelled at journalists to get out. Journalists have channeled the yelling of others into various media outlets to feed it back to BP and the government. Commentators have called this a war. Ordinary people have yelled about the situation to no one in particular. Individuals gather on Facebook to yell or post videos of themselves on YouTube to yell. Congresspeople have yelled at whoever they can think of to yell at and will be hauling in more BP people to yell at momentarily.

Everybody’s the boss and no one’s in charge. Literally. There are swarms of government agencies and BP divisions and local government representatives swirling around the affected areas and all of them, apparently, have the power to block action, to pull the boss card. And no one’s in charge.

Getting things done takes cooperation. This is what Aries and Capricorn energies forget, in their mania for taking charge of things they can’t control.Too many bosses spoil anything.

Meanwhile, Jupiter in Aries energy brings out multitudes of enterprising individuals who want to be helpful. That’s the good part of Aries. It takes the initiative. It wants to help. Uranus in Aries brings forth all kinds of people with innovative and creative technical solutions to offer, some of them probably Uranian crazy, but all of them clamoring for attention. And yet these people get nowhere but on a fast train to Frustrationville as overwhelming corporate and government power try clamp the Plutonian lid on all that uncontrolled energy.

The astrological themes jostle against each other like symbols playing bumper cars. Pluto: power,  control, secrecy, wealth, conspiracies, resources, the underworld, cynicism. Capricorn: corporations, government, fear, delays, bureaucracy, reality, problems, bossiness, stonewalling. Aries: anger, initiative, drive, bossiness, energy, impulsiveness, hurry, impatience, individuals. Uranus: speed, technology, disruption, innovation, mass media, creativity, shortcuts, revolution, protests, the people en masse. Jupiter: generosity, expansion, optimism, catalyst. Squares: frustration, obstacles, problems, polarization, action.

It’s as if the universe threw a bunch of competing energies in a pot and gave them no one way to do anything but boil over.

That’s in the public arena, but I see this all around me in the lives of ordinary people. The impulse to tell other people what they ought to be doing is strong. The remembrance that telling other people what to do does not make them do it is not as strong. Frustration ensues. It seems clear what ought to be done, but no one else is playing along nicely. In our own lives, it can get easy to be at loggerheads and therefore in a logjam. The good news in all this is that it sometimes takes a logjam to get a person to become ready and willing to deal with underlying problems.

The bad news is that almost no one likes a logjam. It’s not fun to have planets challenge Pluto and point out to us that what we think we ought to have under control–isn’t necessarily something that we actually can control. It’s a wake-up call that other people have their own agendas, and their agendas count too. Aries is a sign that likes to think it’s right about everything. When Aries planets are under assault, we learn that thinking we are right is not exactly the same thing as actually being right.

As July gets going, Jupiter in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn will officially square off. By the 3rd week of July, Saturn will officially enter Libra and start playing the cooperation card. It’s scheduled to get mighty ticked at all the people who won’t sit down, shut up, and listen for a second. It will try to put the brakes on spontaneous anger as it opposes Uranus in Aries and then in August briefly squares Pluto. Saturn will have his work cut out for him, and there’s little to no chance he’ll be able to calm everyone down. But perhaps it’s important he try.

By late August, the dispute energy will slowly start to recede. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that all along the prediction has been that the oil leak won’t really be plugged until August. In the meantime, we’re all going to have to remember to breathe. Personally and collectively, we’ve been through stuff before. We’ll get through this. It may take us awhile to sort through what we learn, but we will get through it.

And in the end, we’ll all hopefully come out a little wiser.

“How did we get into this mess?”

That’s the question a friend asked me the other day, and it’s a question that’s generally applicable to astrology of this summer. Most of the outer planets seem to be asking, with something greater than exasperation, ‘how the bleep did we get into this mess?’ Although the Gulf oil spill is the largest and most visible symbol of the disarray in the skies, many of us have felt the energy in personal ways. Let’s take a look at what’s been happening using the BP oil leak as a guide.

On April 20, 2010 an oil rig known as the Deepwater Horizon located in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. At the time, Uranus in Pisces was opposing Saturn in Virgo. Neptune was lurking about in an inconjunct with Saturn. Jupiter in Pisces was hovering near Uranus, ready to pounce. Pluto in Capricorn was stationed ominously in a wide out of sign square to both Uranus and Saturn.

In the symbolic language of astrology, the events that followed have tragically been almost literal at times.  Uranus is Mr. Explosion, especially when he’s in a bad mood with other outer planets, as he was at the time. Hem in Uranus with constricting energies from other planets and all hell breaks loose. Uranus was in the sign of oil and the sign of the sea. Oil-related explosion at sea. Pretty literal.

Saturn is Mr. Safety and Mr. Let’s Do Things Carefully. In Virgo, he was in a sign related to workers, the environment and environmental regulation. Uranus beats Saturn in a fair fight, and even in an unfair fight. Uranus’s oil-related explosion at sea annihilated Saturn’s relatively weaker efforts to safeguard workers, the environment, to champion prudence and doing things right.

Uranus also relates to speed and technology. Pisces is also the sign of chaos, uncertainty, and ‘we don’t know what the hell we are doing.’ Saturn also relates to cost-cutting, delays, slowness, old ways of doing things, and the desire for order and procedure. BP’s demands for speedy drilling, combined with cost-cutting efforts, previous delays, and new technology for deep water drilling collided to create a swirling marine nightmare of chaos, uncertainty, and environmental degradation mixed with a desperate desire to get control of the leak using Saturn’s old-fashioned methods of procedure. Saturn’s reliance on precision Virgo-like engineering efforts was no match for Uranus’s burbling, gurgling torrent of oil spilling from underground.

In the stark mathematics of the universe at the time, the raw energy of chaos beat the pants off little ant-like human efforts to contain it. BP and everyone else responding to the disaster were in over their heads, not knowing what the hell they were doing, having unleashed a Pandora’s box of forces they were unable to control.

Neptune in Aquarius, the planet also associated with the sea and oil, in an unsupportive angle to Saturn, stood off to the side and said ‘I told you so. I told you were placing too much faith (Neptune) in new technology (Aquarius) for deep water drilling.’ Jupiter, the Great Expander, also in the sign of oil and the sea, piled on to make the disaster bigger and bigger and bigger with every passing day, vowing to continue until everyone got the message that things were out of control.

Pluto in Capricorn, symbol of wealth, corporations, and the riches of the deep, anchors the situation from his square position off to the side of the disaster, saying nothing. He doesn’t have to say anything. In Pluto’s world, the rules are obvious and brutal. You reap what you sow. Screw up and pay the price.

No one can accept this really, at least not quickly. The price is too high, too unexpected, too lingering. Pluto lessons are hard to absorb, and with Uranus and Jupiter upping the emotional ante, the hubbub surrounding the chaos makes it hard to identify reality. Even the size of the leak remained elusive, slippery, uncertain.

It would be way too much of a stretch to say that each individual one of us is in the same position with the regard to the universe–battling chaos, uncertainty, misplaced faith, and forces beyond our control. Not every single individual is saying ‘how did we/I get into this mess?’ But collectively, we are in a mess. Collectively, we have gotten in over our heads.

Collectively, we don’t know what we are doing. At the time of the initial explosions, no one in the entire world actually knew how to stop that gusher in a timely manner. No one.

We had pushed beyond our Saturn limits into uncharted territory.

Uranus and Pluto and Jupiter and Neptune and Saturn don’t line themselves up for disaster just for their own amusement, although it may seem that way at the time. They align themselves these ways because the alignments simply reflect the truth. If you get in over your head, unleash forces you don’t understand how to harness, you will experience harrowing consequences. The alignments bring to our attention the times when we have to up our game.

The simple truth, I suppose, is that we got into this mess as a result of choices we made earlier. BP is paying for its choices. The government is paying for its choices. All of us are paying for our long-standing choices to favor new oil exploration and technology over boring old things like conservation and reduced consumption. And sort of like a rogue wave, Uranus’s ocean explosion is sweeping up and destroying a lot of people along the Gulf who are victims of circumstances they can’t control. These alignments are like that. They are absolutely, positively not fair.

On the other hand, these alignments also represent turning points and tipping points. Painfully and slowly, we get the message. We figure out that we have to do better. We stop putting up with problems that we should have addressed long ago. The tide turns. We go in a new direction because we have to. We stop letting Uranus in Pisces kick our collective butts and we eventually get to work, building a better system.

That’s the idea anyway. Let’s hope it happens.

Uranus in Aries is a very dynamic energy; quite different in character from Uranus in Pisces, which wobbled along uncertainly causing various upsets. Uranus in Aries will charge ahead very certainly, causing various upsets, but bringing with it plenty of spunk and the potential for some quite effective action in your life. Uranus in Aries has so much energy and so much action potential that various other planets will get alarmed at various points during its transit of the sign and attempt to stop it. Pluto in Capricorn will throw up some mighty resistance; Saturn in Libra will beg it to stop and consider the consequences of its actions, and every other planet that enters a cardinal sign will whine and complain or shudder in horror. On the other hand, Jupiter in Aries will make its effects even bigger.

Some of this interplanetary conflict and expansion will affect you at various points; some of it will pass without a blip on your screen. But the interplanetary vibes are not our subject today. Our subject today is what Uranus in Aries can do for you when he’s in a good mood and unleashed. On his first go-round, Uranus will only rush into Aries and back out again over the course of about 11 weeks. He’ll really only settle in for an extended stay in Aries  (about 7 years is Uranus’s normal tour in a sign) as of March 2011. But the times they are already changing, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for each of the signs as the new Uranian era begins.

I’ll start with the premise that although Uranus is often thought of as a mentally oriented planet, it often has an effect (in my experience) on a person’s literal physical energy. With Uranus in Aries, your little legs may actually want to walk faster, as Aries energy urges them to hurry up, time’s a-wasting. Aries values speed and so does Uranus, so the very pace of your life may speed up. Not everyone is going to notice this immediately, and some people may not want their lives to move any faster than they already do, but it can feel good to have more physical energy at your disposal. Uranus in Pisces wants to absorb stuff (including, unfortunately, toxins) but Uranus in Aries wants to do stuff. Pisces is a mutable sign, so Uranus in Pisces keeps changing its mind. Aries is a cardinal sign, so Uranus in Aries sets goals and marches off with a sense of purpose. It’s like a dog that’s just barely restrained by the leash. Where this dog will try to take you depends partly on your sun sign or your rising sign. (If you know your own chart, you can get a more precise understanding of where Uranus will be in your chart. Astro.com offers free charts.)

Aries and Aries rising: At some point, Uranus in Aries will try to imbue you with more physical energy in a literal sense. It may not last forever, but it will probably be fun while it lasts. Your personality may also get stronger or more vibrant for awhile, and Uranus may push you toward being more effective in your actions, to see the end game and not just the beginning game. Uranus will want you to do new stuff and set new personal goals. Uranus in your own sign is more a ‘free choice’ placement than it is anywhere else. You have greater latitude to choose your own path.

Taurus and Taurus rising: Uranus in Aries will be in the part of your chart that is normally devoted to subconscious influences. When your subconscious mind is very active, stuff can break through to consciousness. On the good side, stuff can break through that can help you put old demons to rest permanently. Therapy and self-exploration can be very effective. On the not-so-good side, stuff that doesn’t break all the way through can turn into insomnia and anxiety or even chronic discomforts. Uranus in Aries will want you to deal with your discomforts, physical or psychological, forthrightly and do something about them. Set goals and try stuff until you have solved the problem. Stuff that was okay to put with before, Uranus in Aries will not be okay with putting up with anymore. He’ll want results.

Gemini and Gemini rising: Uranus in Aries will be in your natal or solar 11th house here, and he’ll have lots of different things he could get interested in while traversing this section of your chart. He may stir up all kinds of activity, but I’ll focus on one area that will probably get attention before his stay is through. Uranus will almost certainly look at your friends because friends are a specialty of his. If he’s in a good mood with them, he’ll pump tons of energy into your friendships and group endeavors and he may have you getting involved in some very physical activities with them. If he’s in a bad mood with them and doesn’t think they’re worthy of you, he’ll pick fights with them, attempt to throw them out of your life, overhaul your social circle, start with a clean slate, have you form your own groups, and generally rebel against what he thinks are substandard networks and support systems. If you’re not a joiner, he may suddenly decide that you ought to be one. If you are a joiner, he may suddenly decide that whatever you’ve joined ought to be a lot more effective at whatever it is it is supposed to be doing. And because Uranus loves this sector of the chart, he may just get a kick out of doing things like setting a goal for you to have 2,442 Facebook friends by the end of the summer.

Uranus in Aries is a very dynamic energy; quite different in character from Uranus in Pisces, which wobbled along uncertainly causing various upsets. Uranus in Aries will charge ahead very certainly, causing various upsets, but bringing with it plenty of spunk and the potential for some quite effective action in your life. Uranus in Aries has so much energy and so much action potential that various other planets will get alarmed at various points during its transit of the sign and attempt to stop it. Pluto in Capricorn will throw up some mighty resistance; Saturn in Libra will beg it to stop and consider the consequences of its actions, and every other planet that enters a cardinal sign will whine and complain or shudder in horror. On the other hand, Jupiter in Aries will make its effects even bigger.

Some of this interplanetary conflict and expansion will affect you at various points; some of it will pass without a blip on your screen. But the interplanetary vibes are not our subject today. Our subject today is what Uranus in Aries can do for you when he’s in a good mood and unleashed. On his first go-round, Uranus will only rush into Aries and back out again over the course of about 11 weeks. He’ll really only settle in for an extended stay in Aries  (about 7 years is Uranus’s normal tour in a sign) as of March 2011. But the times they are already changing, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for each of the signs as the new Uranian era begins.

I’ll start with the premise that although Uranus is often thought of as a mentally oriented planet, it often has an effect (in my experience) on a person’s literal physical energy. With Uranus in Aries, your little legs may actually want to walk faster, as Aries energy urges them to hurry up, time’s a-wasting. Aries values speed and so does Uranus, so the very pace of your life may speed up. Not everyone is going to notice this immediately, and some people may not want their lives to move any faster than they already do, but it can feel good to have more physical energy at your disposal. Uranus in Pisces wants to absorb stuff (including, unfortunately, toxins) but Uranus in Aries wants to do stuff. Pisces is a mutable sign, so Uranus in Pisces keeps changing its mind. Aries is a cardinal sign, so Uranus in Aries sets goals and marches off with a sense of purpose. It’s like a dog that’s just barely restrained by the leash. Where this dog will try to take you depends partly on your sun sign or your rising sign. (If you know your own chart, you can get a more precise understanding of where Uranus will be in your chart. Astro.com offers free charts.)

Cancer and Cancer rising: Uranus is now in the part of your chart where it gets ambitious. Previously, it was in the part of your chart where it hankered after higher education, and it may still have some work to finish up in that department. But now it sets its sights upon getting you attention, moving you up, convincing you to be an entrepreneur, changing your career, or otherwise eventually making a fairly radical change. At some point, it will probably get its way. Somehow or another, it wants to throw its energy into getting you into a higher position (in its opinion) than the one you are in now, although that need not be in a strictly career sense. If you can gain prestige for climbing Mt. Everest or something, it will take that too. But it will want you to do something public, set some goals that it thinks are worthy of you. If it thinks you are in the wrong field–it will try to push you out. You would probably be wise to figure out now what you really want, since Uranus is going to try to drag you in that direction anyway.

Leo and Leo rising: Uranus here will be in your solar or natal 9th house and that covers a lot of ground. I’ll focus simply on the knowledge and information aspect of it, since Uranus does love knowledge and information. Uranus in Aries in the 9th tends to love knowledge and information it can get by going places, doing things, and experiencing stuff first-hand. Goodness knows where it will try to take you, but it tends to be hot for adventure. It also likes news, journalism, stuff that is up to the minute, and info that it can use immediately to make snap decisions. It will frequently try to persuade you to take up an intellectual project that will ultimately prove to be of great benefit to you, even if at first it seems unlikely. For example, it may encourage you to finally figure out how to do math, even though you used to think you were stupid at it. Don’t worry; it won’t take you too deep into a subject; it will just set a goal that you’ll finally figure out how to balance your checkbook or pass statistics class or whatever it is that you need.

Virgo and Virgo rising: Aries represents your solar or natal 8th house, a house that represents way too many things to go into in a single post. So I’ll pick an area that is often overlooked in discussing the 8th house–sex! More physical energy for sex. That can be one benefit of Uranus in Aries. Another benefit can simply be more of it and more interest in it. A stronger sex drive, a more assertive sex drive, a more experimental and open-minded approach to sex, more willingness to initiate sex, fewer inhibitions, more exploration, more willingness to learn and grow in this area of life. Not a bad thing for most of us.

Uranus in Aries is a very dynamic energy; quite different in character from Uranus in Pisces, which wobbled along uncertainly causing various upsets. Uranus in Aries will charge ahead very certainly, causing various upsets, but bringing with it plenty of spunk and the potential for some quite effective action in your life. Uranus in Aries has so much energy and so much action potential that various other planets will get alarmed at various points during its transit of the sign and attempt to stop it. Pluto in Capricorn will throw up some mighty resistance; Saturn in Libra will beg it to stop and consider the consequences of its actions, and every other planet that enters a cardinal sign will whine and complain or shudder in horror. On the other hand, Jupiter in Aries will make its effects even bigger.

Some of this interplanetary conflict and expansion will affect you at various points; some of it will pass without a blip on your screen. But the interplanetary vibes are not our subject today. Our subject today is what Uranus in Aries can do for you when he’s in a good mood and unleashed. On his first go-round, Uranus will only rush into Aries and back out again over the course of about 11 weeks. He’ll really only settle in for an extended stay in Aries  (about 7 years is Uranus’s normal tour in a sign) as of March 2011. But the times they are already changing, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for each of the signs as the new Uranian era begins.

I’ll start with the premise that although Uranus is often thought of as a mentally oriented planet, it often has an effect (in my experience) on a person’s literal physical energy. With Uranus in Aries, your little legs may actually want to walk faster, as Aries energy urges them to hurry up, time’s a-wasting. Aries values speed and so does Uranus, so the very pace of your life may speed up. Not everyone is going to notice this immediately, and some people may not want their lives to move any faster than they already do, but it can feel good to have more physical energy at your disposal. Uranus in Pisces wants to absorb stuff (including, unfortunately, toxins) but Uranus in Aries wants to do stuff. Pisces is a mutable sign, so Uranus in Pisces keeps changing its mind. Aries is a cardinal sign, so Uranus in Aries sets goals and marches off with a sense of purpose. It’s like a dog that’s just barely restrained by the leash. Where this dog will try to take you depends partly on your sun sign or your rising sign. (If you know your own chart, you can get a more precise understanding of where Uranus will be in your chart. Astro.com offers free charts.)

Libra and Libra rising: The conventional wisdom is that Uranus in the sign opposite one’s own is unsettling. That is what it is supposed to do sooner or later, unsettle you. It is supposed to change things up. You’ve picked someone to be in some sort of relationship to you (doesn’t have to be a mate or spouse, could be any sort of relationship) and then the person develops a new energy they didn’t have before. You respond. In the process of responding, you change. You gain the opportunity to learn how to take more effective actions than you knew how to take before, because you are facing new situations. The part people don’t like is the instability. They fight to get it back. That’s perfectly fine. It’s the process of fighting to get it back that forces you to learn more about yourself and become more of yourself. It all works out. It’s a kind of resistance training. Speaking of which, getting plenty of exercise during this transit will probably help.

Scorpio and Scorpio rising: Aries represents your job and health sector, but I’ll concentrate on the jobs aspect of it. Uranus in one’s job sector often correlates with a lot more job movement in all kinds of ways. Sometimes your own job will remain stable, but your co-workers will come and go, or there’ll be a lot of turnover at your workplace. Often you’ll switch jobs, or the workplace will become a lot more busy, or your work will involve a lot more running around. Uranus in Aries will generally set a goal of improving your work and work environment but will often engage in a lot of experimentation before settling on the right situation, and he may get all entrepreneurial, part-timey, or free-lance happy in the process. You may also have to learn a lot of new techniques to keep up with Uranus’s upgrade plans. In general, it is wise to figure out what you really want from a job and set out to get it, because Uranus is going to try to go after it anyway. You might as well be a willing and conscious participant in the process.

Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising: Uranus in Aries in the Sagittarius chart just wants to have fun. What fun means depends on you; it could mean playing soccer, playing poker, creating effective ads for upscale magazines, splashing in the pool with your kids, or partying in the Hamptons with an eligible bachelor. Its purpose is to try to make you feel free and special and happy. It won’t succeed all the time; that’s a pretty tall order. But when it does succeed, it will be a wonderful thing.

Uranus in Aries is a very dynamic energy; quite different in character from Uranus in Pisces, which wobbled along uncertainly causing various upsets. Uranus in Aries will charge ahead very certainly, causing various upsets, but bringing with it plenty of spunk and the potential for some quite effective action in your life. Uranus in Aries has so much energy and so much action potential that various other planets will get alarmed at various points during its transit of the sign and attempt to stop it. Pluto in Capricorn will throw up some mighty resistance; Saturn in Libra will beg it to stop and consider the consequences of its actions, and every other planet that enters a cardinal sign will whine and complain or shudder in horror. On the other hand, Jupiter in Aries will make its effects even bigger.

Some of this interplanetary conflict and expansion will affect you at various points; some of it will pass without a blip on your screen. But the interplanetary vibes are not our subject today. Our subject today is what Uranus in Aries can do for you when he’s in a good mood and unleashed. On his first go-round, Uranus will only rush into Aries and back out again over the course of about 11 weeks. He’ll really only settle in for an extended stay in Aries  (about 7 years is Uranus’s normal tour in a sign) as of March 2011. But the times they are already changing, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for each of the signs as the new Uranian era begins.

I’ll start with the premise that although Uranus is often thought of as a mentally oriented planet, it often has an effect (in my experience) on a person’s literal physical energy. With Uranus in Aries, your little legs may actually want to walk faster, as Aries energy urges them to hurry up, time’s a-wasting. Aries values speed and so does Uranus, so the very pace of your life may speed up. Not everyone is going to notice this immediately, and some people may not want their lives to move any faster than they already do, but it can feel good to have more physical energy at your disposal. Uranus in Pisces wants to absorb stuff (including, unfortunately, toxins) but Uranus in Aries wants to do stuff. Pisces is a mutable sign, so Uranus in Pisces keeps changing its mind. Aries is a cardinal sign, so Uranus in Aries sets goals and marches off with a sense of purpose. It’s like a dog that’s just barely restrained by the leash. Where this dog will try to take you depends partly on your sun sign or your rising sign. (If you know your own chart, you can get a more precise understanding of where Uranus will be in your chart. Astro.com offers free charts.)

Capricorn and Capricorn rising: Uranus in Aries takes aim at your home. Sometimes Uranus in the home sector means literally moving a lot during the years that it is there, moving stuff within the home, doing renovations, improvements, re-wiring, structural work, energy efficiency work and so on. The thing about Uranus is that it wants to find the right place for you, or the right situation for you and it can be maddeningly picky and discontent, easily dissatisfied, and willing to try all kinds of things that seem promising but ultimately prove not to work. Sometimes you need to convince it that you do not need a television the size of an exterior wall in order to make your home life complete. On the other hand, if you put effort into deciding what would be the perfect home for you personally (not for everyone else, for you personally, because that’s what Uranus is interested in) and set yourself a goal of getting it, Uranus will help you eventually achieve it. And that’s pretty cool.

Aquarius and Aquarius rising: Uranus in Aries is in the sector of your chart where he wants to put a lot of energy into communicating. He could potentially try to persuade you to hop all around town giving talks or performing other activities that will have you sharing your Aquarian knowledge with people in your area. Uranus is your ruling planet and he is convinced you have all kinds of Uranian information to share these days that will just set the world on fire. His goal is both to have you do more communicating and to make you a more effective communicator. Your purpose during this transit is to share your thoughts and information and to get into discussions and engage in interchange with others.

Pisces and Pisces rising: Uranus in Aries will be in the part of your solar or natal chart that deals with money and money-making activities. Hence, you can expect a lot of energy to go toward money and/or the attempt to make it. For some the attempts will center around physical or sports-related activities. For others, the efforts will center around enterprises that require a lot of initiative. The idea is to focus on whether the initiatives will be effective and whether they will offer a good return. You can also expect Uranus in Aries to prod you to set financial goals and to keep setting them until you get the money thing right.

Things have been busy around here and they are likely to get busier as the summer heats up astrologically. Eclipse season is already upon us. I’ve had several clients report eclipse events already, which is about on target as the first one of the summer season occurs in a month, on June 26 (lunar eclipse in Capricorn). If you experience a jolting surprise over the next week or so,  the eclipse may be at work. Check your monthly horoscope for a brief description for what it may entail. The second one occurs on the weekend of July 10, a solar eclipse in Cancer. The first one is more about endings, the second one more about new beginnings.

Uranus also enters Aries on the 27th of May, a hot, new beginning-y type of influence that will rev up the energy. Jupiter will follow Uranus into Aries. This is probably good for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the sense of taking pressure off the signs that deal with oceans and oil, but it may add to the busyness factor in our lives, and it will eventually lead to a cardinal sign  showdown later this summer. Things could get kind of tense.

Meanwhile, I’ll be giving another workshop on June 6 in Culver City, CA as not everyone who wanted to come to the first one could attend. Below is a brief description:

Spend a fun afternoon learning about your astrology chart and life purpose.

The workshop will:

• introduce participants to astrology and how it relates to one’s path in life.

• give attendees tools and techniques to take home and use immediately.

• tell participants how to identify their current ‘life tasks’

• help participants identify the things they should be working on right now to further soul growth

No prior knowledge of astrology needed. A free personalized chart will be offered to all participants as well as handouts explaining the symbols. By the end of the workshop, you will understand the symbols of astrology and be able to interpret your own and other people’s charts.

Attendees of the first one had a lot of fun. Warning: you may come away addicted to astrology.

For more information or to sign up, click here.

Here is a link to an article I  wrote almost 4 years ago on the 8th house and credit card debt: http://www.thirdage.com/today/horoscopes/astrology-credit-card-debt.

This article is featured in Pluto Problems Got You Perplexed? Here’s What Helps! published by Skywriter as Part of the 2010 International Astrology Day Blogathon. The purpose of this web-based event is to create a permanent library of articles about how to deal with the stresses of the Cardinal T-Square of Pluto, Saturn and Uranus. The main page for the Blogathon collections is at The Cardinal T-Square of 2010: Saturn, Uranus, Pluto.

The article is part of the ThirdAge.com website that I used to write for. Now you can read my articles on various astrological matters here at Midlife Transits.  You can also contact me for a personal consultation or find me in Culver City, California (Los Angeles area) at the Raksa Wellness Center.

Here are some links to other articles that deal with issues relating to Pluto, the cardinal T-square, or other relevant matters:

Inside the Mind of the Cardinal T-Square

Got Natal Saturn  in Libra?

Dealing with Difficult Pluto Transits

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for the signs, Aries through Virgo & Libra through Pisces

Saturn

Note: This article will form part of the International Astrology Day Blog-a-thon, March 19-21. There will be links to an entire collection of articles on Saturn on March 20 at the following URL: http://mandilockley.blogspot.com/2010/03/look-after-saturn-saturn-will-look.html. Check it out!

If you were born between late November 1950 and late October 1953 and your natal Saturn is in Libra, you are either experiencing your second Saturn return or will experience it soon. The second Saturn return is a predictable astrological phenomenon that occurs for everyone between the ages of approximately 58 to 60. It marks the time when Saturn returns to the sign it was when you were born.

One of the issues that almost inevitably comes up during the second Saturn return is aging. Saturn rules the aging process, and it is obviously pretty normal for a person approaching their 60s to think about getting older. For the generation experiencing the second Saturn return in Libra during the next couple of years (Saturn will be in Libra, with the exception of a short break in spring and summer 2010, into October 2012), the second Saturn return will be impacted by the presence of Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. Both of these other energies clash with Saturn in Libra and therefore throw issues into sharper relief.

Let’s look briefly at how Pluto and Uranus can affect, although not fundamentally change, the dynamics of the second Saturn return.

Potential dynamic #1: Uranus in Aries represents, among other things, a rush of youthful impulsive energy, the desire for heedless, even reckless change. You may feel that events in society are making you all the more aware that things are changing faster than you’d like. You may feel like, or even be accused of being, a fuddy-duddy who wants to stand in the way of change. On a more personal level, the opposition between Uranus and Saturn could make you even more aware that your body isn’t what it used to be, and maybe your outlook isn’t either.

Potential dynamic #2: Saturn is a pretty lonely planet by nature, and in Libra, the fear of aloneness can be quite acute. You might think about being lonely if you retire, about not having a spouse or companion, about losing friends to death or illness. You’re ‘supposed’ to think about these things during the second Saturn return, because Saturn, a realistic and self-reliant planet, wants you to understand your own resources and to plan for a deeper confrontation with yourself, now that typical life tasks such as raising children or building a career are essentially complete. With challenges coming at you from two important outer planets, you may even feel a bit isolated in your point of view on things, as though you have accidentally stepped out of the mainstream.

Potential dynamic #3: Confronting mortality. At the second Saturn return, you realize your actions have consequences because you will not be living forever. You need, in essence, to make the most of the time you’ve got. With Pluto in Capricorn closely squaring Saturn in Libra off and on during this cycle, you may feel that death and mortality are getting all up in your face these days.

So…how to confront these things? I have a few suggestions that should apply regardless of when your second Saturn return is. I’m not saying they will make the current times wildly fun or that they substitute for the hard work of being yourself. But at least they can give you something to think about as you face this important transition in your life.

Suggestion #1: Face the fact that you’re not going to be who you used to be and that’s a good thing. Do the Saturnian thing and prepare for your future. If fear of loneliness and isolation are creeping around the edges of your thoughts, run a movie of your future in your mind. Make it come out with a happy ending.

How wonderful could it be to be able to do what you want, instead of what everyone else wants? How wonderful could it be to be a mentor instead of an employee, part of a girls’ trip to Las Vegas instead of a doting wife, and so on. Play around with the pictures in your head. I can almost guarantee you that there are parts of your subconscious mind that are just itching to shed some elements of the identities you’ve built up. Remember, if society’s values seem to be morphing away from what’s familiar to you, that your values count too. It’s okay to speak up for your own Saturn perspective. Goodness knows, we’ll likely need it.

Suggestion #2: Learn something. Not something easy. Something hard. Something that could be of benefit in your community. Like how to be a volunteer mediator or arbitrator (great for Libra energy). How to speak Spanish if there are many in your town who do so. How to program a website. Okay, I know these kinds of things could be daunting, but there’s a big payoff. You will grow new connections between your neurons. Literally. New connections will help keep your brain healthy and your mood stable.

The key to Saturn’s heart is contributing your fair share to society (it rules the community-minded 10th house). It wants so much for you to leave some kind of a tangible contribution or legacy. Make it happy. Step up to the plate and make a contribution of a type you’ve never been able to make before. Not only will you make Saturn feel useful, you’ll soak up some of that restless Uranus in Aries energy, energy that also cares about society, learning new things, and making changes. It won’t exactly make you feel young again, but it will alter your understanding of what aging really is. Furthermore, since the clash between outer planets indicates that society is going through some fundamental shifts, any contribution you can make to the larger community helps us all by easing the transition a bit.

Suggestion #3: Confront mortality as directly as you can. Okay, this is hard for a lot of us, including me. But Saturn has every right to be curious about it, and so do you. It is only natural to want to prepare for something none of us are going to be able to escape. I’ll give an example of a woman I met who made exquisite use of the second Saturn return. She went to school to take classes in biomedical ethics. She learned how to give counseling to families who have to make end-of-life decisions for their family members. Talk about confronting an issue in a useful way. Talk about making a contribution to society. She got to satisfy the Saturnian (and Plutonian) urge to find out what death is all about and to prepare, but she also got to help other people in a very important way. And…she kept her brain, heart, and soul sharp by challenging them with a new activity. She participated in the changes in society rather than hiding from them.

You can do these things, too. Maybe in a slightly different way than I’ve suggested, but you can do them too. You just might find, as many of my clients do, that when the second Saturn return is over, you actually feel like you have a whole new lease on life.

Blogger Victoria Bazeley specializes in the astrology of midlife, the key time periods between age 38 to age 60. She has written for ThirdAge.com, started the website Practical Astrology and now blogs here at Midlife Transits. Become a Facebook fan!

Other Articles on Saturn and Saturn in Libra:

Got Natal Saturn in Libra?

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for Aries through Virgo

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for Libra through Pisces

What Changes Will Saturn in Libra Bring?

This article is featured in Look After Saturn and Saturn Will Look After You as part of the 2010 International Astrology Day Blogathon. The purpose of this web-based event is to create a permanent library of articles about how to deal with the stresses of the Cardinal T-Square of Pluto, Saturn and Uranus. The main page for the Blogathon collections is at The 2010 International Astrology Day Blog-A-Thon.

The URL for the Saturn collection is: http://mandilockley.blogspot.com/2010/03/look-after-saturn-saturn-will-look.html
The URL for the main blogathon collection is: http://2010astrologycarnival.wordpress.com/

A lot of people know that there’s an outer planet cardinal T-square coming up this summer. What that means is that Pluto will be in early degrees of Capricorn, Uranus in early Aries, and Saturn in early Libra. These energies clash with each other, creating a lot of stress. What not as many people know is that the stress from clashes between outer planets often manifests when there’s a considerable distance between the outer planets, often around 8-10 degrees from a square or opposition.

Right now, Pluto and Uranus are about 10 degrees from a square. Uranus is in late Pisces and Pluto is in early Capricorn, creating in effect what is a wide out of sign square. Saturn and Pluto are much closer to squaring each other, less than a degree apart.

Today, a man in Austin, Texas apparently deliberately flew a small plane into an office building that housed IRS workers. This link shows what was in his mind just before he did that.

You can see how his mind was banging around multiple points of conflict and couldn’t seem to find a resolution. Here are some of the planetary themes in his rant:

Laws and justice:  Saturn in Libra.

Government and taxation: Pluto in Capricorn.

Freedom: Uranus.

Greedy, powerful corporations: Pluto in Capricorn.

Healthcare, the drug companies, unions, and the American medical system: Uranus in Pisces with a little of bit Saturn in Virgo energy thrown in.

Accusations of totalitarianism: Pluto in Capricorn.

The corruption of big religious entities: Pluto in Sagittarius and Uranus in Pisces.

Grudges from the past: Pluto.

The system is based on lies: Saturn and Pluto.

The futility of trying to be independent: Uranus in Aries vs. Pluto in Capricorn.

Engineering: Uranus.

Anger over work and career issues: Pluto in Capricorn.

Time to revolt: Uranus in Aries.

Violence as an answer: Uranus in Aries.

Note that with an out of sign square, two signs are represented for each planet. In other words, if Uranus is at 24 degrees Pisces and Capricorn is at 4 degrees Capricorn, the square behaves as if it is both Uranus in Pisces and Pluto in Sagittarius, and Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

Note also that the man refers to patriotism, a concept associated with the remaining cardinal sign Cancer. Cancer is the release point of the cardinal T-square, the point at which a person can find some relief from the ’storm’ of planets in his head. In this case, the concept of patriotism didn’t offer any relief. In fact, it only seemed to make things worse.

Obviously, most people are not going to do something as terrible as fly a plane into a government building as the pressure of the outer planets mounts. But people are going to be under pressure, and some vulnerable people will feel that there is a storm in their heads. It will feel to some people like there is no way out.

It is important to remember that these squares do not last forever. It is not a good idea to reinterpret your entire past in the light of current bitter or despairing feelings.

Yes, there will be problems in our collective and in our personal lives. We do need to address them. And we can’t do that if we let the storms override our basic sanity.

If you’ve got your natal Saturn in Libra, your Saturn return is staring you in the face these days. Today I’ll talk about the social and even personal importance of your second Saturn return in this sign.

If you were born between late November 1950 and late October 1953—you picked a heck of a time to have your second Saturn return. The second Saturn return is a much commented upon astrological phenomenon that occurs for everyone around the ages of 58 to 60. It signifies the time when Saturn returns to the sign it was when you were born.

Saturn’s been in Libra since November 2009, and it will stay there (except for a brief retreat into Virgo during spring and early summer 2010) into October 2012. So why is this a heck of a time for a second Saturn return? Because during most of Saturn’s current stay in Libra, Pluto will be in Capricorn and Uranus will be in Aries. Uranus opposes Saturn during this time and Pluto squares it. In blunt astrological terms, this means we are looking at a time period when three important planets are fighting each other tooth and nail.

What does this mean to you? Let’s look first at a really simple idea of what the second Saturn return can mean. The first time in your life that Saturn returned to Libra, you were close to 30 years old and you were asked to realize that you’re not going to die anytime soon and that what you do has consequences because it affects your future. You were supposed to grow up in a certain sense.

At the second Saturn return, you are asked to realize that you’re not going to live forever and that what you do has consequences because you only have a certain amount of time left to do what you came to do. You need to secure your legacy, fulfill your responsibilities as a member of the human community, and grow up into a hopefully wise elder.

Piece of cake, right? Of course not. The second Saturn return can be difficult because lots of people are not all that anxious to face mortality, don the mantle of wise elder, and accept their responsibilities to the rest of humanity.

One of the main issues during the second Saturn return is often challenges from the outside world to your particular Saturn style. No matter what sign your Saturn is in, part of the task of the second Saturn return is to use your innate Saturn gifts wisely, the ones that come with your Saturn sign. For your generation, society as a whole is scheduled to very overtly challenge your particular Saturn in Libra gift—and you need to stick up for that gift and do your part to help us all get through this rather momentous time of astrological transition.

For example, Libra is the sign of indecisiveness because its mission is to think through every decision with excruciatingly precise thoroughness, balance all factors, take into account all options, contemplate all ramifications and generally take forever to come up with the best possible decision. Saturn in Libra natally works real hard at this task, practicing it and practicing it until you think you are going to go crazy. It practices it until it gets good at it, better than all those other placements that breeze through to decisions without a second thought.

During your second Saturn return, people under the influence of Uranus in Aries are going to be manifesting the opposite approach. They’re going to be bursting with youthful impulsive energy, disinclined to think anything through, overly enamored with new technology while casting nary a glance at the potential implications, and they’ll be in a big hurry. They will look at you as hopelessly old-fashioned, excessively cautious, and as a stick in the mud.

Too bad for them. At your second Saturn return, it becomes your responsibility to stick up for the virtues of making considered, precise decisions, and worrying about the future impact of today’s rashness on tomorrow’s society. Saturn wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to thrust himself into the big planetary debate of these few years if he didn’t know that sometimes you’ve got to slow the pace of change the heck down and think about what you’re doing. For the next few years, your Saturn contribution is important.

Libra is also extremely concerned with fairness. Saturn in Libra worries about justice, the rule of law, negotiating through disputes, mediating conflicts, and generally using codified procedures to keep people from indulging their instincts to blow each other up and commit acts of violence. Pluto in Capricorn meanwhile, is going to be urging people to use sheer force and power to impose their wills, under the guise of necessity. Pluto in Capricorn will try to convince everyone that we don’t need the rule of law, fairness, and due concern with true justice because our collective security is in danger.

Tough. Your job as a member of the Saturn in Libra generation is to hold out for justice, law, and fairness anyway. To play up the importance of negotiation, procedure, and deliberation even when people want to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, shouting for vengeance, and making earnest mob-like efforts to manifest their baser instincts.

That’s a big important job you have there Mr. or Ms. Second-Saturn-Return-in-Libra. Now I’m not going to tell you that world leaders are going to phone you up and ask for your advice during troubled times. I’m not even implying that you need to be especially politically active. Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn will find you even if you’re hiding in a peaceful stone cottage in Vermont. You will feel the unrest in the skies no matter where you go.

Maybe it will be your spouse who goes off the Uranian deep end or the corporation where you work that will trot out spectacular displays of Plutonian injustice. Maybe your investments will go south when you don’t want them to and you’ll need to keep your head, even as your children have decided that now is a good time to suck you financially dry by laying guilt trips on you.

Or maybe nothing all that dramatic in your life will happen at all. Maybe the Uranus and Pluto influences will be subtle.

It doesn’t matter. Your chart has been waiting all your life to call upon the very Saturn in Libra qualities it has worked so hard to develop. If you’ve lost touch with your Saturn in Libra gifts, you will get back in touch with them now and learn to use them.

And that’s important. It’s part of your legacy. No matter what happens, this is your moment, your crowning moment perhaps, to display the integrity and values you’ve always had inside.

Go for it.

Take a look at this announcement from Donna Cunningham’s blog, SkyWriter. The blog-a-thon in March will focus on practical solutions to the personal problems associated with the cardinal T-square we’re all staring at in 2010. (The cardinal T-square consists of Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto all in early degrees of cardinal signs getting into something of a massive planetary fistfight, with Jupiter jumping up and down near Uranus to add to the hubbub.)

Donna is one of the best astrology writers out there. Her book Healing Pluto Problems is still a classic, and I know some of her writing on transits has inspired me. I’m sure the blog-a-thon will provide a lot of useful information,  and Donna’s taste in articles is impeccable.

I believe Barack Obama’s campaign slogan was ‘Change You Can Believe In.’ As the recent election of a GOP senator from blue state Massachusetts proves, it hasn’t quite worked out that way. It never does for presidents, at least not in my lifetime. Reality intrudes.

In Obama’s case, the belief in change may have been real enough, but the astrological universe was not on the same page. In fact, it has been downright opposed to many of Obama’s efforts. Literally.

Pluto opposed his natal Venus until near the end of November. That’s not good for one’s popularity, and his poll numbers may not recover from the effects of that for quite some time, especially with Saturn now squaring that same Venus.

Uranus has been opposing Obama’s natal Mars in Virgo (the Mars that wants health care reform, the Mars that has made that a signature issue), and it just stopped doing that at the end of December 2009. So much for rapidly getting consensus on that issue.

Even worse, Neptune has been opposing Obama’s natal Uranus since March 2009. It won’t stop doing that until after mid-term elections in 2010. November 2010.

Uranus is the change part of the equation. Obama’s personal change equation is somewhat hampered by the fact that there’s an inconjunct (150 degree angle) between his natal Uranus and his natal Saturn in Capricorn. He may present himself as a change agent, but in his soul he’s quite conservative and cautious. Liberals are finally figuring this out, although if they’d been paying attention they could have figured it out during his campaign.

Neptune meanwhile is the universe’s gigantic ‘pause’ button. When Neptune opposes you, there ain’t much you can do. Nothing’s going to happen until Neptune is good and ready for it.

The frustrating thing about a Neptune opposition is that you are ready, or at least you feel ready, to express whatever planet is being opposed. But the universe isn’t. You have to wait for the universe to catch up. You have to wait for the time to be right.

In many cases, a transit from an outer planet indicates that the universe thinks you’re ready to grow when you think you’re ready to stay right where you are. The opposite is the case in a Neptune opposition, at least much of the time. You are ready to grow, but the world you live in isn’t quite ready for you to reach the next stage. Something external has to move into place before you can make your next move.

Thus we get change you have to wait a long time for. Neptune is associated with hope. And hope is the response humans often have when they have to wait for external conditions to change before they can get what they want. Something has to occur that is outside of their control.

For the moment, whatever Obama may have meant when he talked about change, the US or perhaps the world is just not ready for it yet. Change comes much more slowly and in a much more confusing, chaotic, and messy manner than anyone’s natal Uranus would really prefer.

The various people who voted for change they could believe in are probably not liking this one bit. The change they wanted hasn’t come, or somehow or another it seems to have gotten all messed up. It’s going to stay all messed up or nonexistent for virtually all of 2010. People are going to be disappointed with Obama. Obama may be disappointed with Obama, although I doubt his huge ambition will fade much.

The truth is, various planets will be attacking his Venus until 2012, and Neptune will be making him wait for one thing or another for the rest of his term. Some good things will happen in his chart and the truly vicious oppositions of 2009 have faded. But the waiting will continue…