Midlife Transits

This month the sun, Mercury, and Neptune move into solar 6th house of work and health. Venus and Chiron are already there, and a new moon will take place in this sector on the 21st. That’s a lot of emphasis on work and/or health. Put bluntly, your work (or health concerns if that’s your primary focus) will have a tendency to creep through your life like a spreading fog until it takes up all the space in your life. Do a reality check if this starts happening to determine whether work creep is really necessary. (more…)

Happy New Year, Libra. January puts a big fat spotlight on your solar 5th house, represented by the sign Aquarius. The 5th house is associated with children of all types, including so-called children of the mind, via creative projects and artistic endeavors. This 5th house energy tumbles in on top of last month’s home and family energy, not quite crowding it out, but overlaying the general domestic air that traditionally marks the Libra holiday season and new year. Blending the two, we get things like children in the house, creative projects around the house, and any other kind of connection you can think of between children and the home.

Things look especially lively during the first week of January, when Mercury is still in Sagittarius, your sign of comings and goings, people dropping by, and so on. (more…)

I’ve probably said this before but it bears repeating. Your solar chart has a greater than typical need for the comfort of physical touch this year. Jupiter in Taurus practically demands it, especially right around Christmas this year. The standard outlet for this need is sex, but other things like massage therapy, a spa facial, even cuddling up with your cat can help fill Jupiter’s need for physical contact. (more…)

There are a number of things going on astrologically in November, but I’ll start with the subjects of intimacy and love and affection and tall that good stuff. For months now, Jupiter has been in your solar 8th house of intimacy. Jupiter here longs to be in some sort of an intimate relationship. He likes closeness and familiarity. (more…)

Which is better? Inner peace or an outwardly secure situation? Inner peace, of course. But sometimes a little security in your external situation doesn’t hurt either.

In its own way, October of this year can be thought of as Libra security month. Where does security come from for Libra? Often from relationships. This year, October emphasizes the sexual aspect of relationships, with Jupiter in your 8th house of sex and inner planets massing in the sexy sign of Scorpio.

So intimacy is one source of security. The new moon in Scorpio this year is on October 26 and can represent a time of new beginnings in that area for you if you set an intention around that time. If your sex life is not at the top of your priority list, this new moon is also your security-focused new moon in general, a time when you can think about what you need to do to reduce any feelings of vulnerability.

Of course, relationships need not be sexual for you to find security within them; the important thing is closeness. This month, the weekend of the 7th can find relationships intoxicatingly romantic, while the Halloween holiday can see them become quite confusing. The full moon on the 11th also highlights your relationships, perhaps bringing an issue to closure.

Even if you aren’t in a romantic relationship, the time when the sun is in your sign (until the 23rd this year), is always a good time for you to be with other people and replenish your reserves of good feeling and fellowship. Party it up! Going out with friends is especially highlighted during your birthday month this year, because Mars is in your friendship sign of Leo.

Another source of security of course comes from a healthy financial situation. This month, Venus urges you to go inward to examine your own such situation from the 9th on. Mercury in Scorpio from the 13th on urges you to think about how you can preserve what you have.

Structure is another source of security. Saturn in your sign is trying to give you a chance to set up a structure in your life, a set of routines to make your life easier. This includes simple things such a hair and makeup routine, a good set of clothing that lasts and doesn’t require a lot of care. Get the little stuff running on autopilot, so you have energy to burn on the big stuff that your chart wants to tackle.

As for your year ahead, you’ll see why I put an emphasis on shoring up your sense of security this month. Because the next 12 months are not scheduled to be astrologically secure or astrologically peaceful. Pluto and Uranus clash and crash, making a ton of noise in the heavens. The ancient gods are fighting it out over humanity. People born around the 1st and 2nd of October bear the brunt of the fallout from this cosmic battle of wills.

Whatever your birthday, Pluto’s ensconced at the bottom of your solar chart, restructuring family relationships and your home life. Uranus is parked in your relationship sector and will get back to lobbing surprises at you come December, when he goes direct again. Saturn continues in your sign for the next 12 months, concentrating his re-structuring energies on folks born during the last third of the sign.

Mars goes retrograde, which it does periodically, and will spend an inordinate amount of time in Virgo. This is not especially fatal for your sign, but it’s not good for inner peace either. From November to July, Mars will move back and forth in Virgo in your solar 12th house, doing his best to stir up a vague or not so vague sense of unease. In other words, planetary disturbances abound during the next 12 months.

Why all the hubbub for poor Libra, who only wants tranquility and harmony? Ah well, the planets occasionally get it into their heads that boredom and stagnation are death, and they’re trying to take particular care to see that you’re not bored and that your life does not get stagnant. This is a good thing in the long run because you end up going so much further than your modest sign would otherwise aspire to. In the meantime, secure your foundations and stock up on provisions. Get as organized as you can and then see where the shifting cosmic winds take you.

Security-seeking continues to be a theme in September in the overall skies, as planets in both Cancer and Taurus are highlighted. What that means to you is that the first half of September is a lot like August was. Venus in Virgo in particular urges you to look within for a sense of calmness and serenity. On the 14th, the first of the inner planets moves into your sign, Venus in this case, hopefully bringing with her a soft landing to your annual period of pre-birthday contemplation.

In the meantime, we have an interesting planetary line-up that seemingly relates to your career. You’ve got Mars at the top of your chart urging you to go balls out in pursuit of whatever it is your career requires you to pursue, but Jupiter and Venus and the sun indicate that you are to do so while relying on behind the scenes support from others. Even though Mars is an independent planet by nature, the overall configuration is more Libra-like, with its ‘no man is an island’ aspects. You seem to feel safer being a part of a greater whole.

What’s interesting is that it’s as though you are briefly to be the unlikely aggressive face of what is actually a team of people with a common goal. The full moon in your job sector on the 12th also seemingly indicates that whatever your team is looking for or trying to accomplish reaches some sort of resolution around that time.

Speaking of the moon, make a note that your own birthday wish new moon is early this year, falling on the 27th of September. Along similar lines, Mercury opens the month in your sector of hopes and wishes. This gives you an opportunity, should you choose to accept it, to write down what you wish for. If you choose to leave the list where someone can stumble upon it before they do their birthday shopping for you, well nothing wrong with that, is there?

By the 25th of September, the sun, Mercury and Venus have all moved into your sign. This is the time to do those annual health things that we are all supposed to do once a year, such as get a checkup. It’s also time to set your major goals and strategies for the year. If you know enough astrology to consult your solar return chart (birthday chart, essentially), that can help you set goals. Or you can ask an astrologer to help you interpret yours. Getting an annual reading is sort of like getting an annual check-up, but for your life direction rather than your physical health. Mars moving into your goal-setting sector on the 18th can also help you clarify your goals this year and will probably prompt you to aim high.

Saturn in your own sign is still urging you to be frugal; it will be doing this for a long time, so hopefully you are adjusting to its cautious vibe. Finally, Uranus and Pluto are still taking aim at September-born Libras, creating a complex configuration known as a T-square with your sun. Your job for the moment is to simplify, simplify, simplify your life so that you are lean and mean and in shape to deal with whatever outward circumstances may arise.

There’s an old saying: silence is golden. Adopt this as your temporary motto. When in doubt in August, say less. Listen more. Even better, get your Libra self into nature and listen to the soothing sounds of no people. This exercise will probably make you feel quite good.

The truth is, the sign of Libra has been subjected to all kinds of trauma over the past couple of years. You’ve been brave. You’ve been effective. You’ve grown and evolved. You’re sick of it.

Your saving grace for the moment is Jupiter in soothing Taurus, another sign ruled like yours by peaceful Venus. Taurus knows the value of just not doing anything for awhile and Jupiter would like you to sneak in a few moments of that here and there where you can. Jupiter is the healing planet and he is literally in your solar house of trauma. Ergo, time to heal from any traumas or pathologies you’ve had to deal with.

The second prescription is to balance that hiding out by your lonesome with some quality socializing time. Venus and the sun in Leo in your party-loving 11th house make friends supportive and refreshing through the 20th of the month. Mercury will also retrograde in this sector of your chart until the 26th. This will seemingly have you spending more time than normal coordinating get-togethers. Some astrologers (a lot, actually) say that coordinating such things will be more difficult than normal, although quite frankly I don’t see that happening in real life.

After the 20th, Venus and then the sun move into your 12th house of the soul, an influence that meshes quite well with Jupiter in Taurus vibe I mentioned earlier. Planets in Virgo mark the annual pre-birthday period when your chart wants to engage in soul-searching. Peaceful, quiet contemplative soul-searching this year, not raggedly self-critical soul-searching. Keep that in mind.

Okay, now that we’ve gone over the soothing energies, let’s tackle the more active ones. Your career is supposed to be heating up this month and your mantra is scheduled to be something along the lines of ‘my actions are effective in accomplishing my purpose.’ You need this mantra because Mars in your career house will be in conflict mode with most of the outer planets. Excessive ambition is not your friend for the moment. All you need to do is accomplish your specific purpose of the moment and let the rest go.

Furthermore, Mars in your career sector also clashes with Uranus in Aries in your relationship sector. Dealing with the brief clash may require a certain amount of bravery on your part. Hence, the motto above. Stick to your purpose and forgo any temptations toward getting sucked into drama or bullied into backing down. The days when the aspects are closest fall between the 9th and the 11th of the month. Face the potential headaches, deal and move on. You can process it all later if you’d like (like around the new moon on the 28th of the month).

The learning is scheduled to continue in the area of relationships for Libra in July. Uranus in Aries, in your relationship house, stations and turns retrograde this month on the 9th. A fair amount of the time when an outer planet turns retrograde something shifts. The shift will particularly affect Libras with the sun at 4 degrees (born around the 27th of September).

This transit is meant to be useful. It’s supposed to teach you something about connection, about equality, about not being able to control everything and not needing to. The bit about not needing to can be a rough lesson sometimes or a mind-blowing one. It rarely occurs to the sign of Libra that relationships do not depend on their ability to control them.

It doesn’t seem plausible to the sign that the beloved others would be able to survive the ups and downs of life without Libra’s gentle, manipulative, behind the scenes plotting, planning, and soothing. The sign of Libra is typically especially apprehensive about the effect of words on people it cares about, thus the famous Libra tact. And yet, sometimes people just say things, without regard for the consequences. Not necessarily out of malice, but because being tactful is hard work and not everyone has the patience for it.

The betting odds are that you will have to deal with this fact of life somehow or another in July. You maybe dealing with radioactive fallout from someone’s shocking announcement, but you may also be learning that the dangers posed by shocking announcements are not as life-threatening as you supposed. I realize this may be scary. Saturn is in your sign and it is his job to make you scared.

Or at least to try to. But the one thing you do have control over is how scared you allow Saturn to make you feel. Or how scared you make yourself feel by dwelling on your fears. So your task in July is really to figure out how scared or brave you want to be and stick to your decision by not letting the fear get out of control. Some of the drastic effects you imagine Uranus bringing may well be imaginary.

With Mars in Gemini in the part of your solar chart that deals with looking at the future, one potential antidote to fear or anxiety might be might be making definite action plans with whoever you are in a ‘we’ situation with. Libra likes contingency thinking, so things like “we’ll do this if that happens, and we’ll do that if this other thing happens” and so on could represent good strategies. This sector of your chart also represents study, so alternatively, it may be a good month for you to really sit down and systematically study something in a field that is relevant to your life.

There’s also a solar eclipse in Cancer this month, on the 1st, that might affect your career path. It is supposed to represent a new start, a fresh chapter in your professional life. If it affects you, you should feel it soon before or after the eclipse date or approximately a month later. Some may have experienced its effects a month earlier.

Toward the end of the month, things get a bit brighter as both the sun and Venus are in Leo (Mercury is there earlier). You can use the energy of your ruler Venus in Leo as of the 28th to enjoy yourself with friends and de-stress.

June is eclipse month, Libra, and things can get a little wacky during eclipse month. The first eclipse is a solar eclipse in Gemini on the 1st. The second is a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius on the 15th. Jupiter also moves into Taurus this month.

So…let’s start with Jupiter. Jupiter has been in your solar house of relationships, and the planet Uranus is still there. Among other things, Uranus is the planet of groups of people, so it may be affecting your relationships with groups or perhaps introducing new groups into your life. Jupiter moves into your solar 8th house, where there is still a focus on relationships, but more specifically intimate relationships where two people unite for a common purpose or form a couple. A keyword might be ‘we.’ Mars is also in this sector until the 20th, making your intimate relationships and joint ventures of any sort the first priority of the month.

Uranus is still strong, by the way, this month especially so for people born around the 26th of September, for Uranus is opposing the suns of September born Libras this year. Even if you weren’t born in September, you may feel its effects as its apparent motion slows in June. Uranus is the planet of sometimes-ness. It affects relationships and couples by making things sometimes great, sometimes not so great. Part of the trick of learning how to handle Uranus here is figuring out what to do with the normal sensation of sometimes wanting to be with a person and sometimes wanting to get away from them. Jupiter moving into Taurus helps this process because it adds a dose of stability to the relationship equation.

While we’re on the subject of your relationships, I should mention that Saturn is stationing in your own sign this month, too. It is mostly strongly affecting those born during the first few days of October, but all Libras will probably feel some effects. Saturn is trying to force you to be aware–to just see what is going on in your relationships without reacting wildly. He just wants you to observe how you behave so that you can gain some control and choice over that behavior. Observing can be a trial of patience, but it is also ultimately quite liberating. This pause to observe started in May and lasts all month, and even creeps into July. Make good use of it.

Now for those eclipses. Eclipses change things. The eclipse in Gemini on the 1st goes along with what I said about learning to observe, for Gemini is an observant sign. If the eclipse affects you it will most likely change what you see and perhaps how you communicate. It’s an enlightenment or learning eclipse. The lunar eclipse on the 15th is likely to be a bit more irrational because lunar eclipses are supposed to be that way. It will probably not affect your life dramatically, but it may make you briefly crazed, absentminded or feeling that you need to run around like a lunatic. It falls into the sector of your chart most associated with the busy tasks of daily life and may throw them temporarily into a disarray.

Are you in love? The planets would like you to be. Hot Aries energy is still clustered in your sector of relationships, and when Aries loves it likes to be in love. If you’re not in love, use the energy, which lasts until the 15th to become so.

Follow your instincts. Mercury and Venus are hovering close together throughout the first half of the month and their enthusiasm can help guide you. Mars and Jupiter are on board during this time frame too, and they’d like you to connect on an equal basis with someone. This is right up your alley, so go for it.

The prime period for making a move, and yes, you should be the one to make the first move, is during the period between the 9th and the 16th. The 11th is a super-hot day, when Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus cluster together in Aries. If you’re already in a committed relationship, it’s a day for warm fuzzies. The watchword for this whole week is ‘more’!

The 30th of April and the 1st of May are also hot days, when Mars and Jupiter meet up. The thing is, you may not be conscious of the magnetism your chart is exuding these days, so try to be aware and awake and communicate some of the enthusiasm your chart is feeling this spring. I should point out that Jupiter has been in the relationship area of your chart since January, and that this is his last month in this part of your chart, so the vibes don’t last forever. Next month, Jupiter will be in the sign of Taurus, which focuses more on things than love per se.

Speaking of Taurus, there’s plenty of energy in that sign too this month. The new moon in Taurus takes place on the 3rd. Mars moves into Taurus on the 11th. And the sun, Mercury and Venus all transit through this sign in May as well. Mars is the action planet, so during the second half of the month, Mars will want you to take action regarding the things you have. This may mean cleaning them out and disposing of items that are no longer useful.

In contrast to all this bursting spring activity in certain parts of your chart, Neptune has moved into your work sector and is attempting to doze on the job. Alternatively, it may be encouraging psychosomatic complaints. Maybe you need to cut yourself a break and focus on fun things for a while.

When it comes to love, things are intense for Libra right now. A whole mess of Aries (your relationship sign) energy is stacked up in the skies throughout April, beaming itself right at you. You can use this energy or let it use you. If you’re going to use it, you can start right on the 3rd, which is the date of a new moon, a conjunction between Mars and Uranus, and oppositions between Saturn and both the sun and moon.

The essence of this potentially tense energy is singleness versus coupleness. Some Libras were born accidentally thinking that singleness is against the laws of the universe. It isn’t. That’s the paradox of Aries energy in your chart; it knows that people in couples are really still just individuals, still immutably, eternally single. That doesn’t mean that some couples aren’t destined to be together; it’s just that even when they are, they’re still separate.

If all that makes sense to you, then you’ll have no problem with the month’s energy, which is partly about moving you to a point of equilibrium when it comes to relationships. When you can take ‘em or leave ‘em, you’re at a point of equilibrium with regard to relationships. Being able to leave them doesn’t mean you won’t have any relationships or a primary relationship. In fact, with Jupiter in Aries until June, you will probably have a relationship if you want one. With Uranus in your relationship sector for the next seven years, you’re likely to have rather extreme relationships during the coming period of your life. The idea instead is to come to terms with the paradoxes of relationships rather than abandoning them altogether.

Meanwhile, Neptune slides into your work and health sector. Neptune will be bringing a magic touch of uncertainty to this part of your life, but really, that’s nothing new. Your work and health sectors have had uncertainty built into them when Uranus was here for the last 7 years. It’s all about going with the flow.

In March, things are arranged so that seemingly there’s you–and then there’s everyone else. Saturn’s in your own sign–that’s you. Meanwhile, planets are moving from Pisces and your work sector to Aries and  your 7th house of–everyone else. The planets that will be in Aries this month include Jupiter (already there), Mercury (moving in on the 9th), Uranus (moving in on the 11th) and the sun.

Mercury in the 7th could mean dealings with relatives and neighbors. Uranus in the 7th could mean dealings with groups and with friends. Jupiter in the 7th could mean dealing with teachers or religious figures. Sun in the 7th could mean dealings with significant others, parents, and authority figures. That’s a lot of dealings.

Meanwhile, Saturn in your own sign doesn’t want to deal with any of them, whoever them might turn out to be. In particular, Saturn will turn a stony face toward Mercury and Jupiter this month. Uranus will stay out of the fray, but Uranus is always a contrary planet anyway. Put bluntly, you will need your patience all month long.

Communication will also be key, and you’ll need to use your ‘I’ statements to hold your ground rather than getting into analytical ‘you’ statements about others. For the moment, your responsibility is to yourself to be yourself rather than trying to figure out all those other people. This is especially true around the 28th when a clash between the sun and Pluto indicates that those other people may get into conflicts with each other.

It may sound a bit alarming, but the truth is that nothing dire is on the horizon and you’ll do just fine if you restrain yourself from getting overly involved in other people’s issues.

The conventional astrological wisdom is that Libra lives for relationships. The less conventional wisdom is that Libra is obsessed with relationships because they scare the sign. It sees them as so important that they seem fraught with danger, and the sign therefore worries and manages and is excessively tactful and generally ties itself up in knots trying to make them go the way it thinks they should. The universe is currently embarking on a long project of teaching Libra that relationships are inherently weird and uncontrollable and that maybe, in the long run, that’s okay.

Jupiter is currently traversing your relationship sign (Aries), easing the way into this alarming lesson by spreading the gospel of optimism and carefree attitudes when it comes to your relationships.  What makes the Libra situation more complicated is that just as Jupiter is preaching courage and freedom from needless worry, Saturn in your own sign is preaching cautious fear and extra worry, just in case. This conflict reaches a head at the end of next month, when the two planets directly oppose each other.

This month, Mars in Aquarius leaps in to the rescue. It’s in your love life sign and also the sign that governs your relationships with children. Through the 21st, Mars in Aquarius mediates between optimism and worry by preaching objectivity. Objectivity. Whatever happens in your relationships this month, Mars is sure it can be handled by a grounding dose of just looking at and analyzing the facts and proceeding from there. He’s probably right.

After the 21st, Mars moves into Pisces, following the sun and Mercury. The implication here is that you can effectively use bold words on the job to get things done if you don’t hold back on expressing what you’re observing and thinking about situations at work.

Happy New Year, Libra! A new moon solar eclipse starts the year of with a bit of a jolt. The eclipse is in Capricorn on the 4th and relates to your roots, family, home, and all that domestic stuff. Eclipses in Capricorn can be alarming, no doubt about it. And the 4th is one astrologically energetic day, but generally new moon eclipses are less to be feared than to be welcomed. Some sort of surprise is in order, but all should hopefully work out in the end.

I should note that although this represents the last eclipse to deal with your home sector, the universe is not done with this part of your life. In addition to the sun in your 4th house this month (which always occurs in January), Mercury, Mars and Pluto are here too. Mercury and Mars can be useful here, especially for things like cleaning up, getting rid of old objects, replacing broken stuff and doing repairs. Pluto here increases the intensity. As in a super-extreme winter clean out, major repairs and even remodeling.

The month’s full moon is in Cancer in your career sector on the 19th. This is another step in the universe’s ongoing plan to make adjustments in this area of your life. The final big step occurs July 1, 2011 when the last eclipse in this sign takes place. See what happens at this full moon to get clues as to the future direction of the universe’s plans.

I kind of wish I could tell you that in 2011 all you’ll need to worry about is your career and domestic situation. But actually…there’s more. Throughout the year, major planets will compete for your attention regarding self-development and personal appearance and health and your job and your relationships and probably even money. It’s as though the planets think you need more of everything. If you want more of everything, this is a good development, I suppose. If handling trying to get more of everything seems a bit overwhelming, you’re going to learn to need to prioritize and tell some of the impatient planets that you can’t do everything at once. They probably won’t believe you, but for the sake of your sanity you’ll need to negotiate the world’s various demands. You can do that!