Midlife Transits

Someone asked me the other day about transits being more powerful when the transiting planet is stationing, why this seemed to be so. I don’t have the answer to that question, but I think it often has to do with the fact that a stationing planet seems to move so slowly that it has plenty of time to deliver a blast of energy.

But if you don’t care about the jargon and just want to know what happens when a transiting planet stations in angle to one of your personal planets–take a look at Tiger Woods’s life these days.

In his case, Uranus in Pisces is squaring his Sagittarius moon. Uranus is the planet of ‘hey, let’s unexpectedly disrupt everything!’ and a Sagittarius moon tends to think to itself: ‘I’m really not sure I can be satisfied with just one person.’ When Uranus wants to disrupt a Sagittarius moon, outing it would be as good a way to do that as any.

Dropping the wife bomb on a philandering husband would probably be enough for a Uranus square that didn’t have much time to get juice in its grid. But Uranus stationed at the degrees of Tiger Woods’s moon (22 degrees) and is spending not quite 8 weeks there. That’s plenty of time to get juice in the system.

Tiger’s public troubles started when Uranus had only a few weeks at 22 degrees under its belt. It didn’t actually station until the beginning of December (right around the time when everyone figured out what was going on). It’s got another few weeks before it even gets to 23 degrees. The flaming spears of devil Uranus still have some heat on them.

The turning point has already come, though. Right around the time Uranus’s apparent motion stopped and then switched direction from retrograde to forward. The entire (very energetic) transit, which stretches back to 2008, will be over relatively soon. But the public’s perception of him has probably been forever altered. It’s not actually scheduled to stop getting altered until February 2010. For ol’ Tiger is not just facing Uranus’s wrath in square to his moon, but also in square to his Midheaven (reputation). The financial ramifications could stretch well beyond that, as Neptune is getting into the act and will square his Scorpio Venus in 2010. When it rains, it pours.

Supposedly, there’s a point to all this, at least from the point of view of Tiger’s chart. The point would theoretically be something like this:

Uranus in Pisces to Sagittarius Moon: Dude, grow up. Seriously. You’re playing around like an adolescent while people are making sacrifices for you. Namely, the person you are married to. Get a clue.

Moon in Sagittarius: I don’t want to grow up. You only get old once, but you can be immature and heedless forever!

Uranus in Pisces: The mother of your children is being betrayed here. You are warned.

Moon in Sagittarius: I don’t listen to warnings. That’s my nature! I’m Sagittarian. I have lots of good qualities and carelessness of danger is one of them.

Uranus in Pisces: ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

Moon in Sagittarius: What just happened? One minute I was having Thanksgiving dinner, the next minute I was lying in street and featured prominently in the tabloids.

Uranus in Pisces: Perhaps you’d like to reconsider whether it is time for you to grow up a bit?

If Tiger is smart, his moon will grow up a bit. That’s what transits do for us. They update our birth chart placements. What was fine and dandy for a young man or a teenager perhaps, is not so fine and dandy for someone with two kids and the net worth of  a small country to worry about. When Uranus comes around to update your birth placements by square or opposition, let’s hope you get the message before he destroys your car.

One final note: the supposed astrological marker for an athlete is Mars in the 9th house near the Midheaven. Sure enough, Tiger’s got it.

I’ll admit that I really haven’t known much about Glenn Beck. About 6 months ago, I was searching for something on Google and stumbled across what must have been his website. I thought I saw a factual error and fired off an email, not realizing he was a popular broadcaster. I found out later when he started getting a lot of media coverage by Time magazine and so on.

I started seeing snippets on TV of controversial statements he made & saw other coverage, but didn’t investigate too much. I’ve seen his latest book, too. The cover makes me vaguely uncomfortable because the uniform on it reminds me of Nazi brownshirts. Every time I see it out of the corner of my eye, I think “Why are Nazis being prominently featured in America’s fine retail establishments?”

Then today I saw a quote from what Mr. Beck is billing as The Plan. Here’s the quote:

“I have begun meeting with some of the best minds in the country that believe in limited government, maximum freedom and the values of our Founders. I am developing a 100 year plan. I know that the bipartisan corruption in Washington that has brought us to this brink and it will not be defeated easily. It will require unconventional thinking and a radical plan to restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting, using only the battlefield of ideas.

- All of the above will culminate in The Plan, a book that will provide specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps that each of us can take to play a role in this Refounding.”

And I thought–is he an Aquarian? Turns out, he is. February 10, 1964. The clue is this: “unconventional thinking and a radical plan to restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting, using only the battlefield of ideas.” You can’t get more Aquarian than unconventional thinking, radical plans, maximum freedoms, and the battlefield of ideas. The sign of Aquarius eats that stuff up.

Turns out he’s practically the astrological twin of another popular pillar of post-Bush conservatism, Sarah Palin. They’ve both got Mars conjunct sun, at least three planets in Aquarius, and natal Neptune squaring the Sun, Mars, Saturn triple conjunction.

Aquarius is billed as a ‘progressive’ sign, but the Aquarian interpretation of progressive is rather idiosyncratic. Lincoln was an Aquarius; FDR was one, and Reagan was one. Quite different approaches to government. The highest-ranking Aquarian politician of late has been Dick Cheney, and he’s not high on the progressive’s most admired list.

So, a few words about the Aquarian approach (although Cheney is something of an outlier in the Aquarian pantheon). It tends to be populist and popular, bold, divisive, stubborn, and counter-intuitive. Aquarius has a bit of a superiority complex, and with it an often successful habit of playing dumb. They play the ‘just folks’ card quite often; perhaps it is true, perhaps not.They tend to be good communicators, although in an unconventional way.

Beck and Palin are Aquarians that share a feisty thirst for combat, due to the Mars conjuction. Both are hemmed in by a strict and conservative Saturn. Both, due to Neptune transits, have been perhaps a bit insane of late, quite lucratively so in both cases.

Both have had a nice long bout of Jupiter in their sign this year (economic success) squaring Neptune in Scorpio (conspiracy theories and irrational fears). Both perhaps have a tendency to delude themselves (Neptune square sun in the birth chart, also shared by our current President) as well as considerable charisma. Both also have Jupiter in Aries, which contributes to a philosophy of self-reliance and aggression.

Neptune has been melting the Sun, Mars and Saturn placements of Beck and Palin over the past couple of years. In combination with Jupiter in Aquarius this year, there’s been perhaps a bit of grandiosity and over-estimation of self, although it probably seems quite justified to both of them given their rapid rises to center stage. Until Neptune leaves their Aquarius conjunctions, both will likely have a somewhat distorted view of the world and themselves, perhaps coupled with strong idealism.

The thing that’s interesting to me about Beck is how overtly Aquarian he is in his idea for The Plan. Although Beck is seemingly a free-market type (bills himself as a libertarian), Aquarius is actually the sign of the collective, of socialism and communism, of an ideal of rational planning combined with The Support Of The Masses. Only an Aquarian would have the chutzpah to come up with a 100 year plan.

Most people are lucky if they can keep their plans on track for a week, let alone 100 years. Only an Aquarius would even think it’s a good idea to come up with such a plan on the belief that things wouldn’t change so much in a hundred years that all your former assumptions wouldn’t be outdated. Aquarius can be a very fixed sign, unwilling to admit the possibility that it would have to change. Even though individual Aquarians, like Beck and Palin and even Reagan, FDR and Lincoln, can change key details of their strategies in the blink of an eye.

A 100 year plan is the kind of idea that a socialist or old-style Marxist would eat right up. The masses will shake off the shackles of tyranny vested in The Powers That Be. They will not be held down by the economic elites but will take their rightful place through enlightenment and collective action. And an Aquarian will tell them how to do it–according to the Master Plan. Everything will be reformed and renewed and we’ll just all start over with a fresh slate and the errors of the past will gradually wither away. Everyone will be free once the nasty current structures are abolished.

In some ways, it’s a powerful and touching vision. It never works, though. Neptune, with its promise of Nirvana once restrictions are melted away, is a notorious liar. Things don’t go according to plan; the masses are fickle and contrary, and most of them are actually much more interested in the nuts and bolts of a semi-decent life than the battlefield of ideas.

I can’t blame Beck for succumbing to Neptune’s lure, though, and his ideas may prove influential. We’ll find out the real consequences of them when Pluto enters Aquarius in about 16 years, but til then, I admire the guy’s willingness to dream, if not his grounding in reality.

Fire planet Mars moves into fire sign Leo this month on October 16, 2009. It remains in Leo until June 7, 2010. That’s a long time, almost 8 months. Mars usually remains in a sign for about 6 weeks, but approximately every two years retrograde motion means it stays in a single sign for longer than usual.

We haven’t had Mars spend a long time in a fire sign since 2001, when it spent almost 7 months in Sagittarius, starting in February of that year. During the rest of the decade, we’ve seen Mars retrograde in water signs and the earth sign of Taurus.

So…what will a double dose of fire energy to mean to us? I’m going to a put positive spin on this transit, because I’m hoping/thinking that having Mars in a fire sign like Leo will help us out. For one thing, Mars in Leo is in a nice sextile by sign to Saturn in Libra until April. In April, Saturn retrogrades back into Virgo.

Saturn in Libra has a tendency to reveal problems in relationships, but Leo is such a warm-hearted sign that the sextile with Saturn has the possibility of showing us all a way out of our difficulties. It makes harmony and sympathy a bit more realistic as a way of negotiating through our conflicts. Now admittedly, it is possible that Mars in Leo will turn some susceptible folks into raging egomaniacs. Double fire can do that. But Saturn will hopefully help put a bit of a brake on that tendency as well.

What does the Mars/Saturn sextile mean for each of the signs? Read on for some possibilities.These are based on sun signs, but if you know your natal chart, you can look at the forecasts for your rising sign as well. For more articles on Mars and keywords for the houses and signs, you can visit my other site Practical Astrology.

Aries: Mars will be spending its long sojourn in your happy 5th house, a good spot for your ruler. It should energize your sun. It may also energize your love life, your dealings with children, and any creative projects you have in the works or that you undertake at this time. The sextile with Saturn in Libra puts the emphasis squarely on relationships. In some ways, it’s an odd mix of energies. Theoretically, it should bring any conflicts in relationships (of any sort) to the fore, but it should also give you the tools to deal with them in good faith and with good will. For example, if you’ve recently begun a romantic relationship, then the inevitable differences of opinion will probably arise. The relationship negotiating period should begin. But the combined energy of Mars and Saturn should hold the relationship together while you work things through and display what a good person you are at heart. The same dynamic would apply to dealing with problems that surface in a long-standing relationship.

Taurus: Mars in Leo will inhabit the part of your chart that deals with family matters. This could be your family of origin or a family you have started yourself. Dealing with other types of domestic matters (home repair, etc.) are also covered by this house. The idea would be that you would expend a lot of energy dealing with this area of your life, but that things would hopefully work out well in the end. Saturn in Libra deals with, among other things, relationships with co-workers and people you employ. A sample combination of Mars and Saturn energies in these houses would be hiring contractors to work on your house. Having the work done would be challenging (it usually is), but you would be able to work things out to a satisfactory conclusion. Other possibilities would include doing more work from home for some reason. Again, potentially challenging but successful if you put your mind to it.

Gemini: Mars in Leo will be in your 3rd house of mental work. This is an ideal combination for getting intellectual work done because your thinking is energetic but not cold or unmindful of other people’s input. It’s great for devoting yourself to a sustained project that requires a lot of thinking.  Combine this with Saturn in Libra and you potentially get an opportunity for a meaningful collaboration with someone else on such a project. There would undoubtedly be disagreements with your collaborator if you are doing things right, but the disagreements could allow you to produce a better product than you could on your own. Collaborators could include lovers or children, but any creative person with whom you have a basic amount of simpatico could prove to be  very helpful.

Cancer: Mars in Leo will be in the sector of your chart that deals with possessions and income. Traditionally, Mars in the second house can be considered a recipe for laying down big bucks. With Mars in Leo it could be considered a recipe for laying down big bucks on the kind of luxury items Leo loves. The combination of Mars and Saturn could indicate things like spending a lot of money on redoing your home, decorating it up in a grand style. There could be conflict with the people you live with over how much you want to spend. If so, if you’ve got someone riding your butt about your proposed expenses, consider that person a friend who could help you make wiser purchases. If you’re constitutionally opposed to spending money for 8 months straight, then you could use Mars in Leo to amp up your efforts to bring home more dough. Again, this could cause conflict with family members who want you at home instead of burning the midnight oil to bring in the cash. You’d probably end up having to compromise, which again would not necessarily be a bad thing.

Leo: Mars in your sign for 8 months! What could be better! It could be so nice to have energy in your sign instead of having all your energy drained by Neptune in the sign opposite yours. This is really a time to put yourself out there and pursue your own agenda for awhile. Whatever creative Leo project you have in the works, pursue it with gusto. The combination with Saturn in your 3rd house of mental work could indicate that you need to put some serious brainpower into making the most of your creative opportunity. It could also indicate that it would be to your benefit to collaborate with others who have different ideas. A little constructive disagreement could be just what you need to take yourself to the next level.

Virgo: Mars will be in your 12th house, an odd place to host Mars for a long time. The 12th house likes to withdraw and contemplate the universe or your own psyche. It’s not an especially sociable house. Mars here could be uncomfortable but also potentially useful if it helps you do things like forgive yourself for grudges your self-critical sign has been holding against you. The most useful thing I can see from the combination of Mars and Saturn is the potential to let things go. Literally, let things go in a material sense. Get rid of a bunch of your possessions, strip down your life, and free yourself up to travel leaner. Mars in the 12th actually loves to root through your closets, sort through your memories and get things all organized. Since many of us can spend decades pretending we’ll clean out our closets and never getting to it, this may be an opportunity not to be missed.

Fire planet Mars moves into fire sign Leo this month on October 16, 2009. It remains in Leo until June 7, 2010. That’s a long time, almost 8 months. Mars usually remains in a sign for about 6 weeks, but approximately every two years retrograde motion means it stays in a single sign for longer than usual.

We haven’t had Mars spend a long time in a fire sign since 2001, when it spent almost 7 months in Sagittarius, starting in February of that year. During the rest of the decade, we’ve seen Mars retrograde in water signs and the earth sign of Taurus.

So…what will a double dose of fire energy to mean to us? I’m going to a put positive spin on this transit, because I’m hoping/thinking that having Mars in a fire sign like Leo will help us out. For one thing, Mars in Leo is in a nice sextile by sign to Saturn in Libra until April. In April, Saturn retrogrades back into Virgo.

Saturn in Libra has a tendency to reveal problems in relationships, but Leo is such a warm-hearted sign that the sextile with Saturn has the possibility of showing us all a way out of our difficulties. It makes harmony and sympathy a bit more realistic as a way of negotiating through our conflicts. Now admittedly, it is possible that Mars in Leo will turn some susceptible folks into raging egomaniacs. Double fire can do that. But Saturn will hopefully help put a bit of a damper on that tendency as well.

What does the Mars/Saturn sextile mean for each of the signs? Read on for some possibilities.These are based on sun signs, but if you know your natal chart, you can look at the forecasts for your rising sign as well. For more articles on Mars and keywords for the houses, you can check out my other site: Practical Astrology.

Libra: Mars in Leo will be in your house of friendships, groups, and how you relate to society in general. This is generally a good mood place to host Mars since it tends to increase the pace of your social life, something Libra usually likes. It is good for getting involved in various activities that show off your outgoing and maybe even humanitarian side. It’s a good antidote to Saturn in your sign because Saturn sometimes takes things too seriously. Mars in Leo should help remind you of the importance of having fun, too.

Scorpio: Mars in Leo is going to be in your 10th house of career and of everything else that helps build your reputation, makes you stand out, or puts you in a more visible position. Mars here gives you an opportunity to put your best foot forward, impress people, and light a fire under your career ambitions. The combination with Saturn indicates that to do this, you may need to work quite hard and even give up some socializing that you might normally like to do. Your chart overall is heading into a period where work becomes quite important. Part of that may mean making sure that your relationships are conducted in a business-like manner, that boundaries are set, and that you don’t become emotionally involved with people you work with.

Sagittarius: Mars in Leo will be in the part of your chart that pursues Truth. Seemingly, Mars will pursue such Truth with vigor and enthusiasm. Hopefully, it will also pursue it with a bit more sympathy and generosity than Sagittarius on its own sometimes does. In other words, Mars in Leo can help you put your best self forward: your big-hearted self. There are a couple of possibilities for the Mars/Saturn combination. One is that you’ll have a chance to sort of reconcile yourself to society at large. Sagittarius often wants to be critical of society for fairly understandable reasons; there are always a lot of things wrong with it. Mars in Leo may remind you to use sympathy as well as moral indignation when you assess the excessively interesting times we live in. The other possibility is that Mars in Leo will give you a chance to work through some issues with your friends. There may be some substantial differences in philosophy to be worked out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t all agree to like and appreciate each other in spite of the differences.

Capricorn: Mars in Leo will spend its 8 months in your rather mysterious 8th house. The 8th house can refer to two rather different kinds of things. One is joint finances, debts, bankruptcy, inheritances, settlements and all other kinds of non-ordinary financial matters. The other is wounds, regeneration, and healing. In either case, Mars in Leo suggests that taking an open-hearted approach to such matters is your best bet. The combination with Saturn indicates that conflicts can arise in your marriage around your work schedule (give your spouse the benefit of the doubt if you want to keep your sex life intact). Alternatively, if you employ people, stresses may arise around the financial condition of your company.  Or  you may need to be on the lookout for employees who could cause you financial losses. Because the 8th house covers such an incredible array of potentials, there are lots of other things that could arise that are nothing like these two possibilities. If there’s an underlying theme, it would be the importance of conflict resolution and taking care not to let hurt feelings get in the way of sensible solutions to life’s problems.

Aquarius: Mars in Leo will be in your 7th house of other people. This is traditionally not considered to be the best place to host Mars because the fire planet’s combative nature can erupt into open hostilities in this sensitive spot in the chart. You will probably be called upon to exercise a lot of your Aquarian and Neptune-influenced sympathy for others during this time period. Fortunately, Saturn provides a way out of any hostilities. You can use his level-headed approach to figuring out why other people seem to have their undies in such a bunch, which could be useful for all concerned. Your sign is so objective by nature that as long as you take care with other people’s feelings, the transit could be tailor-made for you.

Pisces: Mars in Leo will be in your 6th house of employment. Theoretically, Mars here keeps you busy and calls upon you to exercise patience with colleagues, co-workers, and subordinates. People around you may be a bit more emotional than you’d like. The combination with Saturn suggests that you’ll need to balance relationships and getting the work done. You’ll need to be organized and stay on top of things, something your sign doesn’t always have all that much enthusiasm for. Still, this can be a very productive period for you if you don’t let yourself get caught up in other people’s dramas.

Saturn will move into Libra at the very tail end of October and will start kicking up trouble with Pluto almost immediately. Not everyone will feel the effects immediately, though. Cardinal signs or people with planets in early degrees of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) should feel the effects the soonest.

Here’s a preview of Saturn in Libra for the various sun signs. We are going to be using the keyword relationships to represent the influence of Libra. For Saturn we will be using the concept that the planet points out areas where things are not as you would wish them to be, so that you can take actions and make corrections. Note that both Saturn and Libra relate to a lot more than this, so this is only one slice of the many potential possibilities. We’ll address others as we move through Saturn’s transit of this sign starting later this year.You can also visit Practical Astrology for more keywords (scroll down) and articles on the planets, signs, and houses to get an alternative view.

Libra: Saturn will be moving out of your solar 12th house and into your own sign. Typically, this can affect how you present yourself to others. People often become aware of how they are defining themselves during a Saturn transit to their sign and they start feeling that they want to make a step up in how they advertise themselves to others. Sometimes it is said that Saturn in your own sign is a ‘bad’ transit, but in my experience with people it is not overall worse than having Saturn in another spot. In fact, you can make substantial changes in your life during a Saturn transit. Making the changes may be stressful, but the changes themselves are not. It is true, though, that almost all of your relationships can be affected by this transit to your sign, and not just one or two–because it is you yourself that is changing.

Scorpio:  Saturn will be moving out of your solar 11th house of friendships and into your solar 12th house. Typically, a Saturn transit here changes your relationship with yourself more than with anyone else. A common response to Saturn in the 12th house is to become more socially isolated. Sometimes this is on purpose, sometimes due to circumstances, and sometimes both. Saturn in the 12th house is maybe not the ultimate ‘get to know yourself on a deeper level’ transit, but it does come close. Like any Saturn transit, it can point out to you areas where your relationship with yourself is really not what you’d like. Then you have a chance to correct problems.

Sagittarius: Saturn will be moving off an angle (your 10th house of career) and into your solar 11th house. On a straightforward level, Saturn here can affect your relationships with your friends. You may feel cooler toward them or vice versa. You may identify problems that need to be corrected. The same thing applies to groups you belong to. You may feel a need to straighten out problems there. On a larger level, Saturn in the 11th can affect how you relate to society in general. Your networking via social media sites can change, but also some of your deeper convictions and sense of contentment with how your life as a member of society is going. Social issues may affect you more profoundly. This can be good, in the sense of greater engagement with the world at large, and not so good, as you realize that society’s ills affect you personally.

Capricorn: Saturn enters your solar 10th house of career. This is like a triple whammy for you and it is not just the routine transit. That’s because Saturn is your ruler and the 10th house is ‘your’ house–the one associated with your sign. You’ve also got Pluto in your sign, putting more attention on you. To add to all that, Uranus will be moving into Aries and another angle of your chart (4th house–family). Saturn in the 10th is said to have 2 different kinds of effects. One would be typified by something like a promotion, wherein you gain more responsibilities and have to adjust. The other would be frustration with your career, often occasioned by relationships with other people. The typical tactful Capricorn strategy for climbing the ladder may suddenly appear to be fraught with problems and costs you didn’t previously find important. Career problem-solving becomes a top priority.

Aquarius: Saturn moves out of your solar 8th house of debt, joint and marital finances  and various financial troubles and into your solar 9th house. The 9th house relates to a lot of things, some of them rather abstract. It is considered a much easier place to have Saturn in your transit chart than the 8th house. Part of this is because Saturn will be moving into a sign that is compatible with your sun. The 9th house relates to the search for reasons and purpose and meaning. A typical response to Saturn in Libra would be to look for the reasons behind other people’s behavior, to become more other-focused again after the stresses of the 8th house. The 9th house also relates to a lot of other things like publishing, higher education, and travel. So some will see long-term projects in those areas. But mostly it allows you to look at problems with others from a more detached, less gloomy or worried perspective than Saturn in Virgo.

Pisces: Saturn moves off an angle (7th house of relationships) and into your solar 8th house. The 8th house has to do with marital finances, debt, and quite often general financial problems. A fairly typical example of Saturn in the 8th would be a spouse with severe financial problems, perhaps due to a job layoff or other difficulty. This is the most financially hazardous house in which to find Saturn and a great deal of attention must be paid (in many cases) to financial problem-solving. Not the best transit under which to co-sign a loan with anyone. On a deeper level, Saturn spotlights who you choose to merge with, as virtually anyone you are financially entangled with could present problems. So the transit becomes an opportunity to become more conscious of the choices you make in relationships.

Saturn will move into Libra at the very tail end of October and will start kicking up trouble with Pluto almost immediately. Not everyone will feel the effects immediately, though. Cardinal signs or people with planets in early degrees of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) should feel the effects the soonest.

Here’s a preview of Saturn in Libra for the various sun signs. We are going to be using the keyword relationships to represent the influence of Libra. For Saturn we will be using the concept that the planet points out areas where things are not as you would wish them to be, so that you can take actions and make corrections. Note that both Saturn and Libra relate to a lot more than this, so this is only one slice of the many potential possibilities. We’ll address others as we move through Saturn’s transit of this sign starting later this year.You can also visit Practical Astrology for more keywords (scroll down) and articles on the planets, signs, and houses to get an alternative view.

Aries: Saturn is moving out of your solar 6th house of work and health and into the sign opposite yours. This puts him in your solar 7th house of relationships. The most straightforward interpretation of this is that Saturn will point out to you which relationships in your life are not all that they could be or that your approach to relationships is not what you want it to be. Some of you will be literally battling it out with boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, exes, or even enemies and rivals. Stuff comes out into the open during a Saturn transit. You are likely to have a new appreciation for the virtues of peace by the time Saturn leaves and thus a better handle on ways to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Taurus: Saturn is moving from your solar 5th house of love affairs and children to your solar 6th house. Saturn here tends to be stressful and to focus on either health or work issues. More specifically, Saturn here can point out when relationships stress you and cut down your health and vitality. Proactive stress management becomes important. Relationships at work could also tax your patience. Saturn in an air sign teaches detachment as a road to stress relief and counteracts the natural tendency of an earth sign to react subjectively and emotionally in relationships. This is a natural reaction, but Saturn teaches you that sometimes it not all about you, it’s about the other person and what they’re going through.

Gemini: Saturn is moving off an angle (your solar 4th house) and into your solar 5th house of love affairs and children. This is a better spot for Saturn to be in for your sign. Your energy level and vitality may well pick up as Saturn moves away from a stressful angle with your sun. You may also find new abilities to be creative and disciplined at the same time. On the other hand, Saturn can point out where your relationships with girlfriends and boyfriends, etc. is not exactly what you want. The same idea applies to your relationships with your children. Saturn will ask you to solve problems in these areas.

Cancer: Saturn is moving away from your solar 3rd house onto an angle, your solar 4th house. The 4th house relates to family and virtually everything that is an offshoot of family–your home, your parents, your roots, your genetic, racial or national heritage, and the effects of those things on your life. Saturn here also opposes your solar midheaven (Midheaven or MC generally refers to your career or public life). Attention to family members can take time away from focusing on your career, sometimes quite literally in the case of people who quit jobs to care for elderly parents. In general, though, Saturn shows you where your relationships with your family (especially parents or the older generation) are not all that you would like. You’ll be challenged to work through issues and problems and perhaps establish a bit more of your own identity.

Leo: Saturn moves away from your solar second house of finances to your solar third house. This can be a real relief, especially if your energy has been flagging. The third house is primarily a mental house (i.e., relates to the mind), so Saturn here can show you where your mental activities are not what you want them to be, and it can start encouraging you to proactively exercise your brain. The third house also relates to siblings, cousins, and other relationships that occur in everyday life (e.g., those with neighbors). Actively engaging in daily social relationships is good for your brain, too! If you have problems with your siblings, Saturn may well point this out to you. Problems here can be productively addressed.

Virgo: Saturn moves out of your sign and into your solar second house. The second house relates to finances and to what you own. A typical example of Saturn here (not the only one) is to point out how acquiring possessions to keep up the with Joneses or to impress other people can be self-defeating and burdensome. Saturn here can depress income (lower it), but it can also leave your income alone and encourage you to stop spending so much. Issues of joint finances and how you and your spouse relate on money can come up as well, especially since Uranus will be moving into your 8th house of marital finances next year. Becoming more conscious of how you spend money is almost a necessity during this transit.

Saturn and Uranus are scheduled for the next round in their ongoing dispute in September. But traditionally, these planets don’t like to wait for an exact aspect before they start sniping at each other. They like to get ugly before the exact aspect and stay ugly until the aspect passes.

This time round, they’ve decided to get ugly over health care in the US. Health care is dear to the hearts of both these planets right now, as they’re in health oriented Virgo and health-oriented Pisces. Between the two of them, they’ve got people screaming at town halls, getting creative with Hitler-esque mustaches and inventive comparisons to Nazi Germany. Obviously, these two planets are not averse to jacking up the drama and throwing out wild comparisons if it will serve the cause of highlighting the radical differences in approach that these two planets take.

Uranus, our old friend and sometimes enemy, is on the side of change. He’s also on the side of freedom. He’s working both sides of the aisle these days, promoting change and the kind of quick holistic overhaul that Uranus in Pisces favors. He’s also promoting some heavy duty shouting in the name of freedom. Stirring up trouble keeps him from getting bored.

Saturn, meanwhile, is naturally terrified of change, of Uranus, of radicalism, and of messing things up. He’s working both sides of the aisle too. He’s encouraging conservatives (his core group of supporters) to resist any sort of change. He’s also encouraging reform of health care, but wants to take it slow. Saturn knows there are problems, and the screaming is giving him a headache. He wants to sit down and figure out how to solve the problems, Saturn style.

Meanwhile, the big pharmaceutical companies are on the side of change. This makes astrological sense as they are preparing for Neptune in Pisces. Pisces is the zodiacal representative for pharmaceuticals (and drugs of all sorts), and this sign is planning, when his ruler Neptune enters in a couple of years, to massively expand the reach of prescription drugs if at all possible.

Getting the uninsured insured will expand access to drugs for millions and millions of Americans. Making sure that people are not excluded from insurance due to pre-existing conditions will expand access to drugs for many more. Anything that changes the system so that more people can be covered is good for the pharmaceutical industry. It’s even worth cutting costs, Saturn style, right now, to prepare for a big expansion later.

I suppose my astrological betting money would be on change and freedom, with a little bit of Saturn restraint thrown in. Uranus won’t get everything he wants (which is probably a good thing), but it’s unlikely that Saturn could entirely defeat his momentum. Uranus has deep pockets this time around, and he’s a savvy player in the planetary lineup, even if his methods look rather chaotic.

Well, I should have posted a bit more on the Cancer/Capricorn eclipse series before the lunar eclipse in Capricorn on the 7th of this month. But I wrongly anticipated that the lunar eclipse would be mild and favorable and then the proverbial stuff hit the fan during the days surrounding it.

Meanwhile, the solar eclipse in Cancer has already affected lots of people in my circle, so the energy kind of jammed up on itself. Some people were even affected by the upcoming lunar eclipse in Aquarius (on August 6). So, at least in my world, it’s all been a bit hard to sort out.

Still, this is an important eclipse series, so now that things have calmed a bit, it’s time to address it.

This eclipse series is scheduled to go through July 1 of 2011. Eclipses typically occur every 5 1/2 to 6 months apart. They come in pairs of opposite signs, two weeks apart. Sometimes two eclipse series will overlap. That’s what’s happening this summer, as we finish up the Leo/Aquarius series and start the Cancer/Capricorn one. So we’re getting 3 this season instead of the typical two.

We’re also getting two different types of energy and that will occur again during this Cancer/Capricorn series. That is, we’ll see mixtures of cardinal energy and mutable energy as the Gemini/Sagittarius eclipses kick in before the Cancer/Capricorn ones are done.

So, what about these Cancer/Capricorn ones? The first thing I note is that cardinal energy. Cardinal energy is represented by the signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. Cardinal energy started getting a boost last year when Jupiter and then Pluto entered Capricorn.

Cardinal energy will get even more of a boost when Saturn moves into Libra later this year. Then Jupiter will spend time in Aries next year. So will Uranus.

That’s a whoooooooole bunch more cardinal energy than we’ve been used to in the 2000’s.  We’ve had Jupiter in cardinal signs occasionally and we endured Saturn in Cancer during that decade. But the 10 years have been dominated by mutable and fixed signs–Pluto in Sagittarius (mutable); Neptune in Aquarius. Uranus in Aquarius (fixed) and Uranus in Pisces (mutable).

In contrast, the 1990’s saw consistent cardinal action until 1998–and it wasn’t until the middle of 1998 that we had a direct clash between cardinal planets (Saturn in Aries, Neptune in Capricorn). In other words, we’ve gone more than 10 years since seeing cardinal planets face off against each other, and that was nothing compared to the clashes coming up in the years ahead.

Cardinal signs are said to be  initiating signs that take charge and are ambitious, determined, and active. They’re important signs–they’re also bossy. When fixed signs clash, things get bogged down (a la the middle stages of the war in Iraq). When mutable signs clash, things get volatile (e.g., real estate crash). When cardinal signs clash, you can get outright fights that are hard to resolve.

It’s as though everyone at once decides that it’s time to take charge of his or her destiny on a personal to international level and agendas clash. Get ready to fight for what you want.

On a personal level, this series will affect you in a pair of opposite houses. Not all eclipses can be expected to bring anything interesting. Still, I have found that in general eclipse series in Cancer/Capricorn bring substantial changes for a great many people.

Below are the houses that are scheduled to be affected between now and July 2011. Note that eclipses more often seem to affect solar houses (based on your sun sign) than natal ones (based on your rising sign), but you can check out both.

Aries: 4th house/10th house–home and career.

Taurus: 3rd house/9th house–communication, relatives/travel and beliefs

Gemini: 2nd house/8th house–financial and property matters

Cancer: 1st house/7th house–personal goals and committed relationships

Leo: 6th house/12th house–work, health, and hidden matters

Virgo: 5th house/11th house–children, love affairs/ friends, goals

Libra: 4th house/10th house–home and career

Scorpio: 3rd house/9th house–communication, relatives/travel and beliefs

Sagittarius: 2nd house/8th house–financial and property matters

Capricorn: 1st house/7th house–personal goals and committed relationships

Aquarius: 6th house/12th house–work and health/hidden matters.

Pisces: 5th house/11th house–children, love affairs/ friends, goals

There are a lot more to these houses, so if you want more insight, you can look at the keywords and articles on my sister site Practical Astrology. Scroll down to see keywords and links.

I know the sun’s in Gemini right now, but Mars has moved into Taurus. Taurus loves to cook and to eat. This can be kind of inconvenient considering that now we’re getting into swimsuit season. For those who have long since given up on swimsuits, we’re still getting into hot weather, bare arms, and all the rest of it.

So hearty eating is probably not the way to go for those in the northern hemisphere. But it is time to whip out those summer recipes or find some new ones (e.g., this one at Epicurious) so you can indulge Mars’s desire to get busy in the kitchen.

If the yen for yummy summer food hasn’t hit you yet, it probably will soon enough. Venus moves into Taurus on the 6th. For a week or so, we’ll have 3 planets in Taurus.

After that, the sun will move into Cancer (June 21). Cancer’s another food-loving sign. Motto of the month: home-made ice cream, here I come!