April 2024

• New Moon: Aries Super Moon (perigee), solar eclipse, 9 April

• Jupiter-Uranus conjunction: Taurus, exact 21 April

• Full Moon: Scorpio, 24 April (Sun in Taurus)

Aries New Moon = cardinal fire. Beginning energy. Transformative power of fire. Think unpredictable, bold, complete. Think phoenix. Super Moons are have a strong influence. Eclipses are wild cards, so plant your seeds carefully, or better yet, simply prepare as you would for fire season. Clean up and let go of what is not serving you. Mercury, Chiron and Venus are co-present, so there is a lot of ancestral patterns at play as well as social conditioning. We can build bridges or burn them down. Aries always asks us to step into courage and face our fears. With its ruler Mars, in Pisces we are talking about spiritual courage. This Moon is about being brave enough to move beyond very old patterns rooted in ego. The next 2 weeks are key.

Scorpio Full Moon = fixed water. Emotions, particularly the darker ones are up for reflection. Own your ugly and find a way to embrace it. It too belongs. Binary stories of good and bad are not just boring, they are purposely fragmenting and misleading. The strong Aries and Pisces vibe this month can help us to find both the courage and compassion to integrate.

The big astro-event of the month is the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction. Despite what the internet might proclaim, every energy has both helpful and unhelpful expressions. Given enough self-righteous ignorance and hubris the horrific is equally possible. Uranus is the revolutionary change-maker/rebellious narcissist and Jupiter is the wise teacher/glutenous and dogmatic gambler. In Taurus, be thinking about planetary and environmental issues, instinctual animal drives, basic needs, resistance to being pushed, the need for material power and patterns of safety. We can be granular or we can be global. These are very BIG energies, best allowed room to move.

Depending on where this falls in your chart you can feel this quite dramatically in your own life. Trines and sextiles will support and energize, squares and oppositions will force growth and challenge, conjunctions are often mixed, but highly focused. Ultimately these are collective energies and we all will be feeling them. As slower moving planets, their effects are felt longer than simply when the conjunction is exact. Its the kind of thing where we look back and see that this month was pivotal. So while historically we can look at this conjunction and see major revolutions happening or inventions and discoveries that changed how we interact with the world and see our place in it, we have to remember that the universe is not a circle or a straight line, but a dynamic spiral – patterns might come around again and again, but there is a progression – they build on themselves. Many astrologers will be focusing on events from 1941 when the last Jupiter-Uranus conjunction happened in Taurus and certainly we will no doubt look back from the future and see this conjunction as marking turning points in global crisis in terms of power accumulation and distribution.

This conjunction has Mars sextiling from Pisces. Sextiles energize and Mars even in Pisces packs a punched. The drive of mutable water is the impetus of boundless compassion or of totally checking out. Yes, some are predicting major weather events involving water and that too is an expression, but with North Node in Aries, in stellium with Mercury, Venus and Chiron, it seems to me that we are also looking at the potential for major breakthroughs in terms of our long held unhelpful patterns of thinking and social structuring. When Jupiter and Uranus come together it is an opportunity to completely shift outdated world-views. The important part to remember is that breaking is part of the package. Jupiter and Uranus are not known for half measures. In Taurus we can see and experience a lot of stubborn clinging and grabbing at power and accumulation of resources, a lot of hubris and trigger happy self-righteous beliefs come to a head. All of that is equally available to any of us. There is no magic wand or special angel that makes less helpful expressions of an energy less likely. There is only our own free will and focused intention… which I grant you, given increasingly more clever algorithms and our own addictive natures, the playing field seems less and less level, but what does Jupiter rule if not the power of Faith with a capital F? Or Uranus if not lightening bolt shocking out of the blue surprises?

Jupiter and Uranus seem to create a kind of doorway that makes the seeming impossible possible when they come together. Mercury is retrograde in Aries during this conjunction, and so we are being asked to have the willingness to take another look at where we are entrenched and stuck (Taurus) – particularly when it comes to our understanding of our needs. Taurus naturally governs the 2^nd house of food-shelter-safety aka: personal power, aka:wealth. The second house is where we hopefully learn to differentiate between need and want. It is from this learning or lack thereof that our values grow. It takes no genius to see how slippery our modern grasp of needs and wants has become. We grasp onto our material wealth and possessions (Taurus) because we fear how unstable and illusory (Mars in Pisces) safety and control actually are. It seems that the time is ripe to step through a new doorway. As the ruler of Taurus, Venus is activating that Mercury by conjunction. Where Venus sits we cannot do our work alone, for this planet is nothing if not relational. So we can begin by asking what is our relationship to this fear? What is our relationship to these ideas of needs and wants? How have our fears co-opted our actions to undermine our actual values? Chiron sits in conjunction to Venus and Mercury along with the North Node, so there is a challenge and opportunity here to heal our woundedness by choosing to not be defined by it. Chiron as the wounded healer always asks us to address what the Buddhists call the second arrow. The North Node shows us the direction to move – towards activation of our will (Aries) guided by a brave and compassionate heart (Aries ruler Mars in Pisces, and sextile to Jupiter-Uranus).

So that is a lot of heady sounds – what does it look like?

In Taurus, this means really looking at where are we spending our dollars? On our needs or our wants and does this choice reflect our values or our fears? That packet of crisps that uses so much fossil fuels for 10 minutes of happy only to become plastic trash in the belly of an orca is a good example. Such a small thing – what difference does it make? Taurus governs simplicity. It is about the wonder of a sunset or the infinite starry sky. It is the glorious feeling in your soft animal body when you stretch your skin against someone you love. It is the peaceful contentment of a good meal out of your garden that you have spent some sweat over and watched patiently grow. Taurus is about a fundamental knowing that everything matters. Everything is connected. What we do and don’t do makes a difference. Taurean solutions are profound because they are simple. Taurus teaches us to always drop into the body and listen closely to our own instinctual knowing.

So what small changes can you make in your choices - particularly in terms of your own accumulation of power/wealth/material possessions that better reflect your values rather than your fears? And rather than framing these changes as saying NO to yourself, your wants and your desires, what if instead we chose to see it as saying yes to the land we stand on. Yes to our grandchildren and their grandchildren. Yes to the kindred of plants and animals and fungi that we share this amazing planet with. What if we learned to say yes to the water that quenches our thirst and the air that gives us breath to laugh? Ultimately this conjunction is giving us an opportunity to change the story that we are in. It asks that we pause and take a deep breath (Taurus) and drop into our hearts (Mars in Pisces) and remember to have Faith (Jupiter) in our own innate power as an individual (Uranus). Our choices matter. You matter. Use this conjunction to take the revolutionary leap and stand strong in your own power. Be the change you want to see in the world.

March 2024 Lunations

Local Time - Bilpin, Australia

• New Moon: 10 March 24 - Pisces New Moon

• Full Moon: 25 March 24 - Libra Full Moon (Sun in Aries) - Lunar Eclipse

I hope that everyone survived Valentines Day with its potent Mars-Pluto conjunction. Mid-late February hopefully gave you a look at some areas of your life that need some serious attention. April is going to give us our regular (and very important) 14 year conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus. It is going to be an ideal time to make major and radical changes to improve our lives, but if we don't first intentionally ground in our hearts with what actually matters, then there is also a real opportunity to make a big mess.

March is full of Piscean energy - use this time to do some spiritual adulting. While we could simply check out or drift, if we instead get clear on our spiritual priorities, we can then maximize the evolutionary potential of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction coming in April. It’s time to clean up our boundaries and take responsibility for what is actually ours. Any spiritual bypassing is going to bite us in the ass. Look to see what house Pisces falls in your chart to help give you vision about the Taurus house in your chart. In any event, don't muddy the waters by acting out your victim story, instead become bigger than your smallest (or even your medium sized) idea of yourself. Dissolve what has been holding you back by owning what is actually your own spiritual responsibility.

While the Full Moon is in Libra, this theme continues as both Venus and Mars will be in Pisces. The Sun in Aries can offer us courage to consciously face the changes we need to midwife, particularly in the areas of our wounded story. The Libra Full Moon shines her light to help us see opportunity and bridge the divide between where we are and where we need/want to be. Use this Full Moon to open yourself to opportunity and new ideas. Dare to cross some lines that have kept you from exploring alternative solutions to what has been keeping your small. It is time to dream a bigger dream for yourself and thereby participate fully in making a more beautiful world for all of us. So take time during this eclipse to be soft and quiet and open. To take time to listen and recieve messages your usual busy might be keeping your from accessing.

February 2024 Lunations

Local Time - Bilpin, Australia

• New Moon: 10 February - Moon in Aquarius

• Full Moon: 24 February - Moon in Virgo

Along with the Sun, the New Moon is co-present with both Mercury and Pluto. New Moons are beginning energies – we get a peek into what will unfold for the next Aquarian lunation cycle and put down seeds for ourselves at this time. Pay attention to what comes up regarding standing in your own personal truth and the ways that doing so highlight horizontal rather than vertical power structures. Aquarian energy is always good for teamwork, building community and making change. With Pluto in the mix, we get the added bonus of becoming cognizant of the ways we don't walk our talk. He will always show us the smelly sewage blocking the pipes - both on personal and collective levels. Mercury reminds us to communicate – sharing and receiving, talking and listening. Start as you mean to go on. This lunation squares Uranus in Taurus, so themes of earthly autonomy apply. Think body, land, environment, wealth and health.

The Full Moon finds both Saturn and Mercury joining the Sun in Pisces (so opposite the Moon in Virgo). The ideal is going to seem much clearer and potentially closer to our minds and our egos than it will seem to our feeling and intuitive senses. We can really fool ourselves if we don't ground firmly into our integrity. This is a time when we can spread ourselves thin. Intuition comes from a place lower and deeper than our heads. It pays off to use our intuition to give us perspectives on our cognitively held ideals, lest we yoke ourselves inadvertently to something that is beyond our earthly actuality. Virgo is the energy that bridges gaps, but can do so because it is practical, resource efficient and honest about money, time, bad habits etc. Full Moons are times of releasing, so while it is a good idea to let go of illusions of control and critical judgments, don't simply reflex to 'a flight into light', for it might be more like running straight into the headlights of an oncoming car. A Full Moon in Virgo wants our discernment.

October New Moon 2023

• New Moon, Solar Eclipse in Libra 15 October 2023, 3:55am (local time - Bilpin, Australia)

Eclipse season is here! This one feels like it is priming the pump for the Lunar eclipse happening on the 29th. This New Moon finds us with a stellium of Pallas-Mercury-Moon-Sun-South Node all working together to push a Libran agenda. Remember key words for Libra: "Yes, and..." Open the doors and invite all to sit at the table. Everything has a voice, everything belongs. Lets face it. High Libran energy has its work cut out for it in our modern divisive society of cancel culture, dubious politics and me-first capitalist agendas. But also remember that Pallas-Athena is the warrior goddess who never lost a single battle. But she is not the warrior of brute force, rather she is the strategist, the one who understands patterns and landscape, weather conditions and human nature and all the things that make winning a battle a clear process rather than a messy one. Mercury is the storyteller, trickster, messenger god. For Mercury no way is ever barred. He passes without hindrance between the Under and the Over Worlds - the only god who could do so. He can weave any tale. We have been conditioned think that facts are immutable and if one simply pays attention to them then Truth is revealed. But none of us are naive enough to really believe that anymore. And it doesn't even take lying or scheming. We live in a world blessed with paradox. Most of what is true is simply a matter of perspective. And sure, we can know this in some enlightened corner of our hearts, but when we are stuck in our own story - our fear, our trauma, our pain or resentment, we can forget this little piece of magic. We can forget all about paradox and possibility and can instead believe ourselves overmuch and put up walls and barriers where none need to exist. We can make our lives smaller and we can trap ourselves through our own miserly expectations of possibility. This Libran New Moon is a time when this habit can shift - maybe not with everything, maybe not in all the ways, but to change all big patterns, only one small tiny part needs to shift, and not even that much. Add a bit of time and before you know it everything is different. Eclipses count on this. They are the chaos principal - the wild cards. Libra is cardinal air - so it begins new ways of thinking, it initiates new mental constructs, it opens the doors in our mind and builds bridges between seemingly separate things to find commonality, balance and harmony between them.

The South Node is also joining in this New Moon energy. The South Node is also called the Dragon's Tail - as such it shows us where the shit comes out! It shows us where we need to let go and release, purge and purify. Libra energy focuses relationships, on the other - but unhelpful Libran expression is when it does so and forgets itself in the equation. Then we get a lot of projection. It doesn't even have to be the kind of projection that only sees everyone else looking like a jerk. Often when Libra energy is being unhelpful, it negates itself and becomes obsessed with the other and what they are doing and thinking and feeling. It forgets it has agency and projects all of its power onto something external. This can lead to the Libran hell of trying to create too much compromise. You know the one, where everything loses and little is gained but a frazzled look. Don't do that! Purify your Libran energies. Being open and trying to hold everything are not the same things. If you are trying to make everything work, please everyone and erase your own needs, you are going to lose sight of what actually matters. Be the fulcrum. Be in possession of your own capacity and of your own power. Be honest. Being open requires one to be strong in their own root, centered, interested and engaged, while at the same time willing to allow things to rise up or fall down according to their own natures. This is no small ask. It means that you have to own your own story. Know that you are the creator of it. You are the one making connections between things - inviting them in or trying to wall them out. This New Moon is not so much about changing your story, as it is about recognizing that you are its creator. You cannot have all the things. You cannot please all the people. You cannot manifest all the dreams or follow all the roads...so you must choose, you must strategize, you must decide what is important and what is your bottom line goal. And then, you must be willing to be open to what arises, even if it looks 'wrong'.

Like i said, this is a big ask, but it is a one with many rewards, as this New Moon is also the apex of a Yod (aka: Finger of God) configuration with Jupiter-Uranus in Taurus (sudden but determined changes in our tangible reality that brings us into better alignment with our personal Faith and Truth) and Neptune in Pisces (unity consciousness) as the base. Yods are never easy to manifest, but they are a bit of divine suggestion to do so. One of the best ways to help activate a Yod, is to lean into the polarity point of the apex (also the mid-point of the base). With this New Moon, we actually have the North Node and Chiron in Aries there. This further emphasizes that the key to bringing about more of that high Libran energy is by owning where we are caught by our own pain story. The North Node or the Dragon's Mouth shows us what to be hungry for, what to seek out and ingest into ourselves as nourishing food. Chiron always shows us a very legitimate wound which while we cannot necessary heal/negate it, we can actually choose to grow bigger than it and find a lot more room around it. Chiron always shows us a trap of victimhood mentality where we are caught. He shows us where we forget we have agency and simply focus on our pain. Chiron teaches us to acknowledge our pain, and then behave as though it didn't matter. Not to ignore it, but also not to make it worse by adding suffering on top of it. All of us feel pain. We don't have much choice in that. But pain and suffering are two different things. Suffering happens in our minds... and no one can think your thoughts but YOU! Its time to be a warrior (Chiron in Aries) when it comes to your own trauma. Don't let it beat you and make your life and your possibility smaller. Don't let it steal your compassion or your agency or your vision for the future. Find your courage. Find your determination. Claim your power. Stand there in the mess that is you and make no apologies, beg no forgiveness, simply take responsibility for what is yours to do AND DO IT (ruler Mars in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn). You have the power to change your story. You don't have to be a victim to your own habituated thought patterns. We don't have to stay in patterns of fear and anger, powerlessness and separation. The garbage can here looks volatile and reactionary. Being hurt or having trauma is actually no license to act alike an ass. You are responsible for your own actions - and your own boundaries. If someone crosses a line, well, be in possession of yourself and your own story. Let them know. You don't have to be a jerk or even quietly resentful. Neither of those things are actually even very interesting options. You get to have your boundaries and you get to have your pain. And what you do with those things are also your responsibility and thus reflect on you, not on anyone else.

You may experience people stuck in their pain stories and unable to navigate that well. You may feel pressured by self or other to compromise or play nice where you don't have to capacity, energy or resources to do so in a healthy way. You may encounter overwhelm and anxiety this New Moon. Breathe. That is the first step. Its cardinal air, remember? What you do at this time matters. How you act, what you say, what you choose to tell yourself. Venus, the ruler of Libra has moved into Virgo, so this is a time of powerful discernment. This is not a time to try and control or micromanage a situation or someone else. Any attempts at manipulation will likely not have the desired results, however well intentioned or planned out. Its eclipse season, so all kinds of carefully laid plans and ideas are likely to slide sideways. If folks around you are using you as a mule to carry around their baggage, its really time to decide for yourself what story you want to continue to be a part of. This New Moon in Libra is not so much about focusing on 'the other' - but rather focusing on your part in engaging with the other. Take back your projections and take back your power. This New Moon is about self-possession - staying in your own root (Venus in Virgo) while keeping a loving heart (Moon in Libra) and an open mind (Mercury in Libra) and bringing your conscious awareness to bear on how you relate (Sun in Libra) to others, to yourself, to your story and how best to navigate the hurdles of being oh so very human (Pallas in Libra).

Good Luck Everyone! (Like i said, this Solar Eclipse is just priming the pump)

Aquarius Full Moon

• Aquarius Full Moon – 2 August 2023, 5:32am

• Venus cazimi in Leo – 13 August 2023, 9:15pm

The Full Moon is in Aquarius - fixed air. It holds patterns (fixity), particularly about mental (air) things. A Full Moon is when the Sun and the Moon are the farthest apart. This means that the Sun is in Leo. These energies, while in opposition, do have the greatest distance from one another, it also offers us a lot of perspective. We get to step back from the canvas of our own luminary dramas. Our intuitive – yin side (Moon) can fully take in and appreciate our linear – yang side (Sun), and vice versa. Appreciate or tear down. We get to choose, but oppositions do not have to mean conflict. Think of holding hands with someone and spinning together. Thanks to your opposing partner, you can lean much farther into the spin because of the ballast of another body. All that is needed is trust. Full Moons are when we get to practice trusting in the balance of our own swirling, opposing natures. They do not have to war, they can tango! When Full Moons are in the fixed signs (Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio and Taurus) our focus has more staying power, as does our bravado. When the Full Moon is in Aquarius, it is a time when our mind can have more heart, and our heart can have more fire. So dare to tell a new story (Leo), particularly about yourself (Sun). In order to do that, it helps to get some perspective (Aquarius) on your own emotions (Moon). Be honest, own your patterns (Sun in Leo) and allow the navigational tool of authentic expression be the healing balm for your own existential weariness (Moon in Aquarius).

Venus is retrograde in Leo (23 July – 4 September), so this is the place in her 8 year pattern where she asks that we reassess how we relate to the world, large and small, intimate or distant. Are we in alignment with our inner light? Do we have pride in ourselves? Can we take ownership of our lives? Do we share our true spark freely? Where are we paying too high a price for approval? Where are we being cowards, because we are unwilling to feel fear or vulnerability? This Full Moon can give us lots of insight, but we need to acknowledge where we are not walking our talk. If we can’t change our walk, then we need to have a mental reckoning and revisit what we offer lip service to. Venus is cazimi on the 13^th of August while in trine to Chiron in Aries. This means that Venus is in the very heart of the Sun and it is an auspicious place where she is getting juiced up and filled with solar fire. Notice what is being downloaded this day, be open to a more authentic story. Claim the truth of your own personal power. You can choose to be the storyteller and tell a more interesting story – particularly about your own pain and how it shapes the way you relate to the world. When Chiron is in the mix, we have a choice to decide to not be defined by our individual trauma. We can essentially transcend our pain by remembering that there are others who need our hard won wisdom. From our suffering, comes a gift. But it is a healing we must choose and then act accordingly. Chiron does not make the pain go away, but it does show us where we can choose to put it in a much larger container, so its not taking up so much room in our conceptual reality. Many astrologers these days feel that Chiron also speaks to our ancestral karma and helps us heal those tangles. This Venus cazimi is an opportunity to choose big healing medicine. It will require both courage and a willingness to not only claim our authenticity, but lay our pain and fears surrounding that, on the altar of something bigger. We all have a choice. Sure, we can choose to keep twisting ourselves in knots. The energies will happily help us miss the boat and encourage further pretzeling, so that we grow so distant from our own hearts we lose our inner navigational bearings. thereby proving the too small story we choose to tell. But I dare us to dream a better story and then start letting the truth of our own individual hearts walk us toward freedom and wholeness.