Special Friday the Thirteenth Edition: Proud Triskaidekaphile

Greetings, Lovelies and Uglies.

It's been a while since I've checked in, and I thought it would be appropriate to break the silence with a thumb's-up to Friday the 13th, especially since today happens to be my sister's birthday.

Thirteen has long been considered an unlucky number, yet Judaism, the religion in which I was raised, considers 13 to be not only lucky, but spiritually significant. The number 13 abounds in Judaism, from the age of a bar/bat mitzvah to the 13 hermeneutic principles to Abraham's 13 covenants with God to the 13 attributes of divine mercy to Jewish numerology, in which the words ahavah (love) and echad (one) equal 13. Oh yes -- I was also born on the 13th.

Thirteen is also one number past the 12 signs of the zodiac, implying transformation -- a Scorpio specialty. It is therefore highly fitting that the number 13 in Tarot (the much-feared and misunderstood Death card) and numerology are both associated with the sign Scorpio.

Friday the 13th is particularly feared, but what exactly is so bad about Friday? This is considered to be the day of the week ruled by Venus, apropos for the start of the weekend. I would think that Monday the 13th would be far more feared. However, Venus is in its detriment in Scorpio -- implying that this day does not blend easily with the number 13.

Today features two sextiles, the aspect of opportunity: Venus-Saturn and Mercury-Jupiter. Specifically, the sextile between Venus in Libra and Saturn in Sagittarius encourages a positive sense of purpose and structure with a loved one (in other words, it's okay to make definite plans), while the sextile between Mercury in Scorpio and Jupiter in Virgo encourages moving one's mind out of the shallow end of the pool and plumbing the depths (in other words, it's more than okay to ponder the meaning of existence).

Till next time, have a great rest of Friday the 13th.

Update from Triskaidekaphile Central

This post goes out to all of you lovelies and uglies who have thus far managed to evade a silent killer in a hockey mask...but there are still twenty-three minutes left of Friday the 13th, so don't relax just yet!

When you meet the Buddha on the road, you are supposed to kill him. But what to do when you meet Mars in Libra? However you decide to react, you have to recognize him. Mars will be in Libra for what may feel like forever, because it turns retrograde on March 1, 2014, and will not exit Libra till July 26. In the past week alone I have seen (and heard) a few very apropros emissaries of this challenging placement:

* a male burlesque performer
* Woody Allen aping Blanche DuBois and Diane Keaton aping Marlon Brando playing Stanley Kowalksi in Sleeper
* the voice-over at the beginning of Alice's Restaurant (the film, not the song): sounds like a man at the army induction center, but turns out to be a woman; a few scenes later, there is a voice-over that sounds like a woman dean, but turns out to be a man
* a Congress that decided to throw the long-term unemployed under a bus and not pass the Farm Bill

And this all happened on a waxing Moon and the Jupiter-Saturn trine -- the ultimate balancing act between expansion and contraction, optimism and pessimism, luck and hard work, hope and despair. I shudder to envision how Mars in Libra will behave (or misbehave) when it plays into the Uranus-Pluto square next year. T-squares can bring incredible tension. Especially in cardinal signs, much tension will need to be released. The "missing leg," the sign where this energy can be funneled, is Cancer: home, family, security, emotions. All will undergo major upheaval in the next several months, and if you happen to be a Cancer (like yours truly and the United States) or have important planets in Cancer, get ready for your world to be rocked -- or to rock the world.

Last time Mars turned retrograde was in early 2012, in the sign of Virgo: work, health, service, pragmatism got bogged down for many of us. I am dearly hoping that Mars in Libra (both direct and retrograde) will be positive for unconventional relationships (think role reversal, if not literally cross dressing). Mars is not often thought of as a healer, as its energy is aggressive, even impulsive -- yet Mars is also the surgeon, capable of cutting away diseased flesh in order to save the rest of the organism. Mars in Libra is in its detriment, meaning that it is not comfortably placed in this sign -- yet at its best, I believe Mars in Libra can indicate important healing work in relationships.

It is already happening in my world. If a Sir Tin Pie Seas is reading this post: I'm crossing the bridge and thinking of you, I'm sailing right behind, and I'm still next to you on that bus gazing at the snow.

Post-Solar Return Musings

Despite my Solar Return's falling on Friday the 13th this year, nothing violent or even spooky went down. I spent the day counting my blessings, and the evening chowing down on homemade lobster rolls, potato salad, and "cool" slaw all put together by Chef Boyfriend. His daughters, cat, plus my bestie were on hand to help me celebrate.

That was the gourmand, cozy side of my birthday moon in Taurus; the musical side occurred two nights earlier, with the Moon just having entered Taurus and trining my Venus, and the Sun hitting the same degree of my natal Sun (20 degrees, for the curious). Mercury was squaring my Moon on Wednesday, yet it played out as healing energy between my little sister (a Sun in Scorpio) and me; she had very unexpectedly invited me up for a midweek visit to see the B-52's and Squeeze in Boston, at the seaport, and we had a wonderful time. Never before had I been in the front row of a concert, and it was magical. My sister and I dressed up, she in a silver dress and pink fishnets and me in a white sundresses patterned with pink flamingos, which I think both bands appreciated, as most concertgoers were casually dressed and a fair amount of eye contact occurred flowed between some of the musicians, me, and my sister. We barely sat down the whole evening, yet were not overheated by dancing due to being kissed by the Boston Harbor breeze.

During the Sun-Moon sextile yesterday afternoon, I swam at Brighton Beach and sketched. All in all, Wednesday and Friday more than made up for the fact that when my Solar Return was exact on Thursday afternoon, I was sending a fax instead of engaged in something less mundane.

Interestingly, although my progressed Moon is in Gemini, my SR Moon is at a critical degree (9) of Taurus, poised on the 7th House, and Mars is very close to conjuncting my Uranus. I plan not to play in traffic this year, and to do everything in my power to deepen and stabilize all my emotionally based relationships.