Venus Conjunct Pluto: No Half Measures--Love It and Sex It to the Max

One of my favorite sayings in astrology is that planets are more powerful than signs. This is because the signs themselves are mere zones in the sky, a cosmic backdrop or wallpaper if you will, while the planets represent specific modes of energy. Any sign of the zodiac needs a planet passing through it to make that sign's energy come alive, to give form to that particular sign's expression, for better or worse.

However, I am not saying that signs have no importance to the planets passing through them. In cases where a planet is placed in a sign's rulership (e.g., Moon in Cancer), the energy can be likened to an ice cream sundae with all the fixings as opposed to a single, unadorned scoop. Conversely, if a planet is placed in a sign's detriment or fall (e.g., Mars in Libra), the energy can feel out of step or downright disconnected (in the case of Mars in Libra, the planet's MO is to take direct, aggressive action, whereas the sign can never make up its mind and desires above all else to collaborate and compromise). Yet particularly when considering a planet placed in a sign that is peregrine (i.e., neither helpful nor harmful for that planet's expression), it is very important to check if there are any aspects being made. And so we now come to a potential powerhouse of two peregrine planets approaching a conjunction in the sign of Capricorn, exact at 8:12 p.m. EST: Venus and Pluto.

Love? Sex? Is there a difference? When Venus is conjunct Pluto, it's gotta be both, and to the max. Romantic feelings must meld with hot action. Right now, having a special feeling in your heart just ain't enough, and neither is merely getting off. Never mind that this conjunction is placed in Capricorn, a sign whose reserve and repression often gets in the way of its earthy sensuality; in this instance, Venus in icy Capricorn melts in the passionate, life-and-death, no-half-measures crucible that is Pluto.

You are either feeling more seductive and magnetic right now, plotting to ensnare someone in your sticky web of love and lust, or you are about to be clubbed over the head and hauled off to someone's cave. On the downside, if you are mentally or emotionally unbalanced, this conjunction can manifest in obsessive, overly possessive, stalker-type behavior that could end very badly. Even if you're definitely not interested in partaking of the agony and the ecstasy of love and sex at this time, if you are an artist, the Venus-Pluto conjunction should inspire great depth and drama to your particular mode of creative expression.

With the Moon in Capricorn crossing over Venus and Pluto between 1 and 1:30 a.m., this intense-with-a-capital-I conjunction will have staying power and sustained reverberation for a good five hours past the exact aspect. In other words, this ain't no quickie. Since the Moon does concern the home, as well as females, do not be surprised if under this aspect your home turns into a hotbed of sexy earth-meets-underworld goddess territory.

Now, are you ready to howl at the moon?

Mercury Turns Direct on Pluto

It's the moment you've been waiting for since January 5th: Mercury turning direct. Whenever Mercury stations direct (or retrograde) very close to another planet, that other planet will offer the key to our thoughts and our communications for a week or so. In this case, the planet tied up with Mercury's stationing direct is my personal favorite: Pluto.

In the wee hours of last Friday 1/22, Mercury backed over Pluto, and a tremendous blizzard that broke many local records slowly made its way up the Mid-Atlantic states and into New England. Since it was a weekend, many (though by no means all) individuals were able to stay home and kick back -- a great thing to do with Mercury Stationary, when time seems to slow down and reflection is important.

Mercury will cross over Pluto again on Saturday 1/30, so there may be another snowstorm (though probably not as slow-moving and extreme as last weekend's). As for interior weather, many a mystery will be solved. As Mercury is a neutral planet, neither overtly masculine nor feminine, it takes on the color and tone of the planet it is conjunct, and since Pluto is the ultimate spy of our solar system, don't be surprised if you uncover a huge secret -- or if you have one of your own secrets blown. When feeling vengeful, Pluto will hit below the belt and abuse its considerable power; a Mercury-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn could create not only a snowstorm, but a perfect storm for scandal. Politicians, bankster bigwigs, CEOs, and famous people in general will be especially vulnerable, but even if you're Mr. or Ms. Nobody from Nowhere, if your hands aren't completely clean, watch out -- you will be called out. With the Moon in Scorpio next weekend, the fallout from the Mercury-Pluto conjunction may very well involve the revealing of "sexcapades," embezzlement, abuse, and murder. If you find yourself falsely accused or under obvious suspicion this week, try not to fall into the trap of "Well, if that's what you think of me, I might as well go ahead and do it." You may have more short-term fun, but in the long run, not so much.

Other Mercury-Pluto conjunction activities include having breakthroughs in psychotherapy; reading and writing mysteries, crime novels, and erotica; masturbating; purging yourself of possessions that have lost their meaning to you; obsessing; breaking bad habits; changing your routine in a way that is profound though not necessarily visible; having a meaningful interaction with a sibling or neighbor; coming to terms with a death or loss; channeling your inner shaman; being able to concentrate on something with great intensity and insight; experiencing clairaudience; communicating with the dead.

In the hands of a dangerous person with too much power at his or her disposal, a Mercury-Pluto conjunction can be a literal or figurative nuclear weapon. In the hands of a super-loving, super-conscious person, this aspect can be used as a highly effective tool for healing. Most of us stand somewhere between these two extremes, but it does help to know where exactly you stand, and to move your ass if you don't feel right about your location.

A Missive to Saturn in Scorpio

Dear Saturn in Scorpio,

This is not an epigraph to you, as much as I wish it were. I realize that your departure is more of a sabbatical than a death, and that we'll all be seeing you again next summer. Yes, between mid-June and mid-September 2015 you will once again remind us that we have some unfinished Scorpionic business to deal with.

Saturn in Scorpio, you are an impressive mo'fo. You are an ancient museum housing top-secret treasures. You have tantric and shamanic abilities. Your structure manifests as the three certainties of life: sex, death, and taxes. You live to control, and are the power behind the throne. You are the shadow government and the underworld. You are capable of unspeakable brutality. And you can be one rabid pitbull when it comes to protecting your fears, your hopes, and, y'know, your feelings. You think vulnerability is for suckahs. For you, no matter what side you're on -- sunny-side up or sunny-side down -- it's easy to be hard. You are certainly not over easy.

I can't say that I'll pine for you for the next six months, since I got pretty damned depressed when you passed over my Moon in the fall of 2013, when you also manifested in my body as recurring UTIs, which made me even more depressed. I have also felt old, fat, and unattractive, and have been gradually losing money -- and I don't mean dropping small change on the floor of my corner bodega at two a.m.

That said, I have to admit that when you passed over my Neptune earlier this month and trined my Mercury, I regained my creative discipline. It had been a pretty dry autumn. So sincerest thanks for that. Your dismount, as it were, has been a beautiful one. And I guess it's not how you start -- it's how you finish.

About that unfinished business next summer -- if I try my hardest to face it with dignity and respect, with an open mind and an open heart, will you consider playing fair?

In the meantime, I look forward to getting into Saturn in an entirely different sign, Sagittarius. The lessons of Saturn in Sagittarius will be very different, involving abstract stuff like philosophy, higher education, the higher mind. I am sure there will be long-distance travel for business, not pleasure. I am sure there will be sibling shit to work through. Saturn in any sign can be a pain in the ass, but in Sagittarius it simply won't wrench my heart, guts, and private parts the way you have, Saturn in Scorpio.

Goodnight and good luck. I'd say "See you next June," but you'll undoubtedly see me first and not play hard to get.

Love and kisses,

T.C.

Your Karma Ran over My Dogma: Meditations on Saturn

Saturn entered Libra on October 29, 2009, then retrograded back into Virgo on April 7, 2010, before finally reentering Libra on July 21, 2010, where it has remained ever since. Today, however, at 4:33 p.m. ET, Saturn will pass its torch to the next sign in line: Scorpio. Interestingly, earlier today another planet went into Scorpio: Mercury. So the final aspect involving Saturn in the final astrological minutes (29'57") of Libra was a conjunction with Mercury -- perhaps a final bid on Saturn's part for us to think about the past three years.

Makes an astrologer think, anyway. Though at the time of the Mercury-Saturn conjunction, I must admit to being fast asleep.

Saturn is undoubtedly the "heavy" of our solar system. Traditional Western astrology (i.e., pre-1930, when Pluto was discovered, and lingering till the explosive Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the mid-1960s), placed far more emphasis on Saturn's negative manifestations: loss, limitation, loneliness, misery, depression, greed, harshness, fear. It seemed that wherever you had the ringed planet placed in your birth chart, it indicated the area of life where you were utterly screwed, and there was really nothing you could do about it other than passively accept it as your burden.

I believe that part of the reason for this baleful attitude toward Saturn had to do with a more rigid way of life in general, a time when it was far less likely that you could break out of the mold and veer away from the path on which you was born. In the pre-automobile age, there was far less literal as well as social mobility; true, in the United States were Little House on the Prairie-type pioneers, Wild West cowboys, and Gold Rush junkies who moved far from their families, as well as a great wave of immigration from Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Yet the majority of Americans (and those Europeans who were not kicked out of their birth countries for the crime of being, say, Jewish) lived and died within a handful of miles of their place of birth. Vacations were pretty much unheard of, except of course for the rich, as was the concept of retirement: you worked either until you dropped dead or were fired for loss of mental or physical strength, and your safety net consisted of merciful relatives who allowed you to you live in their back room.

I realize very well that these days, the "American Dream" seems to have stalled, and is a cruel joke for many more people than in the past few generations. That several other countries' austerity measures and/and constant wars are also grinding down the hopes of millions, even billions of people. That during this topsy-turvy, crisis-laden era of the Uranus-Pluto square, giving stodgy ol' grumpy-boots Saturn the time of day might seem a ridiculous waste of time.

Which is exactly why we all need to get back to the basics and reconsider the power and weight of Saturn. If it wasn't so heavy, we might not have any sense of grounding at all. Saturn operates on the material plane. It is very telling indeed that Saturn rules Capricorn -- an earth sign. Saturn is our touchstone, and our backbone.

Even in touchy-feely contemporary astrology, Saturn certainly will never win any popularity contests, but just like Bartelby the Scrivener, it "would prefer not to." Saturn feels far more comfortable alone on the top of a mountain, or in a penthouse apartment, or in a corner office in a high-rise landmark-status building that it designed and built itself. (It is also no surprise that the charts of CEOs, bankers, architects, and construction workers are dominated by Saturn and/or Capricorn).

The terms karma and dharma are complex, comprising several tomes' worth of Eastern philosophy, and like the word love, are far too easily tossed around. In the context of astrology, however, they mesh perfectly with what Saturn symbolizes: your individualized trials and tribulations; your path; your duties; your earthly, character-building lessons to be learned in this lifetime, not turned away from out of denial or shame. To achieve what Buddha called the "diamond Soul," you must listen and learn from Saturn -- not coincidentally, all minerals, but especially the rarest, most precious ones like diamonds, are ruled by the ringed planet.

The Saturn Return at age 29-30 is the most important astrological event in anyone's lifetime, even trumping the Uranus opposition (aka "midlife crisis") at age 40-42. It is not a time for dreaming or escapism, but for looking unflinchingly into hard, cold facts, incorporating structure into your life, making peace with your father (or an equivalent "old man" authority figure), as you finally pass through the gates of true adulthood with a more defined sense of your life's mission. Saturn rules the concept of truth, as well as time; and like it or not, your time on earth is limited. Even if you believe in reincarnation, that you will return as the same (hopefully more evolved) soul in a different shell, you cannot take your shell or material booty with you.

Saturn's transit through a sign indicates the hard lessons we are all most likely to be faced with during a 2.5-year period, especially as it forms challenging aspects (conjunctions, squares, and oppositions) to other transiting planets, and to planets or other important points within our own birth charts.

Specifically, Saturn transiting Libra was about learning to structure and commit to important personal relationships in a mature, equitable way. Does that mean that all of us became more responsible in relationships, and better at cooperating with others? Of course not! Saturn cannot force you to learn any lessons at all -- but it does have the uncanny ability to take something pretty important away from you if you keep ignoring those lessons (i.e., your long-suffering spouse files for divorce). This does not, of course, mean that every time a person screws up and fails to rectify the mistake, Saturn immediately steps in to punish that person, ingeniously tailoring the punishment to the sign it is transiting. And of course shit also happens to those who do not "deserve" it. I live in the world, and I assume that you do, too. I am just speaking Saturnese right now.

Obviously, some will be in for a rockier road than others as Saturn leaves Libra (a position, by the way, that is traditionally considered "exalted") and enters Scorpio -- it depends on your own cosmic blueprint. Often what will happen is a mixture of flowing and challenging aspects, and when Saturn is involved, even trines and sextiles can have teeth. If you do not know your own chart, by all means contact me to schedule a private reading; if you know your chart well, take a close look to see what house Saturn will be in as it enters Scorpio; unless your chart features a house with 0 degrees of Scorpio on the cusp, it will be the same house as Saturn at 29 Libra, but the energy will feel very different as Saturn changes from cardinal air to fixed water.

So, Saturn is officially in Scorpio now. Please take a moment to welcome it (especially since Mercury just entered Scorpio, and Mars is still in Scorpio). If you were born with Saturn in Scorpio (i.e., are approaching your first, second, or even third Saturn Return), or have one or more planets or the Ascendant placed in Scorpio, you will undoubtedly be faced with some pretty serious lessons to learn (or not -- the choice is yours) over the next two and a half years. These lessons will specifically focus on the extreme, nitty-gritty aspects of life, including death (and sex, the occult, other people's money, and taxes). You may find yourself obsessing over one or more of these areas, and fearing any situation in which you do not have control. Scorpio types (not necessarily born with Sun in Scorpio, but with Scorpio planets or a strong Pluto) hate losing control as much as Capricorn (which is, you will remember, ruled by Saturn). But if you want to work with Saturn in Scorpio rather than against it, you must learn to let yourself ask for help sometimes. You must gradually accept the fact that you can be a vulnerable human being, and that needing a strong emotional connection with your sexual partner (or a strong sexual connection with your soul mate) does not make you needy.

The first aspect Saturn in Scorpio makes is an easy-peasy trine to the Moon in Cancer at 9:02 p.m. Saturday (Saturn's Day); the more collectively significant, longer-lasting trine to Neptune at 0 Pisces occurs next Wednesday evening, on the heels of the Sun-Jupiter trine. But more on the Saturn-Neptune trine next post -- my hands are about to fall off, and I also happen to be taking antibiotics.

New Moon in Taurus: Stop and Smell the Roses

If flowers aren't your cup of tea, then plan this weekend to indulge yourself and tickle your senses in other ways: perhaps in the form of a truffle (either a real one from the ground or a chocolate one from a bakery), a glass of fine wine, a decadent picnic or breakfast in bed, a silk shirt or feather boa, a bubble bath, a concert, a trip to the museum, a visit to a spa, and/or a session of long, luxuriant lovemaking with your favorite person (which could be yourself).

All of the above suggestions fall within the purview of the New Moon in Taurus. Springtime is solidly here (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). All the senses are heightened. Get drunk on beauty, comfort, art, and love. Even if you are a bitter, twisted soul, please run the risk of ruining your reputation by finding something or someone that will bring you unbearable pleasure and make you feel blessed to be alive.

And how apropos that Earth Day this year occurs during the New Moon in the first Earth sign! Remember to give love, care, and thanks to the planet that houses us by doing your bit to reduce your own personal carbon footprint, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles such as corporations and entire nations that do not even pretend to care about the environment.

Particularly auspicious windows of time (given in EDT) this weekend include the Moon-Pluto trine (exact this evening at 7:25 p.m.), which lends manageable, harmonious intensity to the emotions; the Sun-Neptune sextile (exact 4/22 at 5:20 a.m.), which encourages the imagination and good dreams; and the Moon-Jupiter conjunction (exact 4/22 at 1:10 p.m.), which suggests both emotional and material bounty. We are also within range of the Sun-Mars trine (exact 4/23 at 8:59 p.m.), which suggests that the weekend's pleasures, far from hindering your physical energy and focus, will help.

Unrelated to the New Moon energy, but still important to mention, is the Mercury-Uranus conjunction in Aries. Exact on Sunday at 4:30 p.m., could give you a most unexpected and brilliant brain wave, or the solution to a problem that has been troubling you for some time.