Ceres into Pisces | the mother bear losing her grip

mother bear by alexis photo art

Ceres (nurturing, loss, mother/child, food) moves into Pisces today. As she moves through Pisces thru mid April and as she aspects planets and angles in our natal chart her themes will be triggered for us.

I don't talk about Ceres much (this being a business blog and all - wink). Ceres is the dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter. You are probably familiar with her story.

Ceres (known to the Greeks as Demeter) is the mother - the provider, the nurturer - the goddess archetype of spring. Ceres represents the part of our nature that longs to give birth and then nourish and sustain new life. She represents the essential bonding or lack of that occurs between mother and child. She is the impulse to nurture and also to be nurtured by others.

Ceres's daughter, Persephone, was abducted by Pluto, lord of the underworld. The grieving mother, Ceres wandered the earth in search of her missing child.

In her grief, depression and anger, she caused a famine, withholding nourishment from the world until her daughter was returned. Persephone meanwhile had eaten pomegranate seeds, a symbol of sexual awareness, which gave Pluto a claim over her so she could not be returned permanently to her mother.

A deal was reached so Persephone would spend part of each year in the underworld with Pluto caring for the souls of the dead, but each spring would be reunited with her mother in the upper world as she initiated the dead into the rites of rebirth (spring).

Ceres in our chart alerts us to any challenges with nurturing and directs us to the 
kinds of experience we need to feel unconditionally loved and accepted.

In Pisces, happenings around nurturing and loss will be emotional now. 

Hanging on to things in Pisces is like trying to hold water - it slips through our fingers. Children are meant to grow up and leave us. Our creative children are meant to leave us, too. 

If you are the type of mama bear who likes to be in control, things ruled by Ceres may feel a bit "slippery" over the next few weeks.

This is a wonderful time though, to dream the BIG and magical dream for the things and people we 'mother', yes, including ourselves.

Check your natal Pisces house - is there something there that is dissolving? something you need to gently release? or maybe something that needs more nurturing? xo all

Chiron on the South Node | Jupiter on the North Node - fate and free will

future tv by a7md3mad

I believe our birth charts are our contracts. They are the imprint of that moment we took our first breath - we literally are the universe at exactly that second (and we carry that energy for all of us our entire lives).

So, maybe there are some things we have set up already and just have to live out, maybe some things we are going to encounter and deal with this go round are just not up to us anymore.

That's the "fate" part - it may be out of our hands now.

(although I believe we set that part up, too, or at least our past actions did)

Then the "free will" part comes in. This part is much more important. It is always up to us how we react and process things, the actions we take, what we do with the situations we face, the way we release things, etc.

Some birth charts have a couple major themes, in other charts there is more going on as if we wanted to get a lot covered while we are here; to burn through a lot of old stuff.

When people suddenly appear to "lose it all" or life takes a total turn, often you can find in that person's chart a kind of integrated life - it's as if they decided OK when I am done with this (ie learned or experienced what I came into that experience to learn) move me right on to that.

Of course, the person living through this may think their life has just fallen apart. And it has actually. But it doesn't mean they don't get a new life.

I was in banking for 10 years. I started as a bank teller and left a decade later as a vice president. I had been a head teller, assistant manager, branch manager and managed both a lending department and a retail telephone banking department. It seems about as far from my life now as I could possibly imagine.

I have lots of stuff in my birth chart to make this early life possible. Scorpio rising means my chart is co-ruled by Mars (action) and Pluto (banking). My Moon (nurturing) is in my 8th house (other people's money). Saturn sits within 1 degree of my 3rd house Sun making me quite serious quite early on and able to present myself (communicate) as older and "in charge". My South Node (past life energy/comfort zone) is in Capricorn (business).

Then along came my Saturn return and life took a hard left. My North Node (future) in Cancer (mother, nurturing) was activated. I lost my job. My 'mother' became very ill and moved in with us. My daughter was kind of running amok (she denies she ever gave us any trouble) and needed me to mother her in a new way. Almost overnight my entire life seemed to revolve around the word "mother".

Fate has a way of pulling, pushing and drop kicking us exactly where we need to be. What we do once we get there is up to us. It isn't always a hard left, sometimes it's just a tiny little shift right that makes all the difference.

For the rest of this month we have Chiron (healer) connecting with our collective South Node (past, comfort zone) and Jupiter (expansion) connecting with our North Node (future).

Life asks us to stop repeating by tempting us to repeat.

Check your natal chart for anything within 5 degrees of 14 degrees Capricorn (or Aries, Cancer, Libra) - that's where this current transit is offering up the fate .... what are we going to do this time?

Jupiter is in Virgo so we practically, helpfully, patiently collect the information and ideas and details we had overlooked before. We use those missed opportunities to craft something else.

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of January 25th - we're moving forward

winter walk by cirtus frukt

Mercury (in Capricorn) stations direct on Monday evening and we can finally begin to move forward with whatever has been holding us back since January 5th.

(Do I hear a Hallelujah?!)

People who have been awol will suddenly reappear. Calls and emails get returned. Situations that have been dead in the water (including New Year's resolutions) will suddenly begin to show signs of life. Maybe the delays of this past month start to make some sense. Maybe not. Either way we start to get unstuck.

There might still be some glitches early in the week as the energy shifts forward, but for the most part the Mercury retrograde delays are behind us (Mercury doesn't truly get to new territory until Valentine's Day when he gets back to Aquarius) and the stuff Capricorn rules - authority figures, business, goals, career - and our Capricorn natal house aided by attractive Venus will be "all - or most - systems full steam ahead".

The other big aspects this week are (1) Mercury squaring Uranus and conjuncting Pluto at the end of the week (Friday and Saturday) - this is the 3rd time we've had this aspect since December 19th and 20th, so something set into motion then winds up. Maybe 3rd time is the charm. It could be a communication, some information or a decision made now ends something or removes some obstacle that allows us to move on.

EXAMPLE for Aries - (Sun in whole house astrology or rising) - Mercury in your 10th house of career joins Pluto and squares Uranus (in Aries) - this is about big changes in a professional or public situation. There could be a final decision regarding a career matter or maybe an out of the blue announcement. Any delays with career and authority figures will end now.

(2) Jupiter retrograde (in Virgo) makes his second exact conjunction with the North Node of our collective destiny. This entire week we have the opportunity for fated connections to our future. This is also big energy for endings - hopefully we don't lose another rock star!

EXAMPLE for Taurus (Sun in whole house astrology or rising) a retrograde Jupiter connects with the North Node in your 5th house of creativity, children and romantic love. This is a push to develop something in one of these areas (just like last week!). This is about what you want - just work with Virgo - details, organization, small steps, careful adjustments. Combine this with Mercury lighting up your 11th house of hopes and dreams (and friends) and it’s looking good!

MONDAY - void Moon in Leo - good day to play in the snow, good day for creative work & production TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY - Moon moves into Virgo - organization feels good. If Monday was a snow day this is a perfect Moon to get back to work. It's good energy to get our acts together with Virgo stuff - health, paperwork, employees, co-workers, pets, habits. THURSDAY & FRIDAY - Moon moves into Libra - emotional stability comes through partnerships, relating to someone as an equal, seeking balance or justice. Aspects with Pluto could have us focused on Pluto themes - other people's money, debts, taxes, sex, death, birth. Endings could make the end of the week a bit stressy.

xo all - back Tuesday or Wednesday with some big picture 2016 stuff!

FULL MOON in Leo | we're us, but we're not

nothing beats a lion by lionique

Think about what a Full Moon looks like - it's the brightest moon; a completely lit circle. There is nothing obscured in the shadows, everything is visible.

During the full moon, something comes to light. 

Every Full Moon in January is called the Wolf Moon, probably after the wolf packs that howled hungrily outside Native American villages amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter.

(and by this time of year our ancestors provisions were running low and their tummies were rumbling, too - this is built into our DNA - we are hungering for something, too, now).

Our Sun is in Aquarius so we know the Full Moon is in Aquarius's polarity sign of Leo the lion. Both the Sun and Moon will be at 3 degrees so this is the space in your natal chart (3 degrees Leo, 3 degrees Aquarius) ripe for illumination.

With any Leo Moon generosity pays off and feels really good - we'll give the other person the benefit of the doubt, an extra big tip, a hand shoveling out, our brightest smile (an old man just smiled at me and totally turned my day around, I need to smile more), the keys to our car

 - maybe not our actual car, but the keys are a good first step or maybe a keychain, yeah we'll give them a keychain - you can get one HERE, even lions take baby steps sometimes - although I think it's stealthy baby steps toward their prey, but you get the idea.

Leo rules the 5th house of creativity and fun. If you are not snowed in today - it would still be a good time to pretend you are. And if you are snowed in, just remember although Netflix marathons can be great, they are a waste of this Full Moon energy when we should be creating our own stories! Give yourself the gift of some creative time now. The Full Moon is our peak energy of the monthly cycle - use it or lose it.

With the Leo/Aquarius polarity and all this Capricorn energy this is about our personal ambition and our devotion to our "flock". It's not about giving ourselves up to the group, but about remaining ourselves within a group setting while integrating. We're us, but we're not. We're them, but we're different.

During this Full Moon we have Mercury retrograde's journey through the waning Pluto/Uranus square bringing maybe some discord and discomfort to what is revealed. The Moon is inconjunct Venus in Capricorn so maybe we don't get exactly what we want with this (although something worth celebrating could certainly be uncovered now, too!) AND remember we have lucky and expansive Jupiter conjunct the North Node of our collective fate reminding us that things are falling into place in our Virgo house RIGHT NOW.

Somewhere among all this chatter is our soul mission, quietly waiting to be discovered.

All we have to do is right in front of us. What gifts and opportunities have we been given? How can we make the most of them? Our Capricorn houses get busy, busy, busy. xo all