Moon opposes Venus

"... All day the Moon approaches exact opposition to Venus and holds it through the end of the sign late in the night. The themes are parental and hinge on balancing satiating inner needs with working toward acquiring the objects of desire. Structure and comfort must balance with inner needs for connectedness and nurturing. Do your personal life goals and commitments support this?"- Satori

Riding to the New Moon in Cancer, Monday, July 8, 2013

" Saturday night the Moon in Cancer, its home sign, conjuncts Jupiter and trines both Saturn and Mars. This is the ride up to the new moon and it lights up the grand trine in water as a delicious prelude. Moon to Neptune is dreamy and Moon to Saturn is solid. Isn’t it romantic, okay? It’s an opportunity to feel the possibilities, the soaring fantasy of your dreams and the solid support of reality. It’s also a time to experience joy and hope and the feeling that you can make these dreams real. Whether or not that’s true, who knows. But it can feel true, so why not enjoy it?... - Satori

The New Moon in Cancer begins the newest cycle of possibilities. In the sign of the crab, the nurturer, it means a lot for my family so I look close to home and notice. The effects of the New Moon in the houses of astrology offer this for my family:

• 7th house – Nurture your partner
  
• 10th house – Communication in the workplace

"Nurture your partner" ... there's my clue for Monday's New Moon in the 7th house. "Communication in the workplace" ... both my husband and son will have the New Moon in their 10th house.  I can see how valuable it is for me to nurture my husband who cares for a lot of people in our community. He's got many irons in the fire, so I get that home base is precious space. It's easy to love him, keep him fed, and fuel us both at the same time. Time has taught me what Satori is talking about "to feel the possibilities, the soaring fantasy of your dreams and the solid support of reality. It’s also a time to experience joy and hope and the feeling that you can make these dreams real."

The New Moon, Hilo, in Kaulana Mahina (The Hawaiian Moon Calendar) is a time when fishing is good. A dark night sky the fish will be feed, and a wise fisher person will know which fish feed and where. Hilo moon is not a particularly good planting moon, the water within plants will not rise with growing energy. So wait to plant. See how this might apply to fishing and planting in your life?

Where will the New Moon be in your chart?

Under pressure? Saturn squares the Sun

Satori from ElsaElsa.com is really rolling with bowls filled with astrological food to fuel me. Today, as the sun winds down on this Monday after the 'Ole Moon phases, she fed me this to prepare for tomorrow:

"... Saturn squares the Sun, challenge, but that’s not always a bad thing. It also slows down the process and instills structure. That can create value through permanence...." Read the entire post for tomorrow's sky here.

I am gradually rolling out a week of feeling poorly and came to our trusted old Acer laptop(the big bruiser of a desk top computer is still in get-used to me mode, We aren't used to a monitor that's huge and bright!) to see what bones might be in old Mother Hubbard's cupboard. Sometimes, like the nursery rhyme there is nothing but lucky me today Satori had something to nourish me.

Any Saturn-heavy readers here? Satori's reading of tomorrow's heavenly alignment could offer a nice tweak to the persistent challenge of being Saturnian. I'm drinking a mug of ginger tea and heading back to the vardo for a bit of Saturn and silliness with Nanny McPhee. 

Inspired ... the astrology of it

I've been very busy working on an idea, a story that has lit me from the inside out. I've been inspired. Elsa wrote about the 'spark' of love, or inspiration on her blog today. She says:

"...The thing is, if you do not act on that spark…if you do not go after that love, nothing will happen. The spark will die out.
You have to chase stuff like this. Love. But also an idea you might have, or some other kind of inspiration...

Elsa's blog post and questions got me thinking about what makes me do it; what makes me go after a love, or an inspiration? Answering through the astrological lens I've got to say it's that once maligned Uranus in the 6th House-Gemini that does it for me. 'Once maligned'? Yup, not too long ago I can remember bad-mouthing and whipping my self for not sticking with it: the corporation jobs that used to pay me a regular check with regular benefits; the neighborhood that I grew up in even when I was getting sicker and sicker living there; the old friendships that somehow under-mined my goofy, artsy writing. What I didn't appreciate about Uranus the Revolutionary is his lightning speed and red-hot poker primed for making sparks.

I think a sad and stultifying condition takes over when you let sparks die over and over again. I think through experience the condition flips a switch on the inside that is more and more difficult to reach even when you want to chase love, or inspiration. Over analyzing or weighing up the options can be good if you're a wild hair without much balance or good luck. At my most debilitated and overwhelmed with sensitivities the waters of Neptune saturated me. Too much exposure to the dousing waters was like having the 'Reset' button duck-taped in position . Time and Saturn (hard work) would need to recondition my ability and willingness to chase a spark. I had to relearn to trust.

Now, six years after the worse stretches of loss and illness ease and my trust muscles can hold a belief, I am chasing a spark of fantasy and taking the advice of my other astro-coach, Satori.On Monday, Satori wrote:

"Venus sextiles Neptune. Fantasies abound and in an aspect of opportunity this could serve as impetus for some of that action. It could also add an imaginative factor to a day that might get to feeling rather dry otherwise. Take that fantasy energy and use it on the field!"

Why do I babble on about this spark chase? Because like she said, if you don't the spark dies. Too many dying sparks and there you have it, lights out. I've been busy this week taking the story of The Safety Pin Cafe into my town and on the field, and I'm finding collaborators excited to play. (Read the sidebar to the right to catch up on what I'm doing with The Cafe). And the logo above? That's the logo of the professional women's basket team from L.A. California. I learned something today while chasing a spark. I learned there is a team named The L.A. Sparks. Pretty cool!

Do you chase sparks?