Aggressive Mothering: Mars moves into Cancer

Fights with your Mom? Family friction? Home Improvement Projects? Smoke alarms going off? Stomach problems? A Crabby and Emotional public? Needy, clingy feelings and vibes? An aggressive roomie or tenant? Something bubbling away inside or or beneath you?

Whether it's you or someone else, keep an eye open for these beauties now that Mars the planet of aggression moved into Cancer, sign of the home, mom, family and personal space.

Not that it's all negative - this is a great time to MAKE YOURSELF COMFY. To be your own mom and to make sure your nurturing skills aren't turning into a smothering or control compaign. That's what the game calls for now - energy (mars) directed into your personal energy space (Cancer).

Everyone is fierce about having their needs met now. And they'll fight you for their right to personal territory. Just you watch - overstep someones emotional safe space and you'll get to hear about it this month. It's the protective mother hen type of month.

Keep an eye on your emotions - aggression and anger could be signs you're not following your feelings or looking after yourself. Walking into other people's emotional minefields is unwise. At least step back and realize it's no one's job to make you feel safe. That's your own choice.

Take out stress on fix it projects, cuddling and making some kick-ass meals for yourself. Baking, anyone?

Passive Aggressiveness rules the day, so if you have something to say, say it, stop tucking it inside your belly or you'll wind up with digestion issues! And no one likes the air polluted with the 'No i'm fine, but I'm going to sit and stew so you KNOW I'm not fine' vibes. Sulkers - stop it!

Enjoy making your home a little more homey and your inner comfort (in your own skin) a priority now. And if you come across any Cancerians on your travels, don't piss them off coz they are no mood to mess.

Your Astro-warning alert system,
Neil

Sexual Subliminals & Mental Minefields: Mercury enters Scorpio

Sex on the brain?
Thinking about Halloween?
Talking about murder, death, destruction?
Pondering someone' secret motives?

Course you are. Mercury the mental messenger just flew into Scorpio, donned its X-ray machine and lie detector and is sniffing the shadows for signs of life. I'm sure you are too.
Mental energies become very deep now - if you're not analyzing your dreams you're performing psychic surgery on something or someone to find out how much you can trust it, or to find out how it really works.

Mercury shows what we're thinking about and chances are the news media (and our heads) are gonna be full of the dark depths of this season - masks, corruption, big money deals, debt, revenge, jealousy, addictions and Sex sex sex sex sex.

Who's not thinking, talking or wondering about sex stuff? Okay so as humans we spend most of the time thinking about it anyway, but with mercury now in Scorpio it's probably gonna rear its (ugly/filthy/dirty/sassy/lovely depending on your viewpoint) head again and again.

If you're confident with the "dark" side of life, you'll be confident when the light gets thrown on it this month. When we get to search the hidden corners of our psyche.

Dive deep, explore uncharted realms. Do a little self-therapy. Clear out mental cobwebs. Burn eucalyptus oil which I've been doing of late to clear your mind and soothe your overactive brain.

Trust yourself. We have no real control over anyone.
Get back to research, read occult books. Watch thrillers.
Dare to think or talk about taboos.
Rise above your own shadow.

Yes, it's a shady, subliminal time. But since sex is one of the most powerful forces around (ask any Scorpio) no wonder most societies have major issues with it still, (stamping it out, saying its 'bad') and no wonder religion tries to turn us away from it (control a person's personal power and you have them by them the sensitive parts, pun intended).

Astrology has always given people a chance to empower themselves. Maybe it's time to research more of it yourself (or Wicca, witchcraft, other energy work or things people told you were 'scary, wrong, evil'). Own a Tarot deck? investigate. These are all tools. You do the work but they all help in the process of awakening your latest intuition.

Animals are all still psychic. So are we. But who turned us away from trusting our own cosmic radar?

Enjoy an early Halloween and whatever hidden things you uncover.
Neil

Befriending Inner foes: Full Moon in Aries! (Sep 25)

This Wednesday the Full Moon lands in the sign of Aries - war, aggression, assertiveness, action, initiation, inspiring us to pioneer old ground or to walk away from old lives and creating new beginnings out of the tattered remains of yesterdays soul-cleansing fires.

As the first sign of the zodiac wheel, Aries is the starter, the Fire Starter I guess you could say (since that's its element) but under a Full Moon things reach a completion, a culmination and we receive word from the Universe in the form of a progress report.

Full Moons remind us to 'let go' in areas where we're overdoing, overstriving and otherwise resisting the flow of cosmic energy in our lives. A new beginning is hard, when we're caught up in yesterday's shadows. So this week we look both forward (Aries) and backwards (Full Moon) separating old paths with new trails yet to be blazed.

We can help this along by following a few of these suggestions, tailor made for this particular lunar phase this week:

Work on Anger Management Issues - should anger ever BE managed? If not - all hell can break loose, or we end up in all-out war. But repressing it does us no good. Work out a way to meet your needs head-on and confront obstacles with courage, confidence and total honesty.

Let go of the need to be first - people push, people shove, they cut you off on roads and they are impatient and self-centered. This weekend, let them be. Save yourself a headache!

Give up selfishness - sometimes your needs can't be met by anyone else but you. That's life so accept it.

Go kickboxing, play squash/tennis - anything that's high energy and aggressive or fast.
Pump Iron - Aries loves raw energy and a show of macho. Push your limits just know when to quit.

Chill out - is it worth getting so heated over?

Burn something - in a safe environment, but try a Full Moon Fire Ritual - on Friday, burn things that symbolize what you're trying to move away from or let go of. Works wonders.

Quit banging your head against a brick wall. Find another way.

DO something - Aries Full Moons ask for energy and drive, committed to achieving a task. Knock down a wall, build something, go for a jog, work out, wrestle, buy a punchbag, scream, sing a rock song at karaoke, start 18 new projects and alternate between them all.

Burn off calories, then you won't be so easy to trigger. A relaxed body/mind is harder to agitate!

Cut hair, do face treatments - Full Moons are good times to cut hair (to grow back slower). Aries relates to the Head so prune crazy hair, give yourself a facial. Legend has it that cutting hair can release stagnant energy some cultures say resided in hair. Look back and notice your haircuts after a breakup, or breakdown? It released old energy. perhaps it's time for another makeover?!

In short - stop thinking, feeling and analyzing and wondering. Just Do It!

Full Moons pull liquids on the planet and within our bodies, making us more emotional and touchy. It'd be easy to get into a fight under Aries energy this week but it's a waste of good raw energy. Remember energy is directed where our conscious will is focused. Save it or squander it, the choice is ours.

Raw energy is sexy - that's why Mars, the ruling planet associated with Aries is about Drive and Desire. Conquering something becomes a theme this weekend - we NEED a fight, we NEED a challenge, we NEED something to win over, we NEED something to put ourselves against. Moons show emotional needs. Aries energy is driven and goal oriented and won't be denied!

We all turn into Stone Age men and women - back in the primal days of the Universal Fire. Separating ourselves out from the fold, showing how brave we are. These days, fights are taken to sports arenas or worse, into the fields of cities, town and villages, or into the home and family, the originator of all future 'fight-plans' and 'fight patterns'.

Find your 'beef', uncover the roots of your anger and dispute, and resolve to resolve it by the only means possible - facing it. What you do when you confront it is up to you but in the handling the issue, lies the possible resolution.

Remember, inactivity is also an action. Anger has a time and a place - and we shouldn't shy from it. It's not un-spiritual to get mad, says the Aries Full Moon. It's emotional and human. But it is raw untapped and untamed power from within that bubbles out in such moments, a spark from a much greater fire. A passionate seething cauldron of emotional power we can use to further our lives and create something greater, from the friction caused by seeing something that reflects less than we could be. That after all, is the basis of every fight - both within and without - seeing ourselves or another, being less than we (or they, in our perception) could be.


Mars and Pluto are at odds with this Full Moon and are the ruling planets of the sign of Aries so the need to confront ourselves increases, if not, we'll be faced with plenty of people whom we can cast in our inner conflicts, and wind up staging them outside ourselves, in the form of more war, ravaging, rape, conquest and destruction. The choice is yours - fight the inner battle, or see it explode outside?

Go forth, warriors. Fight the good fight, or better still - face off with inner demons and remove all reasons to fight, by befriending the foes within!

Love,
Neil

Your Saturn Survival Guide!

With Karmic Saturn in a new sign, a new Karmic Lesson is upon us. In one area of our lives in particular, Saturn demands we tighten up, smarten up, straight up and work extra hard for the rewards we desire.

Where is that for you?

I've teamed up with Astrologers Kim Falconer & Mystic Medusa to offer you 12,000 + words of sign by sign usable, jargon-free info for turning Saturn through Virgo into an astute and supportive astro-influence.


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Saturn Salutes,
Neil

My September Forecasts

Sadly, Dot Magazine is closing its doors after two years so you can catch the last of the forecasts there by pointing your mouse here.

Enjoy!

Taking out the trash....Pluto goes Direct (Sep 7)

Pluto Direct (Rx since March 31, 2007)

September 7

26:18 Sagittarius

Eastern: 10:54 am

Pacific: 7:54 pm

Since March 31, Pluto the planet of death, rebirth, regeneration and transformation has been moving retrograde (backwards) and tomorrow moves direct (back to normal) once more.

In Sagittarius, who hasn't had their beliefs challenged? Who hasn't been questioning whether this philosophy or that idea or concept is valid, accurate, real or true? Who hasn't been forced to be completely honest to themselves and be forced to learn most painful lessons when veering from the course we know in our heart is the right one for us?

This phase of inner resurrection comes to a form of completion during this next Pluto cycle. It does mean that some chapters will inevitably close with a finality you've not experienced til well before March 2007. Remember when you could be done and really mean it? Remember when endings meant you could pick up the pieces and carry on? Recent days and months have seen old issues haunt us still ("but i thought I had learned that!") or else fragments from a half-forgitten (or repressed) past came back to poke and prod us into dealing with them once again.

Darkness hasn't waned around us, it just went into hiding. Now, when Pluto turns direct again we get a surge of power, collectively, to deal with the dark, and turn out the old so that we can celebrate a renewed sense of self, spirit and soul.

On the simple level, Pluto will allow for a parting of the ways in some area of your life (look to the House Pluto is currently passing through). Very briefly though (contact me for more depth as always):

Aries can destroy all others codes of conduct and finally follow their own custom-made belief system.
Taurus can realize that power often comes from what we choose not to do than what we actually manifest.
Gemini can find their own strength or manipulation mirrored back to them through other people who come or go now.
Cancer can clean up the mess by seeing once and for all which parts no longer work in the whole of their life picture.
Leo can find the power of play acting instead of playing games in order to feel truly loved and appreciated.
Virgo can find safety and security on changing ground knowing that home is a sense of self, not a physical thing or place.
Libra can tune their mind into only things they desire and no longer give power to shadows of possibilities.
Scorpio can ground their new-found self belief and self worth into projects of power that further their financial and personal wealth.
Sagittarius can be proud of the spiritual weight lost of late and how aloneness was needed to accomplish the cleanse.
Capricorn can release the toxins accumulated to date and complete a cycle of collecting all things that block us from our true spiritual core.
Aquarius can free themselves from old dreams that haunt but no longer satisfy and mix with those who have a purpose and a power to reform instead of rebel for its own sake.
Pisces can stand strong knowing that power is being given to them as a reward for following Universal Law and using, not abusing, the responsibilities issued to them of late.

Pluto asks us to give up siding with things, people, places, energies, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, lifestyles or relationships that no longer give us a sense of healthy power, deep passion, intense and loyal vibrations and that sink us further into haunted and dark places.

Release the meany energy in your own life under what can be a major detox period if you allow what's rotting, rotten, falling or fallen to fade and phase out of your life.

How can you be reborn to a new life
if you too scared to let your old self die?

Pull the plug!
Neil

Seriously Simple: Saturn moves into Virgo

Saturn just moved into Virgo.

It's time to get serious - about simplifying things. In the next 2.5 yr period look for personal changes surrounding:

A new improved schedule - are you waking up earlier, later - what are you doing daily? Is it a healthy habit or hindering your health?

A new fitness program - more herbs, less carbs or sugar? More natural? Yoga? A new gym? Stretching for breakfast? Or will your body finally send you a message to show you're living out of harmony with your true Nature?

Work and Job shifts - as you begin to see how to serve through your own special vocation. Are you a slave to a corporation or following a course that feels good and helps people? Do you care about what you're providing? Is quality more important or are you just clocking in?


On the bigger scale - the health industry undergoes a major reevaluation. Hospitals, Vitamins, natural remedies and procedures. New health advances and major setbacks and new rules and regulations in the mentioned fields.

Workers rights are hit, as are unions. Service industries get a wake-up call to what's not working. Management needs to reshuffle and new handbooks issued to all staff members with new (but improved?) policies.

More on this soon - for now, it's time to clean up. Your act, your bedroom, your daily schedule, your health, your body, your mind.

Simplify.
Streamline.
Shape up.

Rolling up his own sleeves with ya,
Neil