Current Transits for February 2011 Current Transits for February 2011Here's some of the important astrological news this month ...
New Moon at 13Aq53, 2-2
Chiron enters Pisces, 2-8
Full Moon at 29Le20, 2-18
Mars enters Pisces, 2-22
Jupiter Square Pluto, 2-25
Saturn Trioctile Chiron, 2-27
Hindsight...
An online ephemeris for the month is available.
February kicks off with yet another of those outer planet storm patterns that have followed us around for the last 9 months. Along with a second storm around week 3 of the month, we are still caught in an intense and focused energy that continues to rock our worlds. But things are slowly starting to change. We saw Jupiter move into Aries in January and in coming months, more of the outer planets will be shifting signs. Granted, the outer planets don't move very quickly (which is why they affect us at such a deep level in our lives), so the changes won't happen overnight, but gradually the tight pattern will unravel. Chiron is the next planet to change signs, setting up shop in Pisces for an extended stay (until 2018); Uranus and Neptune also move to new homes in coming months. By late spring, we're looking at a considerably different picture in the overall mood, if not the intensity levels. For now, the planets are rather bunched up in the sky, with Aquarius looking more like a traffic jam than anything else. It's a good influence for putting other things aside and concentrating on important work, especially if it has some kind of mental or intellectual component. This intense mental energy can be a burnout pattern, however, so take time to remain grounded from time to time. There's more to being human than just the rational mind, let alone simply tending to your Internet persona. Use this energy wisely and hang in there!
In traditional terms, there's not much happening in February. A pair of sign changes and a couple of "big aspects" is all. It's all the background activity that gives the month its punch.
By any standard, the new moon is a spectacular chart. It's one of the biggest waveforms all month. The chart is a tightly woven pattern of nearly every planet in the sky -- only Pluto seems left out. Every planet is in roughly one half of the sky (a pattern known as a Bowl), with most of them crowded into Aquarius (6 bodies) and Capricorn (4 more). There's a tight T-Square (Jupiter-Uranus opposite Juno and square Venus) that serves as the scaffolding of the whole show. Ceres, Sun, Moon and Mars are within a 2 degree spread in mid Aquarius. This chart just winds up and lets loose.
It's probably best to approach this chart from several angles. On the larger world stage, it matches the revolutionary spirit spreading across the Middle East in recent weeks. Aquarius is a sign of how people motivated by an ideal can join together and make a difference. It is that spirit of freedom and self-determination that we see each night on the TV screen, although Aquarius can be set back by impatience, an intolerance of anything short of the perfect or ideal, and a tendency to be unconcerned about practical realities. With Mars so close to the new moon point, there is no distance between the thought and the action now -- people simply poured into the streets and made things happen. Perhaps the more grounded, concrete side of the equation is in Capricorn's court -- how do we deal with the complicated details of a very tricky and uncertain transition? The underlying tension in this situation is tied up in that T-Square. Jupiter and Uranus represent the desire for change and more liberty, Juno is the feelings of rage and betrayal of a people long ignored, while Venus is close to the Galactic Center and bringing in an entirely new dynamic than we've seen in the Middle East so far. The results of this chart in our personal lives is perhaps less dramatic, unless you have natal planets in the cross hairs (say, 27-30 or 12-15 degrees of any zodiac sign). Nonetheless, this is a big wake-up-call kind of chart for people, a time to shake loose the cobwebs and dust that has been gathering so we can get on with our lives. There's been a sense of fatigue and resignation over people in recent months, as the long outer planet storm continues to wear us down. The best way to handle the storm now is to embrace it and dive right in. Despite the roadblocks you might encounter, there are great opportunities available as well. Squandering this energy will only invite the more chaotic and disruptive sides of its influence into your life. Get busy!
Chiron moves from Aquarius into Pisces on the 8th. He's been dancing across this border for about 10 months now, first dipping his toe into Pisces on 2010-4-20 (the day the Deepwater Horizon oil platform caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico) and then backtracking into Aquarius again on 2010-7-20. He'll remain in Pisces until 2018, when he starts to enter Aries territory. In personal terms, I normally imagine Chiron's influence through the metaphor of the psychic closet. This is the place somewhere deep in the recesses of the psyche where we store all those parts of ourselves that are unacceptable to others or to society at large. We learn early in life that many of our wonderful personality traits and quirks don't meet other people's approval, so we hide them away in the closet. In time, the closet becomes full of so many parts of your personality, leaving only this smiling plastic shell with which to engage the world. No wonder so many people reach middle age and wonder why life is so drab and lifeless. Of course, Pisces is a sign where the ego is devalued and subdued, so I'd expect issues of confidence and self-worth to be of primary importance in coming years. When there's no distinction between legitimate pride in yourself or your accomplishments and an overbearing arrogance, it's simplest to consign it all to the closet. (Leo seems to have the opposite problem.) There's a powerful sense that you are weighed down by the past, that "the way things were" is overshadowing the present. It's time to look at some of those things you consider to be a black mark on your character and honestly reassess their importance to you. Curiously, many of the things that promote fire, life and grit in our lives are also the things we most try to hide out of some kind of shame. It's important to reframe these areas occasionally, as there's a lot of "gold" in the stuff we hide away. So get working! The average person's closet is bigger than you can imagine.
The full moon chart is considerably calmer and less dramatic than the new moon was, but it has its charms. The planets are basically divided into two groups on opposite sides of the sky, a so-called Seesaw pattern. The Moon, Juno and Saturn are on one side; locally they are all above the horizon near the Midheaven. Everything else is concentrated inside the Pluto-Jupiter square, 12 bodies in only 90 degrees of the sky (and all below the horizon locally). One of the key areas of this chart is the tight knot of Aquarius planets, which includes Mercury, Mars, Neptune and the Sun, with Chiron just over the border in Pisces. They are all opposite the full moon. It appears that Leo Moon has its work cut out balancing out all those Aquarius planets.
Once again, the full moon is in the last degree of a zodiac sign, in this case, Leo. If nothing else, the sign of Leo is warm and personal, a stark contrast to the cool, mental energies of a sign like Aquarius. The last degree of any sign is typically interpreted as requiring a perfecting or completion of the traits of that sign. So while Leo is often represented as being egotistical or narcissistic, in reality that is just an immature version of what he is destined to become. Leo is about the heart center, the source of love and compassion in our lives. What needs to be perfected is that warm, open armed way of loving the world, a largeness or magnificence of being that transcends the lowly ego. And this heart is not only opposing a bunch of Aquarius planets, but a tight group of personal planets representing parts of our everyday selves surrounding Neptune. In fact, a Sun-Neptune conjunction also spells an emphasis on the heart center on its own, so this theme is represented twice. Neptune will be dinged repeatedly by the other planets in this group in coming days, so this dreamy energy is definitely a major input. The other planets on the Moon's side (Juno and Saturn) seem to be talking about issues of fairness and equality as important for creating heart-filled relationships. Meanwhile, there's a whirlwind of activity on the other side of the chart. It's curious that all these planets are contained between Pluto on one end and Jupiter on the other. Jupiter and Pluto are about to form another square aspect in about a week. It seems the contrasts in this square, both the expansion and the decay, are present in our lives. The 5 Aquarius planets are wondering what is the right or most idealistic way to approach living these days, while the 4 Capricorn bodies are bothered by how to make it all work in practice. The gap between where we are currently and where we want to wind up is immense and there's no clear path ahead of us for getting from here to there. With Pluto leading the pack, there's obviously a lot of tearing down of old structures and beliefs to be done before there's room to build something new. The destruction before the new dawn can be a depressing time because we all want to skip past the messy parts and move straight to the marvelous future before us. Unfortunately, the universe didn't hand us a remote control so we can do such a fast forward -- the messy stuff has to be endured and performed well first. Eventually, we reach the Jupiter end of the process, the goodies and rewards for all our efforts. It's going to take awhile -- don't be impatient.
Mars enters Pisces on the 22nd for about 5 or 6 weeks. He'll remain in this sign until Apr 1, when he moves into his home sign of Aries. You can practically hear Mars grumbling and griping about being in Pisces. This sign is everything Mars is not. Our Warrior God is a Man of True Bluster, a fighter that believes nothing should stand in the way of expressing his ego's desires. He wants to get up and do things, to make his mark on the world. Pisces is whispering in his ear to quiet down, get contemplative, look at the bigger picture and the greater good -- here's a nice meditation pillow to sit on. It's infuriating at times. However, the ego needs some "quiet time" like this to help put all this self-centered business in perspective. So settle down, curb your impatience, look beyond yourself. It's not that long of a time. Besides, when Mars reaches Aries, he can be a hell raiser again. That's more his style.
Jupiter is square Pluto on the 25th for the third of 3 such contacts. The previous two contacts happened in quick succession last summer on Jul 24 and Aug 3. This square really crimps Jupiter's style. He's about expansion and building up grander structures in our lives, while Pluto's thing is to tear down structures that have outlived their usefulness for us. Jupiter's optimism and enthusiasm is tempered by Pluto's more darkly realist attitude; expansion and growth is countered by decay and entropy. Since squares are aspects of conflict and tension anyhow, these two planets are really going at it. This is a time when it's hard to prosper, particularly at the material level. It seems every time you get a bit ahead, something else falls apart or needs to be replaced. The emphasis is actually less on the material level and more on the social plane. As circumstances get rough, it's time to rediscover the connections we have with others and how we can depend on each other during the lean times. Jupiter's role as a social glue is often overlooked, even as Pluto makes us feel like loners. Considering that Pluto is directly opposite the US Jupiter all year, these troublesome Jupiter issues are part of our national karma now. It is more than the sluggish economy, which will probably limp along for some time yet. There's also a big movement in the air to reassess the roles of many of our major social institutions. The phrase "limited government" and Jupiter's natural expansiveness when it comes to the major institutions of our society don't mesh well. We certainly need to whittle away at some of the excesses of our lives (the US has been living beyond its means for decades), but without undermining the collective spirit that enables us to do great things. It's a discussion that won't go away for quite some time. For now, it's mostly a conflict. Resolution won't come for a long time, if ever.
Saturn is trioctile Chiron on the 27th, the second of 5 such contacts. This series started on 2010-10-28, the next one is this fall on Sep 17, followed by 2012-5-11 and 2012-7-29. The mood of this aspect is markedly constrictive. Saturn is a planet that makes demands of us or hems us in with limitations of various kinds. Seeing as he is retrograding in Libra these days, many of these restrictions can be of a social nature. Meanwhile Chiron, still setting up shop in Pisces, is having a bit of an identity crisis of his own. He's not really feeling up to the chore of dealing with such demands. And trioctile aspects, by their very nature, indicate a subtle level of conflict or discord that can often feel like it comes from sources outside ourselves. The struggle here is to break through this sense of "No, I can't!" and find the resources within ourselves to break free. Many of the restrictions these days are self imposed or come from the people around us. Attitudes can be changed, so most of these limits are pretty insubstantial when you look at them closely. It does involve changing our basic ways of approaching life in some areas, habits that may be difficult to replace. Don't let an emotional funk take on permanent status. Yes, life is hard right now, but life does that sometimes. And then it changes. Don't get stuck...
January was certainly a good month for a news junkie. There were more big stories in the news than I could stay on top of. Of course, the soap opera unfolding at my workplace didn't help my concentration. Life has been crazy on so many levels simultaneously.
In terms of the long term global impact, the biggest story has to be the wave of people's revolts spreading across the Middle East. The protests in Tunisia had barely risen to the level where the US press started to pay attention to the them and then two days later the president flees the country. Of course, such a "successful" outcome (if you ignore the chaos and governmental instability that followed) could hardly go unnoticed in that part of the world. Within weeks, similar protests against the government started springing up in other countries. Egypt erupted in demonstrations Jan 25, around the time of the Saturn retrograde station . The current president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak assumed power after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 and has been in office for 29-30 years now, a full Saturn cycle. How appropriate that a Saturn station (old karma) should break his lock on that country. This delicate situation is still playing out. So far it's been peaceful, but the really critical power shifts are yet to happen -- the devil is always in the details. The firestorm is also spreading to other countries in the region, notably Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and possibly even Syria. It's making hash of western nations' diplomatic approaches to the area. Hopefully the outcomes will be more successful than the June 2009 Iranian elections, where the government managed to brutally suppress the resulting demonstrations. Uranus and Neptune seem to be figuring out this political overhaul business finally.
On Jan 8, the news was focused on Tucson, AZ, when a deranged gunman unloaded his clip at a political gathering for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, wounding her with a bullet through the brain and killing a number of other people. I've yet to study any charts relevant to this story, but I suspect it has something to do with the solar eclipse on Jan 4. The heroic recovery stories of the survivors flooded the news for about two weeks before other events crowded them from our attention.
Perhaps the most telling fallout of the shootings was the national discussion on civility in public discourse that followed, leading to a Kumbaya moment at the State of the Union speech when legislators of opposing parties actually sat with and talked to members of the other side. Well, at least until the speech was over and they flocked to the nearest microphone to bad mouth the other party. The speech itself was the day before Saturn's station, which should have given it some gravitas. However, after a few days of partisan yelling, nobody seems to remember the speech even happened.
Last but not least, there was a precession argument in the press for several weeks, based on a fluff story in the Minneapolis StarTribune that went viral. The story claimed "your zodiac signs are all wrong!", "there's a new 13th sign!" and other such groundless garbage. Like all precession arguments, this one was based on totally baseless misunderstandings, upset a lot of people and proved nothing. I actually tried to email the reporter and point out the many errors in his piece, but got nowhere with him. The whole episode is too long to describe here, but I wrote a piece on my web site called "The Emperor's New Zodiac" if you're interested. I find it strange that the press needs to have one of these astrology bashing pieces every few years. They never wake up to their errors...