Current Transits for February 2012 Current Transits for February 2012Here's some of the important astrological news this month ...
Neptune enters Pisces, 2-3
Saturn Retrograde Station at 29Li30, 2-7
Full Moon at 18Le31, 2-7
Pallas enters Pisces, 2-11
Jupiter Sextile Chiron, 2-14
New Moon at 2Pi42, 2-21
Vesta enters Aries, 2-25
Hindsight...
An online ephemeris for the month is available.
After months and months of incredibly powerful influences pounding away at us, it looks as if February is starting to give us a break. As I've said for a long time now, the key to understanding the energies is the large pattern of slow moving outer planets feeding into each other. But just because they are slow doesn't mean they don't move eventually. Jupiter, one of the planets binding the others together, is on the move after its direct station last Christmas and will race through Taurus rather quickly the next 5 months. Saturn is backing up, pulling away from the other planets. Uranus will leave his companions behind in coming months, throwing in his hat with Pluto (currently rather quiet) by late spring. In short, the tight pattern that was the backbone of so many potent storms the last year is coming apart. As you follow the waveforms for the month, you'll notice the absence of towering peaks and crisp harmonic patterns -- the waveforms look weaker and more scattered than they have for a long time. In addition, there are two big stories in February that signal further shifts in the energies. The big one is Neptune's entrance into Pisces on the 3rd. Neptune has been in Aquarius since 1998 and has been straddling the boundary to Pisces since last April. Some of the strident, overly mental trends of the past decade or so should settle down some, as Pisces is a much more quiet and emotional sign than its predecessor. This placement opens up the intuition and feeling side of life, although it may take a number of years before we become comfortable with these energies. The other big shift is Saturn's retrograde station on the 7th. While Neptune is a Dreamer and Mystic, Saturn is more the hard core Pragmatist. His coming retrograde cycle is a call to pull your head out of the clouds and get serious about matters that are of practical importance. In other words, if you're faced with "getting down to business", just roll up your sleeves and get busy instead of complaining and procrastinating. You can put off Saturn for the short term, but you can't escape his demands indefinitely -- he always demands his due at some point. Take action while the consequences are less severe.
There are three sign changes in February, the major one being Neptune's entrance into Pisces on the 3rd. Saturn goes retrograde on the 7th. The only "big aspect" this month is a Jupiter-Chiron sextile on the 14th.
After 10 months of crisscrossing the border between Aquarius and Pisces, Neptune settles into Pisces until 2025 on Feb 3rd. He first entered Pisces on 2011-4-4 last spring and backed up into Aquarius again for some clean up work on 2011-8-5. Any time an unconscious planet changes signs like this, it's a major transition for humanity. Historically, the last time Neptune was in Pisces was the period from 1847 to 1861, shortly after its discovery in 1846, a turbulent time period in the US leading up to the Civil War. Most astrologers now assign Pisces to the rulership of Neptune, so in a sense this is home turf for him, as their basic energies are quite in sync with each other. This is a deeply mystical placement which has many positive as well as negative influences on us. I suspect the problem areas are the ones we're going to see first. Neptune is a fairly deep level of the unconscious mind, so even though he represents powerful spiritual gifts, you need to work hard to handle such energies with full awareness. When Neptune expresses his influence without such awareness, many negative or shadow sides emerge first, a not too subtle reminder that the spiritual path is not an easy one. One bit of advice is to approach this time with a wide open heart, as much as is possible for you. Neptune has a natural affinity for the heart chakra, the center of compassionate relationships with other people and the world at large. Any tendency to "small heartedness" is bound to backfire on you in the long run, subtly undermining your relations with the people close to you. Another problem is that Neptune produces a lot of self-deception and lack of clarity. The phrase "rose colored glasses" was created for Neptune and Pisces, as you are apt to focus on the positive side of any situation and ignore the down side. Similarly, the ego tends to inflate his own role in life, assuming he's in control of what's happening and the center of attention, when he's mostly clueless. These kinds of self-deceptions can be fun and highly self serving, but essentially it's a foundation of unreality. Eventually, this house of cards falls apart. It's best to keep your ego in check under this placement and avoid fooling yourself about anything. Action based on reality (although that gets to be a slippery word with this placement) will surely produce better results than self-deception. The issue of glamour will come up, that feeling of intense beauty and wonder that attaches to people or things, sucking you in, a kind of irrational love at first sight. This trait of glamour or numinosity is common with material arising from the unconscious, as it attracts the ego's attention and brings awareness to this new material. Unfortunately, most people don't get the hint that the inner world is calling. This feeling of intense attraction is projected outward, generally onto another person (who may not be interested), and the inner struggle is played out in the mundane world. If you experience this type of attraction (or negatively, an intense repulsion that makes no sense), stand back and see if the issue is an internal one. If you get one of those "you're acting creepy!" reactions from someone, that should be a big clue. At an even subtler level, there's what I call the magical side of Neptune, this ability to attract people and situations into your life that mirror your own inner conflicts and issues. Pay attention when new people walk into your life, as it's often a coded message to you of what's going on in the deeper regions of your own psyche. People and situations that cause much trouble or demand a lot of your time are a reflection of unresolved problems within, while smooth sailing externally is a sign of good psychic health. Again, the goal here is increased awareness and learning to manifest these situations more consciously. The unconscious has long tentacles that reach out into the world around us, a power that the rational Mercury mind has trouble even imagining, so we'd better start figuring out how this energy works. I mention all these problems upfront, not to sound pessimistic, but to bring your awareness to them so you can get the problems out of the way sooner. As you gain confidence in how to utilize Neptune more consciously, the problems drop away and the considerable spiritual gifts of this placement start to take their place. Neptune in Pisces is all about Spirit entering our lives and becoming the new foundation of day to day living. Small mindedness is no match for the infinite. Dream big...
A quick note on the "mechanics" of Neptune's passage. His last aspect to another planet was on Jan 27, a semisextile to Mercury; the final lunar aspect was a square on Feb 1. From that point on, Neptune enters "silent running", slipping into Pisces on the 3rd without drawing attention to himself. He wakes up on the other side on the 4th via a trine from the Moon. This is followed by a series of aspects in coming weeks to other planets as Neptune opens up for business in Pisces. These include a semisextile from Venus on the 8th, as well as conjunctions from Mercury (the 14th) and the Sun (19th). By the new moon on the 21st, Neptune should be coming through loud and clear.
Saturn reaches his retrograde station of 29Li30 on the 7th. He will back up to a direct station of 22Li45 on Jun 25 before resuming normal motion. Saturn is being a tease, moving up to the last degree of Libra and then stopping, as if to say, "You don't get away from me that easily!" The best way to think of Saturn is as a teacher in our lives. He's patient and exacting, demanding that when it comes to your lessons, you see them through to the end, every last detail. When he goes into a retrograde cycle like this, you can be certain that it's time to clean up one of your messes. Libra is a relationship sign, of course, so you may find it's time to live up to your responsibilities towards the people around you. Libra is also about issues of justice and fairness in the world and what is expected of you to address inequities that exist. This placement can be a time of drawing away from others for a few months, as it imposes a feeling of restriction or limitation in your relationships -- Saturn is not a warm, fuzzy kinda guy. Any way, take responsibility, clean up misunderstandings and "unbalanced accounts" with others, live simply. It may not sound like a good time, but Saturn is about work, not fun. The upside is that it lightens your load when you discharge old karmic debts. In the long run, that makes life much easier. Get busy...
The full moon chart is surprisingly strong, given how loosely organized it is. There are several main groups to consider here. The big one, of course, is the outer planet group: Jupiter opposite Saturn (at his retrograde station earlier today), with Juno, Pallas, Neptune, Chiron, Venus (the main trigger planet), Uranus and Ceres in between; Pluto is barely on the fringes of this group. A second loose group containing the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Vesta has but a few connections (to Venus-Uranus mostly) to the first. It's interesting that most of the inner planets are in this second group.
There are any number of ways to approach this chart. One way is with Saturn who takes on special importance because of his station. His opposition to Jupiter encloses all the other outer planets and hints that deeper psychic forces are at work on the broader social level -- it's election season! That station indicates it's "get down to business" time about situations you've been putting off for some time, perhaps involving other people around you. It may not be obvious yet what the problems are, but I wouldn't procrastinate once you get a hint. It's easy to be out of touch with deeper issues, even under the best of intentions. With so many personal planets, the ones that describe your everyday ways of responding to the world, in that second group and mostly out of touch with the outer planet mob, we're simply not paying much attention to issues that don't seem pressing now. Just wait awhile -- we're in for some surprises. The mental-intuitive mind is quite active, with tight Sun-Mercury and Venus-Uranus conjunctions going on, but not always accurate in its appraisals. The mental side needs to be tempered by warm hearted feelings (that Leo Moon) to avoid becoming too one-sided in its perspective. Curiously, the ability to do something constructive about problems is limited, as Mars and Pluto (the action planets) are incredibly weak and disconnected. Tread cautiously, as your activities may wind up working against you. It's a confusing picture, all told, without a clear direction. Keep looking at that Leo Moon for guidance...
Pallas moves from Aquarius into Pisces on the 11th. She will be in this sign until May 17, when she enters Aries. Pallas represents the qualities of intuition, insight and creativity at a mental level. As I often say about her, she's excellent at sizing up a situation in a glance, seeing how to get from point A to point B in the simplest manner possible. Her focus is somewhat blunted in Pisces. Granted, this sign is great for glimpsing a grand and glorious vision of how the world should be ideally, but Pisces is short on details and plans of action. If you see a task to do or a wrong to right (she's big on justice for the little guy), do it in the most straight forward manner possible instead of getting caught up in some larger scheme that is clearly impractical. Pallas has an artistic side as well and Pisces tends to inspire your creativity. If your Muse knocks, let her in! Just make certain you wind up with something tangible that expresses your inner self if you go down this path. The only hard part about this placement is keeping your feet firmly on the ground. This time could produce some interesting insights into life for you -- stay focused...
Jupiter is sextile Chiron on the 14th for the last of 3 such contacts. Their previous contacts were on 2011-7-2 and 2011-12-6. Jupiter rules over the "goodies" of life on any level, the benefits we give and receive due to our interactions with others. He is what makes it worthwhile to be a member of society. Sitting in Taurus these days, his influence is affecting your material well being more than the other levels. Chiron is acting as the shadow side of Jupiter in this aspect, bringing up our fears and anxieties (the down side of Pisces) about opening up to others, substituting a sense of limitation for Jupiter's abundance. At least this is a sextile aspect, a connection that is known to produce good results if you only put in the necessary effort. This has been a time to pick apart those mental habits that hold you back or make you feel isolated from others. It's always hard to come out of your protective shell when Chiron is active, as he puts you in touch with those parts of yourself that have been consistently rejected or put down throughout your life. There's a feeling of shame and rejection attached to these issues that you need to wade through before you can address the underlying issues -- doesn't feel good, ma! Hopefully you've made some headway getting to know your favorite self-sabotage programs, those behaviors that make you work against your better interest. It's easier to avoid such traps when you know they're there.
Superficially, the new moon chart closely resembles the full moon. The major difference is that the Sun and Moon are closely conjunct Neptune, not to mention Pallas and Chiron, acting as the triggers for more outer planet fun and games. Mercury, Mars and Venus, the other inner planets, form a secondary group that is quite tight, but has only the loosest of connections to the rest of the chart.
If Neptune isn't active and online by the time of the new moon, I'm not sure what it would take to wake him up. Your attention is firmly transfixed by the dreamy Neptune, even if you can't make sense of what he's doing to you. With 6 bodies in Pisces, a fluid emotional situation destabilizes your outlook. People and situations have an air of unreality about them sometimes, another outer planet gift. It comes from projecting your inner experiences onto external circumstances, a common confusion when Neptune is active. Other people are a mirror of your own turmoil, not the problems themselves -- or maybe not. You have to learn how to accept all this uncertainty for awhile. Given that the inner planets are mostly out of touch with the rest of the chart, your thinking, feeling and doing abilities are ill suited to making sense of your situation. Mundane life goes on as usual at one level, but things get really weird below that outer surface. Such a split or disconnect between different levels is common when you're about to make a spiritual growth spurt as it forces you to look at things that generally make you uncomfortable or that haven't even been noticed before. It will be intriguing to see where this leads us in the future. For now, the situation is still murky...
Vesta shifts from Pisces into Aries on the 25th. She will be here until Apr 30, when she moves over to Taurus. This is an odd placement to figure out. Vesta is a very introverted gal, which is unfortunately confused with shy and retiring. It simply means that she's so sensitive to others that she occasionally needs to get off by herself sometimes to find her equilibrium. Her power comes from within, not from other people and the busy-ness of daily living, so she needs her quiet periods to stay in touch with her power. There's nothing quiet about Aries, however. He's loud, boisterous, somewhat egotistical and generally in your face. It's hard to balance these two trends. Perhaps it's a matter of doing your own thing without going off by yourself first. Be careful with such an approach, as it can come off as pushy, aloof and insensitive. Simply having someone under the same roof as you can feel like they are smothering or confining you. Your partners may feel put off or abandoned by your behavior. It's a great time to work on some project that fires you up, as long as you can do it by yourself. It's hell on close relationships, if you're not sensitive about how you impact others. Let others know (frequently) that it's nothing personal...
When it comes to watching televised speeches, I enjoy having the astrology chart running on my laptop as I listen to the speech. There are often curious parallels. I noticed as Obama was about to start his State of the Union address on Jan 24 that Mars was about to rise. Considering that Mars went retrograde the day before, this seemed significant. It was no surprise that he started and ended his address with praise for the military and special ops forces as a model of working together for the good of the country (unlike the politicians) -- that's Mars for you! I noticed that Pluto was about to cross the bottom of the chart, but he ended the speech before that aspect was exact. That's unusual, as Obama seems particularly in tune with Pluto energies in recent years. I was amused when the aspect went off just as the Republican response started, the shadow side of the president's own optimism. GOP candidates didn't even wait for the speech before dismissing it -- reporters called this the "prebutal" phenomenon.
I'm still trying to figure out the chart for when the cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off the Italian coast on Jan 13. The chart looks rather bland for an event involving loss of life. I suspect the captain's birth chart was quite active, but I don't have that information yet. He's certainly in hot water.
The GOP presidential primaries were certainly a confused, topsy-turvy story in January. The results of the Iowa caucus were even overturned two weeks after the fact. Candidates seem to make verbal gaffes that hurt their causes whenever they start looking good. Nobody has emerged as a clear "winner" yet, though Romney seems to be slowly pulling ahead in the delegate count. It will be awhile yet before this circus settles down.