"May I Cut In?"
Our travels led us to an inland sea, in search of lagoons we thought we remembered the way to, the map a slowly spinning spread of poetry and portrait sketches rustling in our laps, for the first half of the ride we were navigators and somehow we got nestled into the open carriage who’s golden chariot wheels roll with a warming fire which soothes our anxiety; the distant gun fire over the horizon ahead worries us. It sounds threatening, but is it merely hot play or actual hard violence. Outside the conventions and laws of the metropolis people tend to have fun with guns; are these rounds target practice or a bloody stand off that we steadily advance towards. The compass needle spins with our remembrances and dreams, pointing towards towns we once wet our whistles in or cleaned our wounds or purified ourselves or sowed seeds or planted memories. We get on the phone, reach out to old friends and acquaintances we know or knew, let them know we might be passing through, ask if they could lend a bed or an ear, or if they could spare some details and help us piece it all together.
We swoop into a village and are soon seduced by the styles stalking the streets, the slash of lipstick speaking to us from storefronts, the soap box models posing perfectly and gesturing for us to stay awhile, to gather round and pass the mic and get our photo taken. It’s all so fresh and new, we can’t help but wonder if we’ve been here before, before the change, the change of heart or the change of seasons, whichever happened first. The hills behind the houses retract, shift, shimmer with jungle and livestock split from tree bark patterns and tumble into place outside the stables. “They’ve got a machine here” someone says as we stroll down the main drag, “it sucks the poison out of the air and makes fuel from it”— “Not fuel” their friend corrects, “Energy itself”. We wonder which is true, or, which way we’d rather believe. “Every-time lightening strikes this pole” a politician in a poet shirt strokes the shaft like a pet post, “1,000 ideas for new products sprout from the base of that willow, and after they’ve been properly pollinated by our patented strain of bee, we all receive the benefits directly from the water.” Congregated craftsmen pull forward and fill their pails with the powder then migrate up the mountain just enough to be away from the lights and clamor. One dips his finger in a pool and then presses his moistened digit in the stuff, rolls it against his thumb, and holds it up to inspect it; an amber colored kernel sparkling with static before the pale yellow Moon over the gently setting Sun touched in-between with potential electric reaction.
“This changes everything, a Craftsman exclaims”, just as a youth approaches from the foothills riding a bull bareback, an old grey man left waiting for him by the lattice work of a distant gate leaning against the collapsed cobble of old foundations. He bears his teeth in a wide grin, revealing jewels and insignias that whirl into motion as if they themselves are alive. “Everything’s changed” is his message. “We have to evacuate. The towns turned upside down. It makes no sense. We just have to go.” A Craftsman licks the air, stoops down and presses his ear to the meadow and listens, moths landing in his hair and glowworms circling his skull. “We’ll ride slow, at night, under cover of stars along the road of milk.” We rise from the enclave of shepherds puffing mullein and lettuce, one shakes his head but laughs as they pull themselves up on their staffs. “If the Sun ain’t done come off its cog.”
Mercury, the Sun, Venus and Mars have all gotten their chances to sextile or square Uranus in Taurus and taste the food being served, admire the shifts taking place in art, take in the talk on advancements in Farm tech. We are being quickly caught up. The divides cleaved by Mars are becoming clear in the news as well as in our personal lives; we pick up the road before us and raise it like a stang, waiting for the Devil to arrive as we are all probably prepared to deal. The tension ratchets up, as do our belts in this watery season across the Zodiac from Saturn in strategic sovereignty. Life’s a beach this year in that there are sharks infested waters and rapidly forming riptides and only salty water to drink. Shrieking monkeys snatch our pina coladas and pull back up into the canopy. We’ll have to forego normal party procedure, beach blanket bingo this round is for keeps; but try not to forget, it is the sight of lavender sunsets and island breezes that still soothe and heal despite the difficulties. When we remember hard times we also long for and toast to the beauty of the bruises. We are poised to touch the cranks and get elbow deep into the controls of our lives; with the innards exposed we can shift the levers and make drastic adjustments, but we must be careful because we will have to live with how our selves get re-set. Walk the beach back and forth for a few months as a prototype before you commit to a strut. We’re shipwrecked out here, we’ve got to get inventive to survive, and while we float out on the frontiers with the currents towing us past tidal towns of the past as well as washing us up on shores of our possible futures, keep the tactical tokens in mind; we want to walk away with what works the best; it may not be life and death for each one of us, but if it were, you’d want to make sure and win.
This is the ritual; there is so much change for potential this summer we’ve got to play it as if we are in one long operation; the spirit has been evoked, its present, what was it you were enchanting for? The metal is glowing hot, what was it you were planning to hammer? The veil is rent, to where was your journey aimed? We don’t want to freak out when a process heats up, its what we came to do, its here we do our stuff. Its just that we’re in the circle, or sweating in the forge for such a prolonged period this time we might succumb to distraction or exhaustion. We’ve got to keep our cool, stay steady, and engaged with what has been summoned.
Monday June 25th
Venus squares Jupiter smack in the middle of the day on Monday (1pm EST), sounding a clamorous clang, but that of a great brass bell rung up in the shadows of a belfry hanging like a riotous choir erupting in the depths of the monument, the chuckling of a giant from the cavern of his gut. The copper dome verdigris and bright on the hilltop emanating outward and attracting those around the town like a philter of magnet. We’re roused to understanding something about the nature of our characters, and how we come together when we interlock, when we intimately embrace, when we are intensely engaged. We might come to comprehend the depth of truths superimposed, the moiré patterns that two versions of virtue make when layered together are their own vortex, a churning secret for all to see. There is a lot to learn here, personal resonances that ring deep, who are we anyway? Our values swell so they are easy to see, big charismatic beauty stalking with swagger, wise to their own games, knowing what they are about, a deep knowledge of exactly what they like, and exactly where to go to locate the pleasure centers. The bells may even get overturned and raided for sweats, sucking the ecstasy out of the oyster, brimming like cornucopias these churning moires bubble and froth over the rim, and many may in a general attitude of carnal optimism proceed into corporeal excess. The tight parameters Saturn has set have been getting their limits tested as planets proceed into Cancer. The thresholds get crossed, and instead of the pragmatic retention we get the wrist slaps and punishing whip cracks of the enforcer when we’ve been bad or squander our rations. Jupiter and Venus square can be productively excessive with the yes and please buttons, or regrettably so depending on how drastically you step out, but as Jupiter and Saturn are sextile by sign, you will likely learn something, whether its how much you appreciate the characters in your life, how deeply they impact you, or how over your head you got satisfying your personal whimsies.
Tuesday June 26th
All the while the red planet has been grinding to a halt like an overloaded freight train out on the prairie under tense skies open to the sound of squealing brakes grinding the tracks for miles. With incendiary puffs of coal smoke the train halts and whistles blow with cutting steam. This is serves to highlight the acute area of your chart that is receiving the martial reckoning, and how it interplays with Uranus’ activity between the bulls eyes, and how it all cuts into your personal eclipse cycle narrative. The Nodes Dancing ballroom under shadowed chandeliers as poison punch is served, and Mars storms in like a rush of desert air, “May I cut in?” And cut he will weather you give him permission or not, so, since there will be some inevitable cutting and burning here in the first decan of Aquarius, we might as well give it a good project to work on, making sure we surgically alter the right limb rather than let him at us and our loved ones with cleavers and shears.
You may have been charging to and fro trying to choose a path to pound, or noticed him burning a hole in your finances, or an itch to direct your financial torch, shooting up your calendar or slashing your to do list apart, an impending war with your family or roommates, wondering which creative fire to feed, the grid of routines branding your hide, hostile relationships coming back to haunt you, old debts reigniting, your life path becoming a coal walk, professional life becoming combat sports, your social sphere suddenly populated with psychopaths, or simply your own psyche red and enraged. The topics are already present for most of us, and the mid May ingresses probably triggered much of the content. Also look to 2/10/17, 8/21/17, 1/31/18, and 2/15/18 as these are the beats in the Leo/Aquarius eclipse rhythm, the moments when ping pong went shadowball, and for many tell an ongoing story that is colliding with both Mars’ retrograde and Uranus’ Taurus trajectory. What in Aquarius you have been shedding and what in Leo you have been becoming; there is new sudden information and influx of activity that bears on the matter in Taurus and tense turnaround to face the action and purify your process as Mars and Ketu zero in on July’s eclipse degree. Saturn remains in Capricorn, so keep sight of the plans you’d drafted over the winter, just get ready to jump from the helicopter into unknown jungle; the goal of the war remains the same even though this particular few battles are fought in chaotic and unknown circumstances. We’ll have to rely on our personal strengths rather than 100% procedure, be willing to run things as experiments for the next few months rather than run off to engage on old clashes halfway across the world, and lose both that conflict and the one we are currently in. I must apologize for all the war analogies, but this is Mars here in tactical tension. Here’s a summary that scans to find a bottom line:
Saturn’s testing structure and foundations, Uranus is reinventing pace, pleasure and material, Mars is reconsidering tactics and Ketu is fixing to purge and purify, the focal point is Aquarius, the realm of the outsider, the abstract, the fringe, which will likely see many of us attempt to sever our lifelines and ties to others so that we can find the freedom to reinvent ourselves or change course, the problem is it might go off like a bomb which blows up our whole house simply so we can re-arrange the furniture. Take multiple looks and try new things, make changes in an experimental fashion, wait until after retrograde shadow to make final decisions, explore, expose and pay attention to wounds in order to heal them and not ignore them, rearrange stagnancies, carefully make space for changing drastically later, expect difficulties, incorporate unconventional procedures that fit your personal style, experiment with odd footing, safely incorporate ecstatic states to satisfy Uranian impulse, lean into eccentricities like in improvised music.
We might not be privy to all this clarity all at once on Mars’ Day June 26th, but keep this all in mind, and begin to lay it out in a manageable routine, such as
safe- regular exercise routines
basic meditation
support immune system
get sufficient rest
propitiation of Ketu
filtering out bad habits/influences
safe- ecstatic ritual and trance
experiment and prepare for positive future change
Mars’ stations direct today, feel the critical response to this along such safe lines and move into the odd energy flux of stop go, on off Mars with your head cool. When Mars goes retrograde its as if your car either doesn’t start or goes 100mph as soon as you turn the key. Make sure you know the terrain and have the vehicle pointed the direction you intend to go, or else you’ll get further away, rather than closer to your goals.
Wednesday June 27th
By Wednesday June 27th Saturn will have been in Capricorn for about 6 months and a week. This is the Sun’s first chance to oppose him (9am) and we may see how our collection of new disciplines and regulations fit our needs very clearly. Many of us have tightened our ships considerably, but all this reeling it in has also strangulated our fountains and put our diets on rations. The water pours over the marble breast at barely a trickle, or perhaps even an occasional drip. The cherub blows more tomb air than sparkling springs. Does this all fit in with where we want to be going? Absolutely not. We did it for a reason, to get control, to become stronger, sturdier, more enduring, but at the same time we find that we are emulating death rather than life. It is here that we may need to began to strike a balance between what keeps us from wasting water and what we have to do to properly irrigate in our greenhouse if our tomatoes are going to grow plump and ripe. Both must look to Jupiter here for help in understanding the deep nature of mutual nurture, the rules of exchange, but he is so many degrees away that we must listen for his wisdom, and coming from Scorpio, this will likely be inflected by Mars’ unnerving pause. It’s hard to not see how this wouldn’t be a time when we would say, “hold on, wait a minute, what are we doing, we can’t do that anymore, we’re doing it all wrong, stop, I’ve got to stop this, its not giving me what I need” We intend to connect with others, and these rules and boundaries are preventing it. While Mars is saying quite loudly, “We’ve got to get out of here, we have to escape”. What Uranus has shown us becomes much harder to ignore.
And this is a lunation, a Full Moon in the Moon’s sign of detriment with the ruler of the sign in house and Luna separating from conjunction as she reaches fullness. This is the blossoming awareness of how starved we’ve become. It’s clear as day, we get it, we see it as well as feel it in our bones. This doesn’t mean doom, it can mean realization, only take it with a grain of salt, because Mars is preparing us to attempt to do what we normally would not do. Yes these realizations are true and trusted felt, but what we might choose to do about it might be regrettable. Sit back, have your glass of wine or sip your beer or brew up some tea and be with this thing. This is a rare opportunity to feel it deeply so that your body and your heart understands it. Go out and look at the water as the Moon penetrates it with impression; what do you see? How does it make you feel? Ask it, talk to it. Look to the forest edge, illuminated silver, the animals and wild spirits within also realizing they must begin to get what they really need to fulfill themselves, to fill their cups. Listen to them, hear their whispers. This is a moment of profound reflection. Down’t let your feelings manipulate you, instead use them to your advantage, use your emotional capabilities for what they’re for, feel yourself, feel the world, feel out the limits and laws of nature, and look deep into your own needs and feel how the two might fit together in balance. Use you’re hands if you have to. Touch your body, then touch the earth. Touch your warm flesh, then touch cold stone. Touch the contours of your bones, then slip your hands into the water. How will you come together in perfection? What would that be like? Tomorrow you may plan, tomorrow you may choose a course, tonight, just feel it.
Friday June 29th
24 hours after this Full Moon feeling Mercury ingresses Leo where his trickster dualities are put on display and intelligent performance dominates his objectives. He isn’t just smart, and he doesn’t just want to be smart, he wants you to know how smart he is, how quickly he thinks and how clever he can be, even if he has to trick you into noticing. This pushes Leo’s focus on truth into a satirical situation. As Mars is making you remember what you used to do, and Uranus is shoving opportunities to radically reconnect with those activities, the Sun has seen what it has been missing and Saturn knows what it can’t any longer do, Mercury steps in to analyze our personalities and begin to think ourselves into a new identity that might be able to logically fit the changes we wish to enact. If this is what we want to be doing we must think like the kind of person who does that, and talk like that person as well, everyone must see us as that by the way we communicate. This is great advice actually sometimes, the power of positive thinking and performing positive roles, but notice that is only when its carried out in a positive healthy manner; this transit doesn’t promise that, thats up to us to fact check. There might certainly be some fake it till you make it in this recipe, which is fine, it works, but it can certainly spin off some fraudulence of character that can get people in trouble. The Sun is in Cancer, it might “need” to play these characters and display its thinking, to show its notes, thats fine, but remember here to not only not swerve too far off the path, as the Sun reminds us of what is on the Golden Road of the ecliptic and what is not, as well as don’t forget to take these experiments one trick at a time; you don’t want to get out on stage and realize you can’t saw someone safely in half, only say you can.
Saturday June 30th
By 9am on Saturday Mercury squares Uranus. This is probably the least catastrophic planet to square Uranus, but still makes fried circuit boards more than possible. Get ready for your caffein overdose. Mercury in such an aspect can be extremely overstimulated, which can be great, drugs can be fun, we love to be fascinated with surprising phenomena after phenomena, spectacular realizations and lightening associations hurrying our brains, firing our synapses. Of course this quick thinking might be of the sort resulting from navigations failing miserably. This could be the screams erupting from the box as the saw cuts down on our volunteer. How do we think ourselves out of that? Not all realizations are exciting in a fun way.
Hopefully the bolts come down and hit to inspire, as we certainly need inspiration to move us through the turbulent configurations this summer presents. We may become incredibly excited; innovations or destabilizations in the realm of pleasure, pace, sensuality, materials, art, create great tension and sound alarms in how we communicate the personal logic of our identity, how we express our virtues and explain what kind of person we truly are. This could be a crisis for some and an exciting jolt of jazz for others, a golden saxophone ripping through the mud. But as all else has fallen into place this week, this likely knots into the eclipse narrative, the Uranus in Taurus story and the conflicts Mars faces. Try to work out how it could fit into the big picture while you have the (over) active mental capacity to do so.
That night at 7pm the Moon comes and touches down on Mars newly retrograde. This is a truly prophetic moment foreshadowing and we should be on our scrying surfaces if we want to see what we might be likely to let go of when Ketu comes to purify our actions. The Moon is waning in conjunction near the degree they will conjoin next month when she becomes eclipsed. She is already in a mode to let go and melding with Mars’ intentions, so in a sense this might be a mini version of July 27th’s dramatic eclipse. Take heed, this is still a bright Moon feeling out an intemperate heat, but pay close attention so that you get the critical insights to avoid a late July conflagration.