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Swimmin' with the fishes…do you think Tony Soprano and the New Jersey mob considered the poetry of this statement when they talked about Pussy Bompensiero? Pussy got wacked and whenever he was mentioned afterwards they usually said this is what he was doing and it was short for, "we killed him and dumped in the Atlantic Ocean". How beautiful that even in death there is action according to the wise guys and not only action but lucid, fluid, movement and interaction with others. It's not the end after all is it?

Pisces. The two fishes. Twelfth house of the zodiac. Part of the trinity associated with water and therefore the emotional, psychic body. The two fishes have various different stories from the days of Babylon to the Greeks and then the Romans but the constant among them is that one is male and the other female and they are conjoined.  The union of opposites. Pisces represents a place where we go to hide things, (like the mob eh?) The symbol exudes movement and suggests that the end is but a passage to a new beginning and indeed, after these last few days of the moon in Pisces the cycle will continue into Ares where things should start to fire up in some big ways. But for now, enjoy the deep waters of Pisces where even a mob hit can take on poetic meaning.

I was part of a group of Irish warriors exploring the northeastern woodlands of Turtle Island in a time before time was even recorded. There were 7 of us in the thick eastern forest walking cautiously, quietly, through the thicket on a foggy dawn when we stopped suddenly and all together with a knowing that there was something up ahead. Sure enough from out of the foggy horizon began to appear another group of warriors, an Oneida hunting party, 7 in number who just became aware of us. I remember at this very moment becoming aware of a rushing river to my left, the west, at the sight of these magnificent warriors, and being frozen with awe like the rest of my group.

There was a natural leader of each small group, a quiet understanding among each group, that would speak to each other. I was that one among the Irish and went out to meet my counterpart. Although we spoke different languages we were able to understand what each other was saying perfectly and were developing a working agreement when tragedy ensued. Know one knows how or why, and it doesn't matter anymore anyway, but arrows started to fly from both sides (the Irish warriors, followers of Finn Mccool, who though mostly forgotten these days, lived much like the natives of Turtle Island did) and when order was finally restored 7 warriors, 4 Irish and 3 Oneida, lay dead. 

The survivors made a peace together, one that would be eternal and know no boundaries, that each were family with the other. I began to lift my head from the bed I was sleeping on when I saw the fallen warriors with oak trees on firs growing out of their chests and a voice, not mine, and not from anyone in the dream that said, "you may come back to this place anytime that you wish, you are Oneida". Over and over that voice said those words as I looked around the room trying to figure out what was going on. I had lost any foundation of what I thought was real...

I could not tell for those few moments the difference between what was a dream (or a vision?) or what was real. Even as I write this I will argue there is ambiguity in the line between the dream and the real. Most will argue clearly that I had gone to bed, had a dream, and woke up in the middle of the night from said dream a bit confused. I will tell you that that dream still lives with me in a very, very real way and that I do go back to that place of the 7 eternally burning trees and tend to those warriors. I think reality is a choice.

The Balsamic moon, especially this one, will facilitate a thinning of the line of reality. Pay close attention to what happens in your night dreams, day-dreams, and imagination. In fact when awake let your mind wander into those fantasy realms without judgement or constriction. There is something important in those realms for all of us for the next few days so write down what you see there, draw it or tell stories about it, share it with others and spread the fantastical about.  In those realms of "alternate" reality, with your mind running free, you may just find an inspiration, an intention, that you can carry over to this side and implement at the New Moon, where anything is possible.

The Moon is in Aquarius today and tomorrow making for some possibly wily and eccentric moods. This is an interesting style that is hard to firmly grasp much like the energy it projects. The symbolism itself is so watery: the glyph is two squiggly lines one over the other representing waves of water, the name Aquarius is Latin for water bearer or cup bearer, and the myths of Aquarius associate him with floods and water for crop growth; yet in astrology Aquarius is associated with the air element and therefore mental/thought processes. Indeed Aquarius is associated with forward thinking, being detached and scientific.

Either way, this offers another opportunity to commit (the ancient ruler of Aquarius was Saturn) to taking inventory of your life, get rid of dying, hindering ways of acting and thinking, and prepare with sound intentions for the coming New Moon on the 22nd. Question your assumptions and be wiling to relax your hold on ideas and see what comes through the veil for in the next few days it will be thinner.   

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On our way to the end of the Pisces Sun cycle and therefore a closing of the zodiacal year. The New Moon on the 22nd will mark the vernal equinox, Sun Moon conjunction in Ares, and the beginning of a new cycle. Beautiful isn't it?

I am really feeling the weight of this short period of time here at the transition of the cycle. I mentioned earlier int he week that this moon cycle we're in, the last quarter, is naturally reflective and possibly challenging. Mars and Mercury continue their retreats retrograde, Mars through Virgo and through some necessary purification, and Mercury back towards Uranus where there was surely some insight that was missed about 2 weeks ago that needs remembering. I know I had an influx of inspirational thoughts that I need to review. So it's time to retreat and retrieve some of those lost memories of healthier living, attunement with Monther Earth, and relationship with one another. It's also time again to remember those things that will break down those barriers of conformity and oppression. Hopefully you will choose to utilize this time to create a serene retreat rather than to feel the sting of a forced retreat.

In these last days of Pisces I am thinking back to that Pisces New Moon. It was trine to Saturn in Libra the force of grounding and responsibility in relationships. A trine is an easy flowing, harmonious (moving together--please note--not a judgement of good or bad) relationship. I thought at the time of how beautiful it could be to find grounding with the interrelatedness of all of creation, for the collective to join together to dissolve boundaries in a healthy, practical way. 

I look at my wife, 9 months pregnant with our first child, and see clearly in the physical the dissolution of ego!!! My wife as strong as I could ever imagine not just prepared but in real time sacrificing herself for another. Totally responsible for the practical care and maintenance of this other soul. How totally and beautifully Piscean yet at the same time Saturnian. Saturn really ought to get its due here. My wife's response-ability has certainly been at task and she has answered the call. Fitting actually, that as I sit here writing this, unable to sleep once again at 3 AM, that the Moon is in Capricorn the "home" of Saturn. Just another example to me of 2 things: 1. astrology works and 2. It's god/dess's way of talking to us...I think the message now is go to sleep.

Keep in mind for the next couple of days some good intentions to make for the coming new moon on the 22nd. Starting around the 18th or 19th is the Balsamic Moon Phase and it is the time to start emptying out all that stuff that may not be working so that there's room for new stuff to encourage growth and evolution, and of course the new moon is a powerful time for beginnings.
  

Brother and sister Ares and Athena, children of Zeus and Hera, both ruled over all things war for the Greeks. Athena enjoyed the strategic aspects, the maneuverings, and planning, while her brother was all about the force and combat. Athena would and could be satisfied with a crafted treaty to end a disagreement but Ares would settle for nothing less than total, all out, bloody victory. Though brother and sister, they chose sides and squared off against one another in the Trojan War, Ares doing battle with the Trojan's and Athena lending herself to the Greeks. The Ram vs. The Owl.

It's no surprise really that these siblings were so fond of war or that they would ally themselves on opposite sides of a bitter rivalry. Their parents did not exactly provide the most stable environment...Zeus (The Roman Jupiter) and Hera (Juno) remained married despite Zeus's constant philandering with gods and mortals and Hera's retributions to him and his consorts.  Despite all the hostility between the two, who were also brother and sister by the way, Hera remained faithful to Zeus and was considered the model wife and partner.

The dynamics of this sordid family affair, save for Jupiter whose off with his daughter Venus (father daughter dance??), are highlighted in this Last Quarter Moon as the asteroid Pallas Athene opposes Mars, still retrograde in Virgo, and they disperse their energy to their mother's asteroid Juno, conjunct the North Node in Sagittarius and the focal point of a T-square. This phase of the moon cycle was referred to by Dane Rudhyar as the crisis in consciousness as it is a necessary reflection period to take inventory of the results of the new moon intention. So this is a naturally reflective period of time with plenty of starry support to do so. 

Ares was on the losing side of the Trojan War and  it looks like he may not be in the best position at this time either. Mars is much like Ares: it requires essential freedom to accomplish whatever it is it wants, it is a forceful, masculine energy that prefers to act first and investigate later. Mars is the energy that we all use one way or another to accomplish or fulfill our will.

Ares/Mars is in some trouble right now. Mars is retrograde, turned inward, reflective like the time period. It is a necessary period of restriction of the action principle. Not only is it retrograde but it is in Virgo and therefore tempered further by the grounded (Virgo is an earth sign), thoughtful, yes, reflective, feminine energy. Please be aware here that I am not making any judgements, good or bad for Mars, retrograde, masculine or feminine, simply noting the manifestation of energies within energies.

Besides being the goddess of war, Athena was the honored goddess of Athens and brought to the good people there knowledge of the arts, great wisdom, healing psychic powers, and stately poise. Wherever the asteroid Palas Athene travels she carries this energy and these possibilities with her...and there is usually a fight.

They are both square to Juno who as we discussed earlier was the honored and revered wife and mother. The asteroid Juno can represent what or where we are "married" in our lives. It can also represent, I feel, the correct use and direction of anger. Remember that Hera took an awful lot of anger out on Zeus's lovers rather than Zeus himself. Also, as beautiful as it is to be resolutely committed to someone or something, how far does one go in their dedication? What are the limits and boundaries in relationship? These are questions to ask when Juno is in the region. 

Clearly this is a very powerful feminine energy here opposed to the masculine energy of Mars.Oppositions require give and take, room to maneuver, possibly compromise. If utilized well a very powerful energy can be created.  If not, frustration, stagnation, and confusion can follow. The choice is each of ours to make.

So this is a T-square: an opposition, in this case Pallas Athene in Pisces opposed to Mars retrograde in Virgo, both squaring Juno conjunct the North Node in Sagittarius. In an aspect such as this the energy is funnelled to and through the force that is squared, which in this case is Juno. I think what this aspect is asking us is are we serving ourselves and others well through our thoughts, actions and commitments. Are we married to the right projects? Are we acting with integrity to our principles? 

Big questions for sure but ever important. Don't forget that Mercury has gone retrograde further drawing us inward. There is a demand for reflection!! Personally I think we should immediately suspend all work, commerce, everything for 3 days, use our emergency supplies, and spend the time in the woods. Everyone. 

Thanks for reading and I haven't mentioned it but feel free to comment.  

I am about to have a baby boy. I'm very excited and naturally I've been going over the several possible astrological configurations he might have. There are several aspects that are very unique and interesting that will inform his existence such as Mars and Mercury retrograde and Neptune in Pisces, the asteroid Juno conjunct the North Node of the Moon. As the time has drawn closer, well overdue actually, he was supposed to be here March 9th, I noticed that he was lacking  planets in Scorpio's energy. I have a bit of a bias towards Scorpio since I am a double Scorpio (Rising and Sun) and have a 1st house stellium (3 or more forces together) in Scorpio. Naturally I wanted my son to share some of this intense and powerful energy with me but as the day draws closer I realize the only chance I have is a Scorpio Moon and that only by 11 Pm PST Monday!

Until I started thinking about the rising sign the last few days and its manifestation in a personality. Each one of the signs of the zodiac resides on the eastern horizon for about 2 House a day. So each day each one of the styles of presentation offers itself to the varieties of souls born that day. Remembering this I realized there is still a 1 in 12 chance that there will be some prominent form of Scorpio to the boy. Tonight I woke up around 2 AM  tossing and turning my body and mind over all the several ways that people present themselves through the rising sign and I am now going to try and formulate and communicate a coherent thought about it.

There is clearly a bias in society's understanding of astrology towards boiling every individual down to their sun sign. "I'm a Scorpio", "She's a Sag.", "OH, I don't get along with Capricorns" are common phrases heard day in and day out. On the one hand its nice that folks are thinking about and have a working knowledge of one archetype of astrology and they are interested enough to read a short horoscope in their daily newspaper. On the other hand it can be very miss-leading and trivializing to the artful language of astrology not to mention the art and beauty of the soul in human form. 

Pop psychology (even modern forms of academic psychology) act the same way. "I'm a type A personality, don't mess with me" or "you'll never satisfy her she's got OCD" are becoming more and more common refrains from people that manage to boil down complex parameters of life experience into a sentence... if you're lucky. What's worse with a lot of this type of thinking is that there is usually some form of malady attached to the personality type being described and usually some pill in hand to get rid of the "problem".

My point here is that the soul, or individual, is far more complicated and has too varied amount of responses and reactions to the multitude of experiences encompassing a life journey to be boiled down in any way to a sentence or even a paragraph. To do so is a disservice to the evolution of your soul and makes you blind to your true and potential possibilities and in my experience, both psychology and astrology provide far more, when investigated, than "sun signs" or "psychological types".

The Rising sign is one of the articulations that astrology offers to explain a subtle yet very present aspect of a personality's projection. The rising sign is whatever constellation was at the eastern horizon at the time, date, and place of one's birth. If you look at the chart to the left you will see 2 main axis a horizontal and a vertical one. The rising sign is the horizontal axis and the sign on the left of the axis. In my case (that's my chart on the left) Scorpio is the sign that was on the eastern horizon at 4:59 AM on November 22, 1970 in Troy, NY.

The east represents the new day. It's where the sun rises and has correlations to the season spring. This is the time of day and time of year when things sprout or begin. All beginnings have an energy to them of possibility and there is a need for essential freedom for this energy to be fulfilled. The constellation that is rising on the eastern horizon at the time, date, and place of birth represents what type of energy will be projected form a person. This is a per-verbal, pre-thought projection and the person does not generally think of themselves this way.

People know me as intense and passionate but that can happen without me being aware. I can't tell you how many times I have had people stop me to make sure I was all right because they thought some thing was terribly wrong because of the glare and focus in my eyes only to find we smile warmly and friendly and say "no, I'm just going to get some coffee"...

Clearly they experienced my Scorpio rising projection of intensity while I was experiencing something like my 11th House Virgo Moon's desire for thoughtful social interaction through the medium of going to get a cup of coffee! This is the hallmark of the rising sign. It is the way that all the energy within me is funnelled without any work or thought from me. Clearly this is an important and powerful force of personality and is why it is part of the triad generally used to desire a person's astrology along with the sun and moon.

It's a good reminder to me to put aside a silly bias like I want my boy to have that Scorpio energy. He will have some, duh, we all have the energy of ALL the signs one way or another!! Each sign is SOMEWHERE in the birth chart and that energy is therefore within each one of us in some form or another. Everyone also has an 8th House, no way of avoiding that, and that is the resident home of Scorpio. Everyone also has Pluto in their birth chart and Pluto carries energy associated with Scorpio.