Monarch Forecast: March 21-27, 2016

March 21

Mercury enters Aries: (5:15 PM PST)

Mercury will stay in Aries until April 5. This transit sheds information on our impulsive and instinctual natures. This is not a position about being careful with what one says- this is like say it and think about it afterwards. Learn by experience. However, YOU with this awareness can be above the curve. This energy can be channeled into new heights of bravery in communication where it is needed, but the carelessness aspect can be done without. Remember that what you initiate in words will unfold with experience; so if you make a mistake you can course-correct. Just be open to the process where relationships count. Aries is happy to abandon ship (“Oh you have a problem? I guess that’s your problem.”) – use this tactic when it is protecting you from another’s sour intentions. Not when it’s to avoid cleaning up a mess that might have a gem in the middle of it. Innocence – the child nature of Aries – can be well-suited in freshness that comes with heart.

March 23

Jupiter in Virgo rx square Saturn in Sagittarius: (3:15 AM PST)

Jupiter square Saturn is awkward at first glance. I’m picturing a giant construction being lifted into place with a series of pulleys and chains – at once there is growth, and then at a pause there is a lurch; the chains pull tight and the whole structure shakes, until the grasp on the chains is steadied.

What you are building in your life can feel like it is alternately invigorating and exhausting. The sweat and tears aspect of Saturn is dramatized and magnetized (with a Virgo magnifying lens via Jupiter, no less). The excitement of possibilities and infinite expansion of Jupiter is met with reality in Saturn.

Who ever coined Reality as a negative thing? Dreams that become false cause disillusionment; but that one experience does not own reality. You apply the grit of a determined inventor – the person hanging out in a lab all day doing experiments until one finally works. This inventor is not motivated by success for success’s sake. This inventor is so project focused – that the process is zen, process of elimination only equals more information. A positive outcome is not an IF, but a HOW.

All the same, determination alone is not all we need. Too rigid in one way of doing things, we engage in the inner-tyrant who not only terrorizes others, but who denies themselves the inner-experience of change and sensitivity. Engage the finesse of Jupiter in Virgo: the sensitivity and wisdom that comes in small adjustments, discovering alignment. Saturn can be a workhorse, and this workhorse side of ourselves may not actually be needing to sweat so hard. We may overburdening ourselves in a way that just a small change could revolutionize and streamline our entire endeavor into something with more – ease. Imagine that.

(Images: Castle in the Sky 1986)

Full Moon Eclipse in Libra: (5:01 AM PST)

Ends our eclipse season – the valley in between eclipses (the last one was on March 8) – and this has been an intense time! This Eclipse comes well suited with a dramatic frame – happening a few hours after an exact square between Jupiter and Saturn, and Mercury in Aries conjunct the Sun. The Eclipse will highlight the relationship area of life, with the Sun in Aries/Moon in Libra illuminating that axis of self and other. Aries is where we are impulsively discovering the universe through ourselves, and Libra is where we impulsively discover the Universe through others – the many mirrors we find at any given moment. You know the way that your relationships change, your random interactions on the street change, depending on your moods, or your progress as an individual.

This Eclipse is a good time to welcome in nourishment in the realm of relationship: and nourishment is about consent and being able to be clear about our YES and our NO. Nourishment does not have to mean making something work, sometimes it does, and sometimes it’s about stepping out of the way.

Communication is our bridge between two mysteries, two distinct beings who, in the space between them, could be building anything. We don’t know what it is until we name it. What does this creation really look like based on what is REAL, not just an imagined filter over it? There is you, and then there is a relationship, and then there is the other person – there are three beings here, not just two.

A Ritual to Read to Each Other by William Stafford

If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the
world
and following the wrong god home we may miss
our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of
childhood
storming out to play through the broken dike.

And as elephants parade holding each
elephant’s tail,
but if one wanders the circus won’t find the
park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something
shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should
consider—
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the
dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to
sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

Sun conjunct Mercury in Aries: (1:11 PM PST)

Communicating with heart does not just mean saying what seems nice or what the other person is going to want to hear. Aries is fully capable of showing up with heart in a situation just by speaking its OWN truth aloud. Why it feels like a shot in the dark sometimes is that Aries is not thinking of its affect on others without engaging it’s polarity, Libra. Yet to be lost in the mirror (lost in relationship), Aries loses its vitality of individuality and independence. Independence does not need to exist for the sake of isolation: it is making oneself more of a teammate and collaborator in the end, to have something special of oneself to offer. With this transit, watch for where your individual essence is suited for attention. where you beaming out your message, your words, is a gift to others. It’s courage that inspires. It’s leadership. You won’t know what you’re doing until its done – but if you are burning bright with your heart, don’t be surprised if it rallies a positive vibration and affect around itself. If you are feeling more quiet, or more like an observer while this is happening, there is no need to bust something out just for the sake of it. Just watch for what inspires you, see if you catch that wave of bravery. It does not have to move your verbal words, but it will move your thoughts.

March 24

Mercury in Aries trine Mars in Sagittarius: (3:45 AM PST)

The planet of communication and planet of will are in harmony. This transit relates to talking about your intentions or plans… verbal execution. Orders. Command. Speaking with purpose. The more you consciously bring your verbal life and actional life into alignment, the more you access the blessings of this transit. Catch yourself thinking about what you’re going to do – and see if you can set into motion those things that are part of a higher vision for you. Can you take the dreaming phase to the next level?

(Image: Walter De Maria)

March 25

Saturn stations retrograde in Sagittarius: (3:00 AM PST)

Stationing planets intensify. We get to feel the Saturn in Sagittarius vibration more. This is the builder of reality in the sign of the visionary. The shadow is hypocrisy and dogmatism, being rigid about what truth is.

Stationing planets bring in messages – Saturn in Sagittarius messages are about our plans and in-the-works projects. Be open to receiving downloads around how to make real your vision – bigger picture stuff like seeing your plans in phases. It is more important to expand the dream and the vision of what is possible, than to, in the long run, execute that exact plan line by line. Your perspective is going to necessarily shift as you collect more consciousness and experience. But your openness now, and your willingness to set out, has the Gods smile upon you. You ready yourself.

In the coming months you get a second shot in Saturn retrograde… and then a third when it goes direct again August 18 – at putting your vision into form!

(Image: Jordan Andrew Carter)

Venus in Pisces opposite Jupiter in Virgo rx & Venus in Pisces square Saturn in Sagittarius rx: (4:58 AM PST)

The question with this transit is: do you romanticize your struggles? And if so, do you do yourself the favor of also romanticizing solutions?

Because these are happening simultaneously it makes more sense to me to talk about the whole dynamic rather than breaking them up. Venus in Pisces is a soft frequency and very powerful, it’s compassion. It’s loving someone for their divine essence – not caring about their job, social standing, income, appearance, etc… at once transcendent love at its highest, but also the potential for delusional love. Choosing the “wrong” partners, like something abusive or something that just doesn’t actually work, even if the soul connect is strong. That soul connect can be an intoxicant in Pisces. But put it to the test of Saturn – it takes form and it works, or it breaks. This transit speaks to me of a transit that will reveal cracks in relationships – Jupiter in Virgo opposition will be calling out the potentials. Are you in love with someone’s potential more than them? Have you been holding out for a distant dream? etc. And square Saturn speaks to some accountability or discipline coming into play. The need to either put in the work to make the fantasy a reality – or to put up a boundary to exclude the dismal illusion from one’s lifestyle. This is not very traditionally romantic energy in circumstances where bullshit is brimming – this is when it boils over. Yet this could be a huge gift for the relationship; where it can be built now on a stronger foundation. This transit can also be a harvest for hard work; the manifestation of a nice vacation for example – the ability to afford nice things.

Your strategy: let Reality be your best Fantasy. Upgrade your reality – and enjoy the magic that settles in naturally as a result. & In the case of brimming bullshit – honesty is where the magic is. Ride the Venusian energy of diplomacy to transcend difficulties. You can work with truth. Illusions will only serve you for a time, if at all. (Ripping the bandaid anyone?)

March 26

Sun in Aries trine Mars in Sagittarius: (3:33 AM PST)

Aries is ruled by Mars – this makes a happy Sun Aries. See themes around ease of will (echoing Mercury in Aries also trining Mars in Sagg this week). This is a great time to engage the will – the trine means it’s not like the will is being engaged because of conflict necessarily. Maybe you are just making a decision you want to do something, a little bit out of the blue. Ride that. The stars are gently, powerfully supporting it and the time is here.

(Image: Captain Science #1 1950)

Venus in Pisces sextile Pluto in Capricorn: (4:12 AM PST)

Yummy sexy Venus transit. This is good for deepening relationships especially those further forged by the Jupiter/Saturn/Venus interplay this week. However… watch for the mermaids and sirens. The ones that want to lure you into the underworld. What kind of mermaids we are dealing with: allure of manipulation, allure of being a yes-person for power or intimacy even when its actually to your own detriment (but some fantasy in the distance says its worth it now), other kinds of soft manipulation (seems innocent enough). These are good times to examine your intentions, the things you would do in the name of love but you realize is actually fear disguised as love. If you see your own shadow, it’s not like its just you. The shadow is up for a loving review. If you can play out some of these depth work themes through art or journalling, you’ll have more room to experience healthy relationship stuff on the surface world. Think of the rabbit’s world – they frolic on the surface, and are hidden to us when underground. When you are underground, you are nourishing your psyche so that you can frolic on the surface too. If you are afraid to go deep, you are forced to engage the shadow on the surface space, where it takes on consequence in relationship, because others are interacting with it and its stories are perpetuated. What can you transmute before it gets to that stage?

(first image: Martians Pavilions, second unknown)

~Monarch

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