Wednesday we have a Full Moon Eclipse in Sagittarius. Mercury and Venus join in Gemini and square Neptune in Pisces, and Mercury stations retrograde. Mars in Cancer will trine Neptune in Pisces. I’m excited to share my delineations of these transits with you this week as it’s a potent field that we are in!
As beings with the capacity for abstract thought and storytelling, we are always making mental sense of who we are and what reality we exist inside of. In Thomas Kuhn’s work on describing paradigm shift as it relates to the scientific community, the mainstream science of the day is also housed in a worldview or paradigm, a paradigm which begins to fracture, break open, and change when anomalies appear that cannot fit into the pre-existing paradigm. (Read an article summarizing Kuhn’s theory here).
At a personal level, we also exist in a paradigm that we call our identity, personality, and the way we’ve interpreted or organized our personal history. At this personal level, when we encounter facets of ourselves that don’t neatly fit into our past egoic identity, we can either try to assimilate the new information or experience a relative ego death and breakthrough the limitations of that particular personal paradigm.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with how I work with ego, the ego is not ‘bad’ and it is not something to kill off or destroy. It’s an interface to be understood. It runs programs that we can mistake for reality instead of just being a program filtering a much broader reality. Some egoic programs hinder our growth and evolution, while other egoic programs may be adaptive or expansive. The more free we are to not identify with the ego programs but to see ourselves as the being underneath them – the more free we are to dress up and dress down accordingly.
This Eclipse Season, it is likely that there is some personal perspective or belief that we’ve carried that we are being pressed to let go of. Sometimes it takes being depressed or anxious, and then tracking our thoughts, to even realize the parameters of the box that we live in that we’re ready to break out of.
Welcome back! Or in case this is your first time here, I’m Sabrina Monarch and I’m a soul-centered astrologer. I love providing perspectives on the opportunities of transits and putting into words what the zeitgeist feels like at this moment in time, to support you on your path & open a dialogue between us and the cosmos. If you would like to receive these weekly forecasts to your inbox and be notified of upcoming educational opportunities, sign up for my mailing list here.
Watch this week’s forecast on YouTube or keep reading below:
Here’s our week, after some announcements!
THE GARDEN OF SLEEPING HAMMERS IS NOW OUT!
Katerina is twenty-one when meets a spy twice her age who offers to teach her anything she wants to know about spycraft and magic. This apprenticeship plunges her into an unconventional romance and a heightened state of psychic awareness. Her new identity inspires complete strangers, who are sure Katerina is destined for fame, but scares those who know the old Katerina. Katerina’s family believes she’s mentally ill and forces antipsychotic, antidepressant and mood-stabilizing medications upon her at the advice of a psychiatrist. The novel follows her struggle to maintain the heightened state of awareness and aliveness that she suddenly feels after years of depression, in the face of her family and friends urging her to come back down. What happens when a massive opportunity for personal growth is seen by others as a dangerous mistake? In the hope that she might be able to return to an extraordinary life, but with no guarantee, Katerina has no other choice than to use her recent spy training to play the game, and to get an up-close, inside look at the state of mental health in mainstream America.
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New episode of Magic of the Spheres! I’m thrilled to share a conversation I had with a powerful teacher, Perri Chase. I have learned so much from her and continue to deeply appreciate her transmissions and guidance. In this episode we discuss love addiction, as well as Perri’s astrology. 
Tune in where you listen to podcasts or on your browser here.
Upcoming Kickstarter: Last year, I asked you to help me crowdfund a year ahead of forecasts and podcast episodes and 115 of you pitched in! I would like to match or surpass that this year – I will be running another Kickstarter again soon. If you enjoy the content I share, please support me in doing it for another year! It will be my seventh year of consistent free content creation coming up.
May 26, 2021
Full Moon Eclipse in 5 Sagittarius: 4:14 AM PDT
(Image: Subannakrit Krikum)
- Eclipse Season (the two week to one month time period leading up to the first of a series of eclipses, and two weeks to one month after the last eclipse in a series) is generally a dramatic time period. There is flashpoint energy, and the events that constellate in our life reflect or trigger our soul-work in an especially heightened way. The next lunation, a New Moon in Gemini on June 10, will be the second eclipse of this series. After that, the next lunation on June 24 will not be considered an eclipse. Eclipses are new and full moons that fall on the ecliptic, or the lunar nodes.
- Many people have been feeling “worked up” lately or beset with challenging mental loops. This could be correlated with the Gemini North Node. The North Node represents themes that are ‘incoming’ and incarnating onto Earth. On the positive side, Gemini is delightful and effervescent and it’s possible we’ve been feeling more open to new experiences or perspectives, and open to just seeing where things go when we follow our curiosity. On the other end, one of the core challenges with Gemini experience is monkey-mind, scattered consciousness, or these kind of absurd logical structures that we invent with only a few data points (if this, then that, then that…).
- With the Fullness of the Moon reaching its peak in Sagittarius on the South Node, these challenging mental loops are actually reflecting back to us (if we can follow the thread) our most embedded or historic beliefs (Sagittarius relating to our beliefs and sense of the bigger organizing principles in life, South Node representing the past).
- This Eclipse occurs in the ongoing context of the Saturn-Uranus square zeitgeist (see my video on it here), which is a transit that relates to major life impasses and paradigm shift. Saturn relates to convention, history, and the collected accumulation of cause and effect – it is bones, architecture, structure. Saturn relates to our conformity needs, and the pressures we internalize to fit in and be normal. Uranus relates to breaking free from the known, paradigm shift, invention, extremism, weirdness – it is the radical, the revolutionary, the rebel, the mad scientist, the inventor, the rockstar. Uranus relates to our needs to individuate and live according to our unique blueprint as freely as possible, more aware of social conditioning and able to navigate it as a free agent. The Saturn-Uranus square relates to a current pressure to be free from the most limiting paradigms we have cooked inside of. Breakthrough tends to occur only by fully experiencing the blockage – the structure or container that used to hold us or hold our reality becomes a limitation. Subjectively, it feels like rattling against a cage – “I can’t stand this anymore” energy.
- So back to the eclipse itself, when we find ourselves in monkey-mind or in challenging mental loops, the kinds of thoughts we are having actually reflect a kind of cosmological container we exist inside of. We are Creators here, and our beliefs (Sagittarius) and words/mental concepts (Gemini) influence the reality that we co-create. If we believe in our powerlessness, our victimhood, our inability to materialize our dreams, etc. – we are essentially participating in that. At some point a more free part of ourselves (Uranus) is wanting to break through the prison we have made for ourselves. So if the mind is allied with beliefs that reflect our powerless, victimhood, etc. we will naturally feel worked up and emotionally challenged by it.
- An opening within all of this is to confront a truth that is emerging at every step of our access to this truth being uncovered. Under immense mental or emotional pressure it is natural to try to soothe, escape, fix, etc. But what about being radically present with what’s true in the moment? We can do all sorts of acrobatics to adjust to non-true situations – pump ourselves up with extra caffeine to adjust to a routine or lifestyle that isn’t quite matched to our constitution, chameleon and people-please to maintain connections from a place of inauthenticity, rationalize our own behavior to avoid taking responsibility for change, etc. And then there comes a time when all of that mental processing, designed to maintain something false, flies around our mind chaotically like the flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz, rattling against the cage of our limited perspective that we’ve chosen believe in, where we’ve had resistance to believing in something broader or more full of possibility for us.
- It’s not that we have to be perfect – finding our way into an authentic resonance and embodiment of our truth is often messy and full of ups and downs. It’s just that in this moment, we may likely be confronting the mental structures we have adopted to rationalize things that aren’t true, and this shows up often as anxiety or depression. In nearly all cases, a full acceptance of where we are at (“oh I do this thing…” or “I believe this limiting reality”, etc.) makes way to choose something else. You may not be able to just slap an affirmation or a new belief on top of the old one if it still has all this power. There is some negotiation around really being with the old thing by witnessing it fully with self-compassion, and making a way into a new chapter of your own story with greater authorship and creativity once you’ve acknowledged that blaring impasse you normally try to run and hide away from. (LOL – Have fun!)
May 27, 2021
Venus in 22 Gemini square Neptune in 22 Pisces: 12:25 PM PDT
- The Venus-Neptune contact relates to our deepest longings for love and for idyllic manifestations of paradise in our life – the home and garden, the perfect love, the adoration and fame, the art, whatever it may be.
- With Venus in Gemini squaring Neptune, this is a first quarter phase square which relates to the evolutionary need for new action – making choices, trying things, as opposed to doing nothing because one is still trying to “get ready”.
- One possible thing emerging here could be the choice that we make to embody the paradise we seek or to make love to the divine. Instead of *waiting* for the form of Eros that we long for to materialize outside of us, playing with that energy and discovering our innate connection to it through our own play.
May 28, 2021
Venus in 24 Gemini conjunct Mercury in 24 Gemini: 10:13 PM PDT
(Image: Luis Ricardo Falero)
- Venus-Mercury contacts relate to a greater sensitivity for the harmonics and musicality (Venus) of Mercurial things like communications, language, commerce, and making connections. As well as the mental register and organization of Venusian things like relationship or beauty – like the part of us that knows some mechanics that facilitate real listening and great conversation, or the part of us that knows how to rearrange the furniture in a room for the room to really open and feel pleasing.
- Venus-Mercury conjunctions can be a supportive time for generating or contacting beautiful thoughts and ideas. Generally if this is made a habit (beyond the transit), we cultivate a certain familiarity with beauty that impacts every area of our life. To think sensitively and harmonically creates a chain of cause and effect that can be living art.
May 29, 2021
Mercury stations retrograde in 24 Gemini: 3:34 PM PDT
(Image: Pierre Jamet)
Mercury will station direct again on June 22, and leave post-retrograde shadow on July 7 (leaving shadow means Mercury catches up to the degree in Gemini that Mercury originally stationed retrograde).
- Mercury stationing while also square to Neptune has some potential to feel disorienting. At any level we already give ourselves permission to be fluid, impressionistic, intuitive, mystical thinkers, the energy of Mercury square Neptune may be pleasantly familiar with us. However, we may be re-thinking (retrograde) some of our more imaginative perspectives, or feeling like what we normally experience as concrete seems a bit shiftier.
- By turning retrograde, Mercury will dip out of the first quarter square to Neptune (representing the need for new action) and transition back to the crescent phase square to Neptune. This may symbolize that if we are feeling diffuse/confused in our thinking that rather than taking scrambled action to reflect that, that we might put our energy into finding our center again, instead. There is a felt difference between panic, and inspiration! We might find that appropriate steps for our situation emerge when we connect inward, even if that means we have to slow down.
- In general, Mercury retrograding through Gemini can be an opportunity to consider a variety of perspectives (as per Gemini’s M.O.). I’ve been thinking lately about how some people can have identity crises when they switch house systems in astrology, say from whole sign to porphyry. Planets they normally think are in the fourth house move to the fifth, for example. Then they aren’t sure which one is true, or who they are. When the thing is, these different house systems are just different lenses, which don’t necessarily cancel each other out. The same city might be represented by a plethora of different maps: one a thermal map, another a street and neighborhood map, another elevation map. The different lenses only reveal different data points and therefore a different window or facet into understanding the essence of something. Take the example of understanding yourself from your own perspective, from the perspective you have of yourself deep in meditation, from the perspective you have of yourself from how your parents reflect you, to how your partner reflects you, to how your colleagues reflect you, and so on. The magic is in allowing these different perspectives to reveal to us where we find resonance or even a perspective that stirs and awakens something in us and being with the spontaneous emergence of awareness here – not the question of “well which is the most true?” as though reality is that single-pointed.
- While we might prefer a lens or have a strong opinion/perspective, the capacity to consider a variety of angles can be a counter-balance to being rigid or dogmatic.
- You may consider as well if there are places you aren’t really available or willing to entertain other perspectives, like having people in your inner-circle who disrespect you or don’t see your value, or actively don’t support the things that light you up. Considering a variety of perspectives does not need to be synonymous with draining your life force with diversions you really don’t care about, even if that means you run the risk of 😱 having a strong perspective – maybe that’s who you’re here to be. Not being available for annoying detours goes with things like not being available for conversations with the devil’s advocate people on social media comments or interfacing with trolls. Know what detours off your path aren’t for you.
May 30, 2021
Mars in 23 Cancer trine Neptune in 23 Pisces: 10:15 PM PDT
- Mars in Cancer brings heat/activation (Mars) to the emotional body (Cancer) – resulting in having more fierce emotional waves or being more emotionally reactive. In the spirit of Mars being about courage, the opportunity here is to actually face and be with our emotions as opposed to running away (also Mars) by soothing (Cancer). At certain levels of our process, soothing is okay and supports survival – but when we have the strength and feel ready, we can confront the deeper thing. The trine to Neptune here suggests that we are more sensitive/receptive/open/permeable to this Martian influence now, as well as that our sensitivity/permeability (Neptune) is emphasized (Mars)!
- I went down a Madelyn Moon rabbit hole the other day and was *entranced*. She has all these videos on making art and tussling with wounds/irritations that come up in relationship with play, as opposed to passive aggression or disconnecting the heart. You can watch her reels on her IG page for the transmission of what I’m referring to. I also watched her Artistic Intimacy workshop and was blown away.
- A huge byproduct of the patriarchal conditioning we quite possibly have experienced is that we don’t approve of our emotions – we may shame and try to control them. We may preemptively “get a grip” on them by subjugating them or trying to kill them, instead of actually moving with them and going through them all the way.
- A profound opening can be found in really being with our emotional content and channeling it in some way that is creative – not splitting off from it, but playing with the fire and the intensity of our aliveness. A lot of this can be inner-child process, finding a way to be radically present and compassionate with our distress, and find the spontaneous play available here in the question of, “how can we move this energy together?”
May 31, 2021
Sun in 10 Gemini conjunct lunar North Node in 10 Gemini: 5:12 PM PDT
- The Sun on the North Node symbolizes a massive influx of radiance, though I do think there is a degree that we would need to participate and choose that. One of the strongest images in my field as I consider this transit is being a kid on a playground. The environment is essentially a choose your own adventure, and all we have to do is play. To the degree that we look at the playground and aren’t sure what to do with it, it’s like how we look at the current experiences of our life and aren’t sure how to play with them. The less conditioned we allow our mind to be (while also recognizing the types of games being played and what are the actual rules of those games), the more we find novel ways to engage the world around us. You might try on purpose to think of new ways that you can play and improvise with what you’ve got.
Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! If you would like further guidance, I have been increasingly focused on longer-term experiences in the form of the Evolutionary Astrology Intensive, higher level courses for alumni, and 1:1 mentorship – helping people form a depth relationship to their natal chart and personal transits over time, to develop themselves, to be in their power, and to reach their goals, all through the soul-making lens of evolutionary astrology. I would love to support you in building your relationship with astrology. The intensive is currently in session but will be offered again, and I am soon to take on new coaching clients.
Find me on Instagram @sabrinamonarch, get on my mailing list to stay apprised of all upcoming offerings and events, and I’ll see you next week!
With love,
Sabrina Monarch
(Top Image: detail from a painting by Subannakrit Krikum)
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