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Transformational Astrology – November 2014 – by Henry Seltzer
Transformational Astrology
by Henry Seltzer
November: An Important Transitional Month
The astrology of November features a recovering Mercury, along with Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Although improving nicely, Mercury is still shaky from its recent retrograde that ended on the last full weekend of October, the final of 2014. These happen three times a year, usually in the same element. Mercury's next retrograde will be on January 21st in Aquarius, and all three 2015 occurrences will be in Air signs. On into the current month, Mercury leaves Libra behind for the second time this fall on Saturday, November 8th, returning to the sign of Scorpio where it started its retrograde motion in early October, and thereby escapes its "retrograde shadow." Then the last vestiges of this particular retrograde period will be over. For the remainder of the month we will perhaps still be integrating the lessons learned during this introspective and revealing period of time.
This month as well, Uranus and Pluto are drawing closer to the next hit of their storied square, perfecting in mid-December. They are separated by a mere 2 ¼ degrees as the month begins, still less by its close. The Scorpio New Moon eclipse from late October, when the New Moon and Jupiter made quintile aspects to Pluto while retrograde Mercury opposed Uranus, triggered these two powerhouse planets that are thus featured in this monthly cycle as they draw near to their recurring square, a major theme lately. The final denouement has yet to take place, with the next year representing perhaps the most intense example of their transformative and revolutionary interaction, manifesting on both a collective and a personal level, as this decade of the turbulent teens continues to unfold.
Neptune is equally triggered during this rather intense month, which is actually a transitional time leading to the ending of the year. In addition to its prominence in the Scorpio New Moon configuration, being trined by Sun, Moon and Venus, with a close parallel from Venus to Neptune, there is also the factor of its speed. Neptune stations to direct motion on Saturday, November 15th, standing dead still in the sky. Moving quite slowly now, Neptune is therefore greatly emphasized, changing its position by a matter of only a few minutes of Zodiacal longitude from November 1st through to the 30th. All month we will be enjoying an extra dose of his otherworldly and spacey energy. Idealism bordering on illusion, perhaps confusion, will be the rule rather than the exception.
Expansive Jupiter, traveling through Leo and having a similar spiritual meaning to Neptune, although more engaged in the here-and-now, is also highlighted in November's astrology, being powerfully configured in the recent Scorpio New Moon eclipse. When Jupiter moves into the 22nd degree of the sign of Leo, during the mid-month Last Quarter Moon, with the Moon in close conjunction, Jupiter makes an almost perfect trine with the new planet, Eris, in the 23rd degree of Aries. This recently discovered planetary archetype seems to be involved with a warrior-like stand for deep purpose. This mid-month period is therefore a powerful time, when you might expect to encounter further facets of your own internal fortitude. We all need this expansive and visionary energy, along with an increased awareness of the deeper process within us, in order that we attune more completely to our soul intention.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). This is the start of an exciting climax to an intense year, Aries, as you enter into yet another new and dramatic phase. You have been very busy these past few months creating a better alignment between your vision, your actions, and your deeper purpose as you are coming to understand it, a work in progress that is far from complete. This month takes you into new territory. You are finding out what your dreams are really made of, more concretely than you would have formerly thought possible. These messengers from your unconscious can come to your active aid as you scale the walls of your ambition once again, this time in a more integrated fashion. You are learning to be yourself in a way that permits others in, without losing your own sense of unique destiny.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19). This is an interesting month for you, Taurus, especially with regard to of the key relationships in your life and your desire for better connection. You are coming at life from the inside out. You might feel within yourself a tendency now to leave yourself behind for the sake of others, although this is an illusion. You are being asked by cosmic powers to go beyond previous limitations in whatever way you can. This refers to ideas or beliefs that could be holding you back from a fuller experience of life that is all around you, awaiting your readiness to participate. What you are after is in essence deeply lodged within you. Your gains could be enormous in terms of partnership trust and recognition, plus your own understanding of yourself at profound levels.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). This is an exciting month for you, Gemini, as you head into the ending of a climactic year. You are strong on service to others right now, and for finding your sense of higher duty to some important part of yourself of which you are perhaps becoming more aware. Workplace concerns and health issues play into this. You are striving to discover the essence of what you truly believe and have the determination to bring forward. As the retrograde of your ruler, Mercury, begins to disperse over this first week of November, it leaves you with a residue of fantastic vision that you might be able, with effort, to bring closer to fruition over the next two months. Partnership in your life plays a key role right now, allowing you to open further to your innermost self.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is another amazing month for you, Cancer, as you head into the transitional closing weeks of the old year and come to a totally new phase with your life and work. You are full of playful enthusiasm right now and more confident of your choices, which have a serious edge beneath the jollity. Your work in the world has been successful lately although it can also seem an empty category without a distinct component of your deeper purpose, and you are feeling this quite strongly. As you navigate the aftermath of the recent Mercury retrograde you are coming to some startling conclusions, the springboard for meaningful action. You are dwelling in some of the deeper places within your psyche, and starting to accept these as normal parts of who you are and what you do, to your great advantage.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) This is a rather strange month for you, Leo, in the aftermath of a powerful October cycle. This is in fact a time of exploration of new possibilities, both in terms of outer world commitment and also for a different set of priorities corresponding to hidden facets of your personality. You are finding joy and a great deal of enthusiasm in pushing your persona, as you move quite naturally further into self-confident personal interaction. It is also likely that issues could arise on the home front, or that situations could trigger you in unexpected ways. The good news is that once you adopt a subtler and more accepting mindset, all this can lead you to a much better understanding of dark places within you, paradoxically granting you broader scope in outer world affairs as well as inner.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) This is an interesting and informative month for you, Virgo, even though in order to see further into your situation you might have to acknowledge a deeper mindset than your ordinary everyday one. Riding on the coattails of your philosophical explorations lately, your worldview is subtly altering to accommodate a wider perspective that includes greater recognition of your inner world. With your ruler, Mercury, just beginning to straighten out, still residing in your resources sector, you have likely been experiencing fluctuations in your finances or at the very least taking an unusually deep interest in these matters, attempting to come to a new understanding of your agendas and desires. You have made significant progress during the past month, and this current cycle could include sudden breakthrough, enabling you to put the icing on the cake.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) This is an important monthly cycle for you, Libra, that can perhaps best be thought of as one of transition, following upon a somewhat difficult and life-changing Mercury retrograde period last month that had you reviewing your foundations. This is leading you toward a new set of realizations concerning your deeper process and your partnership dynamic as you head into the ending of the year. The tenor of this penultimate month is one of consolidation of your process over this entire year and yet also expansion of your personal worldview and your ideas for your next phase. You are taking relationship with significant others as an important component of your idealistic future plans, while also acknowledging the power of own viewpoint.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) This is potentially a huge monthly cycle for you, Scorpio, beginning as it does with a solar eclipse in the very first degree of your sign. This follows a thoughtful and even introspective month of October, when Mercury began its period of retrograde motion there as well. This is also a time of highlighted Jupiter, residing in your sector of outer world activity and prominence, indicating that even as you pause to look more closely into your activities, you are enthused about your work and status in the world. With your ruler, Mars, recently entered into your third solar sector of communications, there is plenty of juice for you right now in the way of sharing your ideas with others around you. As you do you recognize the contribution of your inner world.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) This is a strange month Sagittarius, in many ways a transitional one as you head into the ending of a climactic year. Deep inside, your angel guides are calling you to an unusual summit. As you become more aware than ever of what is going on for you beneath the surface layers of your personality, your values and your understanding of who you are and what you can yet produce are a moving target. This has been true for some time, and right now they seem to be seeking a new level of depth and also commitment from you. This is confusing and yet invigorating. You are questing to discover the qualities of self-expression that match your most profound inner purpose. Once you find this, than everything that you touch, even of the most ordinary nature, turns to gold.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) This is a powerful time for you, Capricorn. This month represents a definite shift and movement into the final stages of the year, as well as your birthday time, and the springboard for the opening weeks of 2015. This is a year that promises to be even more exciting in many ways than the current one that is coming to its close. You are sealing the deal on changes that you have been somewhat aware of and yet also unsure about, even as you take faltering steps toward them. This is almost in spite of the way that your egoic self sees things. One faction within you is glad and another is afraid regarding the idea of leaving behind some part of yourself that has grown so very familiar. This evolution is however fully in accord with the unspoken desires of your deeper being, whose call is becoming more insistent as time goes on.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) An interesting and perhaps somewhat confounding month awaits you, Aquarius. There has been a time of soul-searching, especially where profession is involved. You might still be reviewing where your life is heading or the way that outer world performance interacts with your most fundamental beliefs. Having been through the wringer, you are feeling a sense of release. Your communication is inspired and sporadically magical as you continue to wrestle with issues of allowing your deep inner perspective a more prominent place at the table of your conscious awareness. As you race ahead with outer world commitments you are feeling the connection with inner realities in a way that is more accessible than ever. That these subtle factors are vital to your continued well being is something that you are now more fully prepared to admit.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) This is a fabulous time of revitalization, Pisces, heading into the ending of the year. This is for you an interesting season of more and greater conscious transformation. You are coming into yourself in a novel way, as though your world were being born anew all around you. It could be that various voices speaking their truth can come to be viewed as constituting an important wisdom that you are finally ready to hear. This is also with reference to the battles you have gracefully fought for the past several months regarding how to plug yourself in with social setting that you find yourself in the midst of. A new understanding is being forged within you, independent of what has come before, freed from the constraints of early conditioned response or consensus thinking.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.
Transformational Astrology
October Astrology
by Henry Seltzer
A Numinous, Introspective and Surprising October
The astrology of October features a Mercury retrograde, as well as Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, plus two eclipses. Mercury is retrograde nearly all month, beginning on Saturday, October 4th, near the beginning of Scorpio. As is true of the year of 2014 in general, Mercury begins its retrograde early in a Water sign, then backs into the preceding Air sign before straightening and eventually regaining its lost zodiacal longitude. Mercury stations direct on October 25th and fully escapes its "retrograde shadow" only on the 10th of November. All during this entire month it is therefore a better time for introspection, especially in relation to emotional issues, and for journaling your thoughts, rather than for acting on them. This is so even though there is plenty of impulse for direct action.
Mercury had just gone into Scorpio, Pluto's sign, before the October 4th station. Mercury is a little out of his depth, here, and proceeds with consternation, before retrograding back into Libra on October 10th. Venus has changed signs also, and to the sign she rules, namely Libra. All through the month, therefore we are rethinking our behavior patterns and most especially in regard to the relationship energy that we have with others. We are reflecting on the very process of relationship, working this out as we live our lives.
The Lunar Eclipse and Full Moon of Wednesday, October 8th, is very exciting, as the Moon aligns almost exactly with the trickster energy of Uranus, in trine with Jupiter in Leo and Mars in Sagittarius, forming a grand trine in Fire signs. This is an expansive and powerfully intuitive time, when all bets are off and anything could happen, and when answers will come unbidden to our questing minds. And this is true for the next two weeks as well.
The Solar Eclipse of Thursday, October 23rd, is also quite dynamic, being in partile conjunction to Venus, now in the very beginning of Scorpio, and trine numinous Neptune. There is quite a Neptune factor for the whole of this month, since the New Moon that preceded the beginning of October also aspected Neptune. This adds a multi-dimensionality and the potential for confusion along the lines of the activities of the purely physical plane, as well as a strong sense of imaginative sensitivity as well as idealism.
The other two outer planets, Uranus and Pluto, are also highlighted in this month's configurations; with Uranus in particular being emphasized, as indicated above. The first lunation of the month, at the Quarter Moon of October 1st, coincides with the Moon in conjunction with Pluto; then the Full Moon eclipse of October 8th conjuncts Uranus, as already described. This is a busy month for transformational activity, as Uranus continues his retrograde motion, closing the gap between his degree in Aries and the perfection of his square with Pluto that gets closer over the weeks ahead, back for another exact hit by December 15th, in the ending of the year. This month is therefore bringing us a foretaste of the looming changes still to come, in symbolic resonance with the Uranus-Pluto square. This aspect refers to revolutionary and evolutionary changes that continue to be taking place, most intensely over the three-year period from 2013-2015, for each of us as individuals and for the surrounding society.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). This is the first month of the rest of your life, Aries. You are more attuned than ever in recent weeks to the importance of relationship, and as well of the equally significant demands of your own individual exploration. You are inspired by vision and held to your task by necessity, all the while pondering and reflecting on where your life is currently taking you. For the current monthly cycle, this is especially so in regard to your connection with others. This constitutes the next step for you in a long evolutionary series, which began many weeks ago. Your process continues, and progress is made in a direction that is largely unrecognized, although when you look back with the perspective of time you can perhaps discern the signposts of a guiding intelligence that is not wholly your own.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19). This is an interesting month for you, Taurus, a slice of evolutionary time as you grow your understanding of where your life is taking you. You could be incorporating inner priorities to an even greater extent than you have in the past. You are also pausing to take stock in this present cycle, as the retrograde of Mercury places a contemplative spin on everything that is going on for you, including a re-examination of your idealized notion of your pathway forward, and also your own relationship dynamic. It seems that partnering with others is one important way for you to accomplish your aims, and yet there is as always the concern that your own future progress matches your inner goals and plans. You need to attend to your emerging sense of what is true for you alone, independent of other voices.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). This is an intense and yet also reflective month for you, Gemini, as you head into the closing of a year of metamorphosis and renewed revelation. The beat for transformational change goes on, reviving somewhat from its summer hiatus and becoming more insistent. You are reflecting on where your life is currently headed and where your imagination may yet take you, while looking within for the formula to enable yourself to shuck old patterns. With the retrograde of Mercury, your ruler, you are taking a second look at your day-to-day habitual patterns, health regimens and creative self-expression with the idea of eventually establishing a closer fit with inner goals that transcend conventional thoughts and attitudes. You are coming closer to finding your own unique idealized vision for the future, in part by unraveling the lingering vestiges of past concepts that are no longer viable.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is an interesting month for you, Cancer, in many ways a stepping stone to another stage of your evolutionary development. Home and family concerns become a major factor for you now, and you are making something of a fresh start in this area. Your creative output could perhaps better reflect your soul-purpose agenda and becomes the subject of introspection and reevaluation through the first half of the month. You are taking a good long hard look at your inner self, and also coming to a better understanding of what you are up to with regard to the significant relationships in your life. You are searching for a way to express your own brand of truth that is uniquely your own, and attempting to build a future vision for your work in the world on that basis.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) This month you come to yet another stage in your ongoing metamorphosis, Leo. There have been many changes since the year began, continuing into the present cycle, regarding your ideas of who you are and what you have to contribute, and surprising developments in your worldview have been one major inspiration. You are decidedly introspective now as well, in chime with the retrograde of Mercury through your home and family sector. This is indeed a terrific time to be journaling, as you reevaluate your goals, and your day-to-day existence that is profoundly changing. You could be sensing a fresh start in your perspective, manifesting as an educational focus that could include actual physical travel as well as academics or armchair explorations, and that constitutes further seismic shifts in your beliefs and in your way of seeing how the universe around you functions.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) This month is a very special one for you, Virgo, in part due to the retrograde of Mercury, your ruler, taking place for almost the entire month, and on into November when you take the retrograde shadow period into account. You are coming into your own conception of who and what you are, based on new information that keeps flooding in from mysterious sources, although perhaps only after a period of questioning that must elapse before you will fully recognize what you have. The messages could take the form of relationships with helpful others in your life. You are tuning in more and more to subtle realms that emanate from deep inside your being. When it comes to inner awareness, you are finding "the Sun behind the sun" that shines through to your more conscious gaze when you half-close your eyes to see it.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) It's a big and joyous month for you, Libra. You are exploring your own psychological backyard, and discovering a little more of who you are and how you show up for others around you. You are concentrating on yourself right now, and yet important partners come into the picture as well, providing inspiration and even a surprising degree of guidance. You are encountering unexpected treasure in relationship interaction, even as you track your progress toward more complete self-understanding and pause in reflection on who and what you truly are. Home and family concerns continue to be an evolving landscape, the resultant of many weeks of attempting to transform yourself in this vital area of your life. As inspiration continues to drive you farther into a more viable future for yourself, you realize that you have in some sense returned to your own home base and actually begun to recognize it for the very first time.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) This is an interesting, intense and introspective month for you, Scorpio, providing astrological indications of great positivity and also a good deal of cautious holding back. You are looking to the inside, mulling over where you are, psychologically speaking, and where your life is leading you. There is a great deal of inspiration and yet as well, a studied carefulness to your approach. On the other hand, Jupiter in your career sector represents a green light for positivity and for good fortune in career moves. This is thus a time both practical and impractical. You have a tremendous focus on outer world achievement and also on inner contemplation, and are being pulled in two directions at once. You can fruitfully combine these by forging ahead as consciously as you can, remembering to honor your inner process and the power of your deep intuition to guide you.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) This is a month of inner work, Sagittarius, and in many ways a continuation of what has been going on all this year. You are looking ahead to a future painted in brighter and bolder colors, corresponding to a self-concept that more fully reflects your emerging sense of who you really are. Whatever you sincerely wish for now is very likely to become your new reality and you therefore benefit by exercising caution and choosing wisely. Your transformation continues apace; your changes suit you and you might be reveling in a better feeling of psychological security. You are this month even more invested in exploring your depths, seeking clues to the patterns that have been driving you. There might be a block, just below the surface, that you need to somehow move past. You now have the inspiration to do just that.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) The pull to your inner world continues, Capricorn. This month indeed represents a fresh start for you in matters connected to your career and professional life, but the most significant happenings could be taking place on the inside. You remain in a practical mode with many plans and activities connected to prestige and performance. There is yet a subtle nudge from the universe that questions the idea of going ahead with outer world achievement independently from taking a deep and prolonged look within. If you fail to heed its subtle summons, this voice becomes louder and its gestures more insistent, until you are no longer able to ignore the call. The period of the first half of the month might be the perfect cosmic storm that will jar you further out along the scary limb of discovering what lies within the vast interior realms of your own psyche.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) An introspective month is ahead, Aquarius, making for an excellent time to be taking stock of yourself. Your immense learning curve continues, with accompanying shifts in perspective and the chance to put together in a new way the transformations of the past nine months. Mercury stands still during the first weekend of October at the very top of your solar chart, indicating that this will be a particularly powerful Mercury retrograde period for you. Along with missed connections and the other usual symptoms, there is the chance to deeply reflect on what your changes have to tell you. You may wind up turning recent events inside out for a new way to look at them, and marvel at the thought of your life unfolding in just the way that it should, in spite of any and all appearances to the contrary.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) This is another intense and interesting month for you, Pisces. As you review and revise your worldview for a better match with inner knowing, the Libra New Moon from the end of the preceding month reminds you that the perspective of others counts with you, yet not too much. There are startling destabilizations and re-integrations that lead you toward a renewed basis for your vital sense of security, as founded not on material comfort but on the depth researches that you have lately undertaken into your own interior world. This engenders a confidence that is yours and yours alone, stemming from your own deep center and independent of other voices; what can never be taken away by shifting circumstances. You find in this a more solid basis for relationship that allows you to stand in your own light and yet be available for others.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at HYPERLINK "http://www.astrograph.com" www.astrograph.com.
TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY – August 2014 – By Henry Seltzer
August 2014
by Henry Seltzer
An Amazing and Somewhat Confusing Month of August
The astrology of August features Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and presents us with yet another thoughtful and thought-provoking month. The optimistic expansionism of Jupiter – along with Uranus and the epiphanies it brings – are greatly emphasized. While Mercury no longer has even a hint of retrograde, the mental planet does aspect Neptune and also Saturn at the time of the New Moon from the final weekend of July. Everything, even our thought process, is moving more slowly than we would like, and is tinged with a confusion of multiple reflections. We will be looking within and finding, if not the answers to the puzzle of our very existence, at least further and more enlightened questions. We might also expect to remain somewhat stymied as we attempt to move forward with new vision in the midst of an interesting and somewhat paradoxical monthly cycle.
The July 26th New Moon that began the current August lunation was conjunct Jupiter, so that we begin the month with a wave of positivity that can be so progressive as to become overdone. When we throw caution to the wind we could get ahead of ourselves, so that the equally prominent nay-saying side of existence represented by Saturn, also emphasized at the time of the New Moon, might come as a welcome cautionary factor, a counter-balance to this natural and bubbly sense of optimism entirely running away with us.
The Full Moon of Sunday, August 10th, is powerful in its own way, making a T-square to Saturn and aspecting Uranus and transformative Pluto. We are getting a touch of the revolutionary energy for change that has been with us all year, as we head into the remainder of 2014. There is yet another exact hit of Uranus in square to Pluto in the offing by year's end. This implies further dramatic changes still to come. Saturn, antithetical to Jupiter, and as well to Uranus and Neptune, wants us to slow down and take everything in. Just as farmers know that to best irrigate a field you must let the water move over the soil quite slowly, so also Saturn insists that to find the truest understanding of any situation, you must allow that truth to gradually sink in.
Neptune, being so strongly configured in these August configurations as well, speaks to us this month in subtle ways, directly from inner realms that are only perhaps discoverable through our earnest inquiry. Neptune is symbolic of otherworldly dimensions intuitively sensed; a reality that is orthogonal to the everyday one of getting and spending, and which yet gives this world its very substance. In addition to an exciting month of new possibilities, this is therefore yet a relatively subtle month as well, full of nuance, and for the potential for greater understanding of our own inner depths.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). This is a strange month for you, Aries, full of false starts and paradoxical events. As you attempt to discover what steps you now must take toward the next stage of your evolutionary growth, you are filled with enthusiasm for the new idea that supercedes everything that has come before it. Yet, a conservative impulse also has you in its spell, such that you are holding onto the past, and using prior experience to shape current understanding. You are forging full steam ahead with intimacy while yet searching beneath the surface of partnership connection for the inner meaning. As you rediscover important aspects of your own creativity, you are finding that the more you pursue individual expression, the more you value the contribution of others, enabling you to round out and amplify your own perspective.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19). This is an interesting and educational month for you, Taurus, with much of the information arriving from strictly your own inner channels. Home and family concerns predominate. You are bringing a great deal of focus and enthusiasm to this important area of your life, and exploring relationship in this context. The lost art of conversation is not dead, especially for you right now, as you take advantage of the circle of your peers to connect with what is going on deep inside you, and to explore more fully its ultimate meaning. As you struggle to better understand of what is truly going on for you, both within and outside of your psyche, you are simultaneously reformulating a worldview that makes sense to you for the long haul, and finding how to include the active point of view of others without giving up on your own.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). This is yet another educational and informative month for you, Gemini, although with a different flavor than in the hectic recent past. You are changing still, although the pace of your metamorphosis has lessoned. An enthusiasm for written and spoken word pervades your efforts to see your ongoing transformation through to its fruition. It might seem scary, these intimations of further and more drastic changes, although the alternative is by far the worst, since you have nothing, really, to lose except for the chains that bind you to the past. You are feeling some serious heat from important inner agendas that push you toward their fullest expression. Your imagination soars over the course of this monthly cycle, far beyond perhaps where you feel that can yet concretely go, although when you look around you find that you are getting there.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is another intensely involving month for you Cancer, as you gather your resources for your next big adventure. You feel unbounded enthusiasm for putting yourself forward with your personal approach and your own set of values. Relationship is on your mind, and you feel a powerful inclination there although held back from totally drastic action. You are stepping out into new career affinities, an area that has been on something of a roller-coaster ride for you lately. Your self-expression is blossoming in a thoughtful way that allows you to make haste slowly. The ongoing transformation of your partnering energy is far from complete, and yet the view from your current plateau might serve to let you know how far you are already come along your chosen track, which you are refining in the current monthly timeframe.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) You are on a wild trip this month, Leo, in this your birthday time of the year. You are riding a somewhat confusing mixture of unbridled optimism and sudden caution that could either alternate or tug you in different directions simultaneously. These added checks and balances could seem frustrating at times but are also just what the doctor ordered to offset the pure optimism of your current exuberance. At the same time you are making further and more thoughtful relationship-oriented forays into the unseen depths of your inner world. Outer world achievement is another huge factor for you now and is definitely tied in some important fashion to your hidden goals of interior exploration and increased self-knowledge. Unexpected enlightenment lurks around every corner when you allow yourself to attune to the messages that the cosmos is sending your way.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) This is another amazing month for you, Virgo. The spiritual dimension of your partnership dynamic is coming to the fore in new ways, over the course of a rather intense monthly cycle that is very much involved with inner matters. Your dreams could provide a richer conduit to Spirit, working itself out through your life, than do daily events. Relationship continues to have its mysterious and potentially painful aspects to resolve, and is full of important lessons. You are still in the process of adjusting to new standards of self-expression, as well as digesting recent shifts in consciousness that have taken place within you. As you bring a more active presence to partnership issues, and to the way that you communicate with others around you, your life moves forward in its own unique way and on its own timing.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) This is another powerful month, Libra, and an excellent time to be dwelling upon your vision for the future. What you wish for now is very likely to come true, as long as you are in good alignment with your highest purpose. You possess an extraordinary amount of optimism, and you do well to temper feelings of unbridled positivity with an extra-strong dose of caution. When you do not take the downside more fully into account, along with your purely idealized view, circumstances are likely to arise to remind you. You are beginning to better incorporate an active partnership dynamic into your own ongoing changes, allowing for greater movement. Providing that you can stay committed to a more integrated future for yourself, with your feet firmly on the path, you have access to this more soulful form of success.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) This is another amazing month for you Scorpio, one in which you will come closer to understanding – and enacting – your true purpose. Career and professional life is a huge focus. You are energized and fortunate there; doors that you knock on will very likely open for you, and this is especially so if you are knocking on the right doors. This latter factor depends on how well you have absorbed the lessons of recent months. It has been a rather difficult and yet rewarding time. You have gained a better handle on who you are, and how you might engineer your pathway forward to take advantage this awareness. Plenty of ideas have been floating around you, leading to questions of practical considerations. You benefit from taking a fresh look at all your choices, both already made and those not yet considered.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) This is an epoch-making month for you, Sagittarius, in that you are launching yourself out upon another distinct stage of your life's journey. This might involve physical travel or explorations of the armchair variety, although in either case you are discovering new worlds of intense emotional and imaginative presence. You are coming to a better philosophical understanding of where your own perspective intersects with that of the world around you, and of how you might further probe this vital interface, that speaks to issues of solitary mental spaces versus collective comprehension. You are seriously investigating interior realms that hold many of the clues to your very existence. You are more invested than ever in seeing how inner and outer realities match up or diverge and the one supports and enhances your experience of the other.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) This is another amazing month for you Capricorn, one in which you are ratcheting up to the next notch in your progress. You are continuing to explore the very depths of your being, and utilizing the information gained to move to a new take on forward-going plans that while remaining your unique vision, also takes into account other points of view. You are coming around to the position that, by including the perspective of others, you are enhancing rather than reducing your own. You are caught somewhere between the concrete arrangements you are used to, and the unexpected beautiful illusion that lures you onward toward a more integrated future vision. Neither end of this conundrum needs to be discarded, as long as you can accept the difficult route of compromise while learning to live with paradox.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) This is a good month for progress, Aquarius. You are shifting into high gear with career initiatives while simultaneously exploring new and varied nuances of partnership interaction. Firing in tandem with your own set of priorities and plans, significant persons in your life can help you to achieve a rich amalgam, both with and without their input. Your dedication is extreme, and your steps are careful and well calculated, while at the same time the eventual outcome remains somewhat uncertain. Good communication is definitely one major key to accomplishment, plus acceptance of what the universe and helpful others have to offer. It is a tricky and fascinating exercise, as well as an act of courage, to allow yourself to rest in the assurance that all is well, and that the cosmos is there for you, no matter what.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) This is another intense and interesting month for you, Pisces. While simultaneously engaged in breaking through previous high water marks of achievement, you are continuing to find new ways to comprehend the happenings swirling around you in these chaotic times. It seems that the ultimate meaning of what is currently transpiring in your life, taken as inner as well as outer perspective, is as important as the actual events themselves. As day-to-day activities and matters of your work environment shift, perhaps dramatically, it is possible to fit these phenomena into a framework of big-picture understanding that allows you to see further ahead to the next stage of your spiritual evolution. Amidst the ups and downs of financial stability, this might be the way to arrive at a degree of comfort and assurance that you are indeed on the right track.Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.
TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY – July 2014 – By Henry Seltzer
July 2014
By Henry Seltzer
The astrology of July has on offer a slow-moving Mercury in recovery from its recent retrograde, and as well an interesting Saturn-Uranus aspect that lasts throughout the month. Many planets are also changing signs, to include Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. This is therefore a volatile and yet subtle time of continued change, in the wake of an intense springtime that featured Uranus and Pluto in their fifth of seven exact hits. The changes that have come down upon us during this earlier period are perhaps only now making themselves really felt and truly understood in their total impact on our lives.
The Cancer New Moon from the last weekend of June, that kicks off the current monthly cycle, had a dynamic configuration that possessed several aspects of interest, including the trine that it makes to numinous Neptune, plus Mars opposite Uranus, Saturn trine Chiron and Saturn inconjunct Uranus. This latter aspect is fascinating in that it stays with us all summer long. The outer planet combinations, with Mars included, serve to remind us of the energy for change that is swirling around us now, intensified in the springtime, bringing still more ideas and reactions from the developing storm of our new understanding of the process that we have long been engaged in. This is especially so in view of the reflective and introspective more of the Mercury retrograde period of time. Mercury is now in direct motion and still recovering its lost Zodiacal longitude, as the energy of the retrograde continues to wind down.
Neptune, being so strongly configured now as well, speaks to us this month in subtle ways, directly from inner realms that are discoverable through our earnest inquiry. Neptune is symbolic of otherworldly dimensions intuitively sensed; a reality that is orthogonal to the everyday one, and that yet gives this world its very substance.
Saturn, the emblem of a restrictive and conservative sense of limitation, also highlighted in this interesting monthly cycle, makes an inconjunct aspect to the antithetical energy of trickster and volatile Uranus that is active, exact to within less than a degree, at the time of the recent New Moon and during the first week of July. This presents us with a stifling of the powerfully innovative energy of a prominent Uranus. Because Saturn is preparing to station to direct motion on Sunday, July 20th, this critical and nay-saying planet barely moves throughout the month, and neither does Uranus, which stations retrograde on the 21st. The aspect gets down to a mere quarter of a degree by the time of these stations at the beginning of the fourth week of July. There is thus a strong urge for change and for holding back from change, both, that continues throughout the entire monthly cycle of July and on into August.
In this context, which also has as stimulant Mars in opposition with Uranus as the month begins, we are in some sense recapping the powerful emotions wrought by the transformational impact of Uranus and Pluto in combination, a strong factor in these fractious times which are also terrific time of learning, as environmental and political as well as personal issues continue to challenge us.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). This continues to be a season of change for you, Aries. With Mercury just recovering from its retrograde you are very much engaged in the contemplation of further transformation still to come, along the lines of the deeper implications for where your life is heading. It needs thinking over and getting used to, all the changes that have been cooking within you during the course of a dramatic spring. Communicating your ideas more directly is definitely of help right now. You benefit from journaling, or blogging, or sincere intimate conversation. As you continue to reflect on the changes being thrust upon you, it helps when you are able to conceptualize yourself as a willing participant in the cosmic dance. You are on the one hand working with others more fully and yet also establishing yourself in your own unique individual way more completely than ever before.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19). This month opens up into yet another cornucopia of meaning for you, Taurus, as you contemplate where you now find yourself and where you might be heading. The Mercury retrograde period just ending constituted a great opportunity in that way. Partners serve you as mentors and provide an unusual spiritual component for you now. A fluctuation of expectation between on the one hand a feeling of almost too much freedom from any restraints whatsoever, while on the other becoming even super-practical as you more fully consider ways and means, especially in regard to partnership issues. You find yourself in a very expressive period of time as you seek not validation but communal and partnership support for the amazing accumulation of material that you are struggling to integrate.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). This is yet another interesting month for you, Gemini, beginning in a reflective mode and evolving into activity more closely aligned with spiritual purpose. Your ruler, Mercury, has only just changed to direct motion, so that you are still caught up in an introspective attitude for the first half of July. This gives you the chance to integrate the deeper impact of the profound changes that have come down over the course of a powerful and transformationally oriented springtime. You are currently envisioning new developments in an impulsive way, and yet also holding back from too much enthusiasm into untried and untested avenues of expression. You win when you carefully track your ongoing changes and have faith in your process. In the latter half of the month the push-pull becomes intense, leading you into carefully considered action that nevertheless represents breakthrough.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is a somewhat difficult month for you, Cancer, with also its joys and its new beginnings. The recent New Moon in your sign symbolizes a major turning point. While you are in many ways more comfortable with your changes, including relationship issues that continue to arise, there remain question marks yet to be resolved. This goes smoothly based on how well you are able to integrate the realizations of your recent past. You have been in a contemplative mode for weeks now, diving down to your depths, below the surface layers, looking within for answers that do not appear for you at these more superficial levels. The timing is good for beginning a process of settling down, the prelude to a better sense of self and the steppingstone for further transformation that comes up in the fall.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) This month represents an opportunity for you, Leo, that comes in many colors and in two distinct phases, changing after the first two weeks of July. For the first half of this monthly cycle you are pulled to the inside. This is your chance to shine with the accumulated wisdom of these past few weeks and months, not in terms of outer but of inner accomplishment. You are in a sense lost in meditation somewhere deep inside yourself, attempting to find out where in the world you might truly be headed. This is the time that allows you absorb and to integrate the lessons of previous weeks, of the pressure cooker of circumstance, that have forged new awareness deep within you. In the latter half of this monthly cycle, you are operating in an entirely different world.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) This is an entirely interesting month for you, Virgo, a fitting coda to your recent preoccupation of inner over outer with the retrograde of your ruler, Mercury, that is now ending. You are currently experimenting with different ways of being in your universe of workplace achievement and also within your own depths, and favoring those opportunities that encourage you to be in the world but not of it. If it seems as though your outer production and speech centers are stuck on pause there might be a good reason; fruitful rather than difficult, a timely intervention on the part of the cosmos. You are letting the dust settle and allowing yourself to integrate the received wisdom of the past few weeks and months so as to make the most of your recent growth spurt.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) You are feeling the pressure, Libra, although in a good way. A burst of energy for outer world accomplishment has its mystical component. This month represents a new stage of the ongoing cosmic adventure of this late spring and early summer time frame, as you voyage onward, toward greater understanding of yourself at the deeper levels of your being. Your finances are full of unusual twists and turns right now, both stop and go. Partners provide surprises also. You are feeling into a brave new world of career achievement opening up for you, even as you question its philosophic foundations in terms of your basic worldview. All along the way it is the transformation within your depths and, as well, your increasing awareness of your own inner universe that is the fundamental driver of your current success.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) This is a month that is full of surprises, Scorpio, and some of a decidedly mystical nature. You are in a place of transition now, between old and new conceptions of what your life is all about, and regarding reality itself. Epiphanies abound. Your way of seeing the world around you constitutes one theme for this month's development, to including your growing grasp of the hidden world of your own unconscious process. This tells you true whenever you have the courage to look inside. We live in a paradoxical universe, in which the hard and logical, without losing either its reality or its significance, must at times yield in importance to the unseen and essentially unknowable. You could be heading toward the conclusion that there is more going on within you, and outside of yourself, than meets the eye.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) It is a volatile month for you, Sagittarius, as you move beyond previous high-water marks of self-knowledge, and confirm the value of inner priorities. You are investigating many aspects of your daily activities and relating these back to an energetic exploration of your own private reality and interior realms of motivation. You are proceeding to move forward with agendas that join you to the surface world of events and goings-on that make up the normal run of things, and yet, as you prepare adjustments to career choices that you continue to be required to make, you do so while keeping firmly in mind the capabilities of your intuitive inner compass. Your goal is ultimately a more integrated approach to life that gives your unconscious process its due, and that honors equally both these dimensions of your experience.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) This is an important month for you, Capricorn, and signals a time when many things are changing, as you revise your notions for your path ahead, based in part on the input from helpful partners. With Mercury still recovering from its retrograde motion, you are mulling over several different factors in your life; not least of these is the way that you bond with significant partners. You are connecting up your relationship dynamic with how you handle the day-to-day life of your workplace, and the ways that you have of being of service to others around you in general. You find yourself looking under the covers of your more obvious habitual patterns, and the results are surprisingly enlightening, especially when you allow yourself to open up to magical realms that you encounter on the inside of your mind.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) This is an interesting and somewhat challenging month for you Aquarius, as you roll into summer in the aftermath of changes coming down from late spring. You are continuing to absorb the lessons of what has recently transpired. Your work in the world is productive, and might take all your concentration to maintain, as you continue to explore philosophically what it means to be your own unique individual and yet still function smoothly as a cog in the wheels of social service. A shift in your own psychic weather that is in the works for you could spell changes on many fronts in the way that you do your public presence. As you develop your sense of yourself, you are beginning to view outer world commitment as only one significant part of what you are meant to be.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) You have a mixed bag of treats in store, Pisces. There are perhaps somewhat painful surprises still to come and yet you have a month ahead of you where joyful ease coexists in equal measure. Your time of relative comfort arrives with the onset of summer, after a difficult spring that has included a meditative looking back over your shoulder at the realizations that it has brought you. Your sense of who at base you really are is the subject of much reflection, as your self-expression is taking off in radical new ways. Many things in your life are changing, including your creative output. Your financial situation is something of a moving target lately, and an active area for your focused attention, as you strive to make sense of your life by looking more clearly into the bigger picture.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.
TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY – June 2014 – By Henry Seltzer
June 2014
By Henry Seltzer
The astrology of June is quite interesting, and includes a potent Mercury retrograde period as well as a huge helping of Neptune. The May 28th New Moon in Gemini that began the current monthly cycle was exactly square to numinous Neptune, located in his own sign of Pisces. This aspect, exact to within a mere few arc-minutes of zodiacal longitude, implies a kind of dreamy world running alongside of more ordinary reality and intersecting with it in mystical ways. Synchronicity is on the rise once again, and a sense of foggy numinousity that brings out the otherworldly dimensions of our everyday experience. This month therefore invites interior investigations leading to a better understanding of ourselves at the deepest levels of our being.
The strange nature of this current symbolism is revealed by the contrast between Gemini and Pisces. We do well to note that Gemini is an airy sign, symbolizing logical analysis and mental curiosity, while Pisces is feeling-oriented and sponsors soul-level paradox, the right-brained opposite of mere logic. The current skies are further complexified by the station of Mercury to retrograde motion that takes place in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 7th. This is another symbol of interior process. With our mentality running backward there is a distinct turn to inner contemplation as opposed to outer thinking and doing. Mercury remains in retrograde throughout the remainder of the month, stationing to direct motion on July 1st, and only escaping its retrograde shadow on July 16th. During this entire period it is best to refine and restructure existing arrangements rather than launching unexpectedly into new ones.
Within this monthly cycle there are also important chimes to the major sky-connection of this entire decade, namely Uranus and Pluto in square. The New Moon precisely aspects Pluto, again to within just a few arc-minutes, of a degree, reminding us once more of this forceful push for evolutionary progress in our lives, as we further our discovery of what we need to leave behind and make our transition toward a better fit with what we, at the deepest level of our being, truly want and as we continue to create a better integration with Spirit. The square that Pluto makes to Uranus remains within close orb this month. When this alignment recently peaked, at the time of the cardinal cross event of late April, Mars in retrograde participated by opposition and square. Mars has now returned to direct motion, in the tenth degree of Libra and still roughly opposite Uranus in Aries, and closely trined by the New Moon. The energy is there for bringing our most cherished relationships, as symbolized by Libra, into better balance with our own push for autonomy and soul growth.
Finally, there also persists into June the grand trine in Water signs between expansive and positive Jupiter, cranky Saturn and Chiron, the Wounded Healer. These planets are now separating from their closest alignment by several degrees, but they remain within orb. The symbolism is indicative of bringing into concrete manifestation all our dreams, together with our fears also, and including the need to heal in the deeper places within us. As we attempt to integrate the pressure of outer events that are coming down in these transformational times, as a part of a climactic year of change, we are thus enjoined to look to the inside of ourselves for some of the answers that we cannot obtain anywhere else but there, at what seminal 20th century poet T.S. Eliot called "the still point of the turning world."
ARIES (March 20-April 19). Welcome to the deceptively simple world of your inner process, Aries. After recent trials, everything that you encounter seems like a dream somehow. This month you have the chance to learn from the ethereal school of your own interior process, that, although a challenge to integrate with the ordinary outer world of daytime activity, can in some ways teach you truer than outer happenings ever could. This is another astrologically exciting month, when inner and outer events seem intermingled, and when relationship issues vibrate with new awareness that you have summoned through the intensity of your recent inner work. You are attempting to see yourself through to a new relationship beginning. The way that you handle the tricky issue of balancing self and other has everything to do with how gracefully you can accept paradox, and compromise as well.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19). This is a confusing time for you Taurus, with practically everything in your life in some sort of major flux. This month you are continuing to find a mystical correspondence between current events and how you see your future unfolding. Relationship issues are coming alive in a different dynamic that combines managing them in a more fruitful way with a sense of service to the universe at large. As you settle into a new groove with partners, and with your spiritual life, communication and edification are key. You are in the midst of an intense learning curve regarding life and love that at times leaves you breathless. The realization is beginning to dawn upon you that your most important relationships are there for you to grow on as well as for the creation of a mutually enhanced situation as you move forward.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). This is an energetic and yet thoughtful month for you, Gemini. The recent sequence of transformative events has perhaps given you a new mandate on where your life could be heading, and this is a complex topic that needs thinking over. The career choices that interest you now are only those with plenty of room for heart. This month too, you are seeking a new way of conceptualizing your pathway forward, and entering into a deep meditation over your own self-concept, together with feelings regarding self-confidence, self-worth, and your values. By the second week of the month, and for its remainder, you are deeply introspective. It might seem as though everything right now were a part of a living dream, with numinous figures appearing and disappearing. It may be good to consider that a dream tells its own kind of truth.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is a time to reflect, Cancer, and to meditate on where your angel guides are leading you. A mystical point of view prevails. You are reviewing and reviving your notion of the most creative way into life and love as you look ahead toward the remainder of the year. Relationship issues continue to predominate as you make your way forward. You are exploring a fortunate opening that can take you further along your path, once you more completely determine where it is that you want to go. You seek freedom from conditioned habitual responses and the pressures of consensus beliefs that no longer apply to your updated situation. Instead of more narrow approaches, what might prove to be the key is acceptance of a multiplicity of belief systems, and of seemingly contradictory versions of reality.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) This month represents another exciting and productive time for you, Leo, geared to accomplishments in inner as well as outer realms. The recent New Moon has gotten you thinking ahead; you are moving mentally toward a more vibrant and integrated future self that you can visualize for success and almost taste. An idealistic current within you pulls you onward, with perhaps the temptation to put intimate partners on a pedestal, while the thoughtful and introspective weeks of the Mercury Retrograde period, beginning next Saturday, incline toward self-examination. This lends a mystical attitude to friendships and group affiliations that reflect how you plug in to the social swim around you, and make your splash. An idealized vision of your pathway forward is one huge plus of this powerful cycle, as you redirect your goals to the highest.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) You have before you yet another intense month, Virgo, as this powerful year continues. It features an extra-potent burst of energy for outer world accomplishment. There is as well an interesting pull to the inside since Mercury, your ruler, slips into retrograde motion after the first week of the month. The implication is that you are then taking a long hard look at where you are heading and why. You have been strongly feeling the ongoing transformation of your creative self-expression during the past six weeks or more, and this current cycle provides a thoughtful opportunity to settle into a new way of visioning your interactions with the world around you. As you put more energy into your career, it pays to consider precisely how your actions align with your deeper purpose.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) This is another exciting month, Libra. You are still changing at deep levels of your being, all the way through to the end of this powerful year. The Mercury Retrograde period that commences on the first Saturday in June provides an opportunity to self-examine, as you discover further wrinkles in what might be termed your guiding worldview, and as you reconsider every aspect of what, for you, might accurately define career success. You are also giving energy to the evolving story of partnership in your life, which is volatile and yet also inspirational. You have loads of energy these days for travel plans, and for seeking to expand your mental horizons. You cannot refrain from exploration, even though in the end it all comes down to what you find within the depths of your own inner spaces.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) This month is another interesting one for you, Scorpio, allowing you scope for exploring greater intimacy with others and also for examining your own depths. In the midst of this present somewhat nebulous monthly cycle, philosophical diversions and permutations have important things to teach you, more than you would perhaps expect. You are going all out for your own development, with focused attention on factors of identity, while refining and redefining for yourself what close connection with others might truly imply. As you reach out for better and deeper bonding with important others in your life you could paradoxically feel a bit isolated. As you continue to get the basics together for your next major stage, you are thus looking more deeply into unconscious dream worlds within you as a necessary adjunct to your process.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) This is a month of paradox and mystery, Sagittarius, which in the final analysis leads you to greater clarity of purpose. You have a newly felt certainty of life direction, which must be carefully nurtured. Although outer events play a huge role now, vitally numinous material provides you necessary aid, perhaps only discoverable by meditation. You are currently exploring facets of relationship that take you further down the rabbit hole of your own psyche, enabling you to apprehend a more detailed understanding of your own inner world. The tunnel of this current monthly cycle provides diverse experiences and encounters; the ground rules are that what doesn't drive you crazy will ultimately make you saner than when first you entered. There is a wisdom contained within the psyche that, when unleashed, can bring forth wondrous insights.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) You still find yourself in the very midst of transformation, Capricorn. Even though past the fires of April, and entering upon a newer phase of your voyage to wholeness, the beat goes on. You are reestablishing yourself along new lines. This is a time of great potential confusion, so that discernment must be applied. You are experiencing a surge of energy for outer achievement, while questioning nearly every aspect of what you are about, most notably your everyday practice in terms of health and habitual behavior, and as well your relationship to important others in your life. With Mercury retrograde, this is a significant month of refinement of inner insight, as you struggle to better define of what your ultimate purpose might consist, and how to get from where you are to where you want to be.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) You are in for yet another month of interesting events and reactions, Aquarius. Although the intensity of recent weeks is winding down, inner realms as well as outer presentation remain an important focus for change, and are being brought into greater conscious awareness over the course of the present monthly cycle. Mercury retrogrades this month, implying increased introspection. You are looking more deeply into your creative process as a powerful factor for the transformation of the deepest and most hidden parts of yourself. As you descend into your depths, you are reestablishing at the surface layers a more integrated personality. Your relationship to the physical outer world is important now. You could find yourself in a process of the deconstruction of everything that you understand about materiality, in order to rebuild it again on a better foundation.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) You are participating in an interesting month, Pisces, as you make a quietly productive start on consolidating recent changes and advancing along the arc of your development. You are extremely energized now, both in the realm of personal interaction and for issues of home and family. With Mercury eventually retrograding though this same sector of your solar chart you are this month refining and redefining your understanding of how you relate in the family context, and how this activity impinges upon your sense of self. Your self-expression remains quite important to you, and is made more concrete as it evolves and your ability to articulate your vision grows. You are in motion toward a distant goal with only the outlines of your eventual future available to your inward turning eye, although it is also clear that your feet are upon the path.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.
TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY – May 2014 – By Henry Seltzer
May 2014
By Henry Seltzer
The astrology of May follows a month that was very intense in its transformational import, including a stressed-out Earth Day, and therefore represents something of an aftermath to this significant time for the planet and for ourselves, thus a month when we could find ourselves taking stock, and attempting to further understand the changes taking place within us. This is indeed an excellent time for introspection with the retrograde of Mars in Libra coming into mutual reception with Venus in Aries, and stationing to direct motion on the 19th. Just before this month began, the Solar Eclipse New Moon of Tuesday, April 28th, taking place in Taurus, indicated that we have yet another intense month ahead of us. This extra-potent New Moon had many chimes with the Uranus-Pluto square that therefore remains largely active in the current month. Although this powerful collision of outer planet energies begins to fade after this month's cycle, it returns in December, thus promising by the end of this year further developments in the ongoing transformation that we remain in the midst of.
With Venus, the ruler of Taurus, poised to enter Aries, we have a very active relationship equation brewing. We may well come to review more completely and reflect on the way that relationships work themselves out in our lives. Venus conjoins Uranus by the time of the mid-month Full Moon, taking place on Wednesday, May 14th. Interestingly, Saturn is also bi-quintile Uranus just as Venus conjuncts it. This is a very dynamic Full Moon, with Mercury also participating, and Mars preparing to station in aspect to the degree of the recent eclipse. This implies greater consciousness around the issues of assertion and relationship, along with taking greater responsibility for relationship issues that we have been gradually facing up to.
Another astrological archetype that remains a powerful factor in these May skies is Chiron, the Wounded Healer, which is trined by Jupiter for much of the month, most especially at the time of the mid-month Full Moon. Saturn forms a grand trine in Water signs with Chiron and Jupiter at the time of New Moon of April 28th, an aspect pattern that perfects by mid-month. We are looking more closely into our wounding, and that residue of early trauma that prevents us from entering into the transformative nature of these times more wholeheartedly. We can unlock an amazing degree of power and freedom for constructive change once we are able to accept ourselves in the dark places within us, and begin to move beyond their crippling effect on our lives.
Uranus and Pluto continue to some extent all this year in their storied square, symbolizing the drastic realizations of this period and the urge to act in concert with them. Uranus and Pluto remain only a degree or two apart for the entire month of May. Over the summer this potent aspect wanes, returning in December. We are therefore making the requisite adjustments required in our lives, however reluctantly or slowly at times, at other times more quickly, over this entire period, indeed right up through to the end of the decade. These two years, of 2014 and 2015, do seem to represent the crux of the decade, at least as far as this aspect of radical transformative change is concerned. These times of epiphany and change do make a difference. However we can come to this, we need to know that our faith in the universe will be repaid, and that our actions actually matter, in order that we truly succeed in what we are currently attempting.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). The transformational beat continues, Aries. After a powerful month of April has brought to you great intensity of change, another amazing monthly cycle has you examining your values and taking yet another look inside to contemplate your deep inner process. You will likely encounter a further intimation of the deeper shifts in the modus operandi with which you approach the world around you. You are perhaps only now beginning to understand the changes that are taking place within you, in their full impact. You could as well be confronting subconscious fears that arise regarding this same feeling of inevitable transformation in terms of your public statement and in your very sense of identity. You possess remarkable enthusiasm now for perspective shifts and intuitional insight, and for what important partners in your life bring to the table.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19).This is an exciting month for you, Taurus, as you further explore the mostly positive changes that the universe has in store. You are feeling into a high regard for your place in the social setting and how you come across to others, and yet also retreating somewhat from outer activity into a world of your own devising. A meditative sensitivity seizes your soul and you do well to simply go with it. The transformational effects on your life flow symbolized by Uranus and Pluto in close aspect are still quite active, and contributory to your push for greater understanding of your relatively unconscious process and for your beliefs in general. You come out the other side with an enhanced position on internal integration and a more profound respect for where the cosmos seems to be leading you.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). These are interesting times that you are living through, Gemini. This month serves as a continuation, in that you are still dealing with important issues that affect you from the inside on out. You are faced now with an even greater sense of internal recognition of who and what you are, as you continue to concoct future plans that have a firmer basis in the integration of your own inner workings. While you are looking ahead to a future that you can truly live with, in alignment with these deep internal shifts, you are also this month coming to a more joyful acceptance of what is. In the midst of an extended meditation on philosophical issues, you are finding a sense of peace in rededicating yourself to the mundane details of life with a renewed sense of purpose.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is another special month for you, Cancer, in the midst of powerful year of change. You have had your ups and downs that nevertheless comprise a steadily accelerating upward spiral. While the progress can appear subtle in its day-to-day detail, it becomes more obvious when you look back over the past few months. Outwardly you are seeing variation of your efforts in terms of career potential that continues to bifurcate into a multiplicity of choices everywhere that you look, a veritable cornucopia of possibility. You are also getting comfortable and at home with yourself the more so the more you tune in to your own deep center, which has still further tidings to relate. You are in the process of visioning better success, and by a more profound measure, than ever you have dared to dream.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) You are discovering exciting new facets of yourself, Leo, and acknowledging novel places within you, over the course an active and questing month. There is also taking place within your mind and heart a new beginning regarding where you feel that your public statement is taking you. This is so, even as you consolidate matters behind the scenes, and get more serious about familial commitments. You are finding greater subtleties in recent realizations, as you begin to apply renewed vision to your professional choices. Your career is launching out into tangential and yet somehow appropriate new directions, in alignment with intuitional discoveries that have opened up new components of thought and belief while significantly broadening your existing worldview. You are applying your deeper feelings to productive mental activity, and vice-versa, creating a useful amalgam for your next stage.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) This is another intense and interesting month, Virgo. Your recent depth explorations have surprised and enlightened you, and now the beat continues, as you discover further and subtler ramifications of your internal workings, and combine these with practical ideas for incorporating new facets into your existing self-expression. You are partaking of both the concrete and the more ethereal, while utilizing your mental capacities to analyze and simultaneously to integrate the hidden and the more surface parts of your personality. You are also charging ahead with educational prospects, perhaps including travel opportunities, along the lines of the broadest possible definition of true learning. Elucidating your own truth about who you really are has never been more rewarding in terms of increased productivity and of planning ahead for a future that is in better alignment with your core values and beliefs.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) Your transformation continues, Libra, with some new wrinkles, over the course of yet another inspirational month. There have been subtle shifts within you – through recent epiphanies – that require working out in practical detail, as you move toward greater intimacy with others. A pivotal place within you has been activated and it has to do with understanding. You are increasingly aware of the dark as well as the light-filled spaces within you, and of the sporadically enlightening role of partners. You are coming to recognize that significant others in your life are in essence playing out your own forgotten or neglected facets. As you come to know the fragmented portions of your psyche you can paradoxically also begin to see an underlying order, finding the key to a better and more empowered integration of all your parts.
SCORPIO(Oct. 23-Nov. 21) This month is a significant one for you, Scorpio, coming in the aftermath to the crucial month of April including a solar eclipse in your opposite sign. The transformational energies of this powerful spring continue into the current time frame, and bring relationship with important persons in your life even more firmly into the picture. Your current focus is major as well, with a sense of limitation and concentration of your energies actually increasing your ability to stay the course and persist in finding out what you truly want. Your co-ruler Mars, currently retrograde, is stationing direct this month, implying that although you are very aware of the influence of others on your life right now, you are also wisely paying the closest possible attention to your own inner dialogue, independent of other viewpoints.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) This is a magical month of May for you, Sagittarius. You have been heading down some interesting roads, and this month in many ways puts an exclamation point on these trendings, and potentially supplies clarification. You are initiating a new conception of your dharma, that set of tasks that you came into this lifetime to perform. As you enter into a newfound consideration of where you are going and the means to get you there, this involves more and more your own unique contribution that only you are able to bring to the table. Your ongoing depth explorations of your inner motivations through this entire year have brought you to this moment. There are intuitive realizations still to sort through, of a subtle and illusive kind associated with secretly mystical and perhaps dark places within you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) You are still in the midst of massive transformation, Capricorn, and this month perhaps represents a consolidation of everything that has been going on with you over the course of these last few years. You are focused now on charting your pathway forward and it involves all your creativity, self-motivated and yet simultaneously pressed into the service of societal needs. As you take more seriously invisible realms inside, your very relationship to the material world could alter. In addition to this shift in values, you could also experience fluctuations in finances or other resources that could lead you into further meditation on the priority of inner over outer measures of self-worth. This takes place in the context of recognizing the power of the egoic self even as you make important steps to move beyond it.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) This is yet another amazing and magical month for you Aquarius, especially for your process of deep inner work that is very alive for you now. You are extremely invested this month in home and family concerns, in whatever ways these considerations might manifest. Family of origin issues could arise. Equally, this month's symbolism could refer to your current family or your household or to issues with your own sense of psychological security, which ultimately depends on close familial connection of various kinds. In any case, dealing with whatever comes up in this way will prove extremely fruitful for you long term, and productive of insights regarding your path ahead. You are finding your way into outer world achievement based on your own deep process, independent of other voices and what consensus thinking might dictate.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) You are pulling back somewhat from flights of imaginative fancy, Pisces, as you move toward an attitude that is more practical, and concretely realizable. This month could see positive gains in the various issues that you have been dealing with over the course of a potent year of change. You are currently possessed of a quality of joyous self-expression that takes you far, and allows you to recognize where you have benefited in recent trials, and toward what further stage you might actually be heading. You could in fact feel a philosophically inclined motivation to concentrate on and mentally explore the new psychic space that you find yourself in. More layers of the onion will emerge as you reach for your next phase in the ongoing transformation represented by the journey of this late springtime.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.
TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY April 2014 – By Henry Seltzer
April 2014
By Henry Seltzer
The astrology of April is quite intense, including two eclipses, and the perfection of the Uranus-Pluto square alignment in a major grand cross in cardinal signs. Uranus and Pluto come together this month in their revolutionary square that has been the hallmark of this contentious decade for the fifth of seven times. In this month's configuration, their perfect square is accentuated by Mars and Jupiter, forming a tight grand cross and rendering the radical energy for transformation and revolutionary/evolutionary change even more powerful. This is a time of great and crucial transformation, as the contradictions in our society become even more clearly recognized, dramatically showcasing the urgent need for meaningful change to take place. This very same process is echoed in our individual lives as well, since each one of us represents a microcosm for the whole.
On April 20th, Easter Sunday, Mars in retrograde, moving backward through Libra, opposes Uranus, at about a degree away, just as Jupiter, sailing through Cancer, arrives at the exact opposite point in the Zodiac to Pluto. The Moon also aligns with Pluto that evening, further highlighting this mighty transformational activity. The exact timing of the square between Uranus and Pluto arrives the next day, Monday, and then Mars aligns exactly on the next, so that the three days of the most transformative power are the 20th through the 22nd. Every day this month leads up to this, although the energy is certainly extremely volatile by the time of the April 15th Full Moon. This is an energetic and somewhat accident-prone time, as well as an opportunity for growth spurts of all kinds. It is also a potentially difficult period, when reactivity could sink your ship, or when inadvertent impulse could lead to unforeseen consequences.
In the week leading up to this Easter weekend, the night of Monday, April 14th brings a midnight Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse, taking place at about 3 AM on the east coast and about 12 AM on the west coast of North America, that will be visible over most of the continent. Many will stay up late to see the Moon turn the color of blood as the earth occludes her. This eclipse is astrologically interesting as well, as the Sun and Moon in alignment with the Moon's nodal axis form close declinational aspects to Neptune, with Mars in connection to Chiron and nearing its opposition to Pluto, and with Uranus and Pluto highlighted as well by Mercury in close conjunction with Uranus. To the revolutionary ardor represented by Uranus in combination with Pluto is added the spiritual idealism, and potential confusion, represented by Neptune and the pain of separation from the traditional and known that is symbolized by Chiron, the Wounded Healer, close to Neptune and prominent in this eclipse configuration.
April also partakes of the remaining retrograde of this early spring, namely Mars, still moving backward through Libra, and opposing Uranus on the 22nd as indicated above. Following the point of interaction with the potent outer planet combinations of the grand cross, Mars continues backward to the tenth degree of Libra before stationing in mid-May, and briefly returns to the point of opposition to Uranus in late June. During this period of the retrograde of Mars, outer achievement seems to take a back seat to deep reflection and inner work on self-recognition and self-realization. We are also over this entire monthly period attempting to get a better idea of how the various relationships and partnering of our lives adds to our own experience and where detracts, as we are further inspired to follow through on necessary changes to our life's basic structure.
The last eclipse of April takes place at nearly the end of the month, on April 28th. This Solar Eclipse will not be visible in the northern hemisphere, and yet it still counts as an extra-potent New Moon astrologically. Mercury, Mars, Venus and Neptune are all emphasized, so that the month of May that follows will be a time of gathering ourselves and adjusting to the powerful realizations that continue to come through, in collusion with the vital symbolism of these powerful cosmic alignments.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). This is an exciting and also fraught month for you, Aries. You have tons of energy to be up and doing. A bright dawning beckons although with massive obstacles still to surmount. As the transformational impacts of a climactic early year multiply in the present timeframe, you are challenged to stay afloat. Yet, once you get past your resistance, the possibilities for positive results are virtually endless. Partnership in getting there is even more important for you now than before, and yet could feel like a two-edged sword, as you question certain parts of your relationship dynamic. Connections with others around you are crucial and life changing, while you feel the need to preserve your own individuality. The seeming answer could come suddenly, and still take months to work itself out.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19).This is an important and transitional month for you, Taurus, when you benefit from staying as open as possible. As you transform in your understanding of the world around you and the universe within, you are aware that your best inspiration comes from the inside. Your very dreams are full of practical information. You are likely reflecting on question marks regarding service to others, the impact of your relationships on your life generally, and your own arc of development in the context of these difficult times. Your expression of who you are and how you show up in public is becoming clearer and more committed; it makes more and more sense to be coming at the world from the standpoint of your whole entire self, including that of your unconscious process.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). Exciting possibilities are opening up, Gemini, for creating positive change along the lines you have previously begun. You may be throwing logic as well as caution to the winds as you do. Whatever you sincerely wish for this month has an excellent chance of coming to pass, so choose wisely. February's retrograde of Mercury, which fully completed with its recent entrance into Pisces, has allowed you to create a new foundation, and now is the time to build. If you succeed in taking account of inner wounding, you will not miss out on a very important factor in discovering your more fully realized presence. You are in the process of creating greater internal connection with yourself, and you find yourself digging deeper into certain aspects of intimacy that you perhaps have previously avoided.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) You have an amazing month ahead, Cancer, as you more fully emerge into a vibrant and deeply changing world. Outer achievement is up for you, but with a marked difference from the career efforts of past occurrences, as you have now an entirely different sense of yourself underlying your outer world activity. Many and varied are your visions for accomplishment, and also the opportunities that are suddenly coming your way, because opportunity follows vision as surely as the flowers follow the rain. Your sense of yourself and of the way that you interact with significant others, or with potential partners, is also in major flux. As you push forward into greater real world commitment, it is with the consciousness of renewed life purpose and of the relevance of partners to your own efforts.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) The times are changing, Leo, and you along with them. Your journey lately has challenged you to explore more deeply within yourself, and your insights have perhaps been extraordinary. Now, with the even greater intensity of this new monthly cycle, you are again being put to a sort of test. There is no passing or failing, only the question of what you can glean from your experience, and how use startling epiphany to move yourself forward within your own arc of development. You are transforming mightily in your sense of yourself and of the world you live in. Partners play an important role as you surge toward May breakthrough. There are powerful implications for your road ahead as you conceive your mission to be of a very different variety than consensus thinking might dictate.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) This is an amazing time for you, Virgo, to top off an incredible beginning to the year. This month is adventure-packed, even though much of the action seems to be taking place on the inside. Over the past few weeks and into the present, you are being shot forward into greater interpersonal and inner connectivity like the releasing of a compressed spring. Partnership is on your mind, but not to the exclusion of your own transformative development. Your intuition is sizzling right now and worth paying attention to, because it tells you truer than mere logic where your next moves might actually take you. Everything is changed and yet somehow remains the same, as new realizations flood your system and intimate connection burns more brightly, in direct proportion to your own increasing self-awareness.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) This is again your time to reflect, Libra, on where life is taking you and as well on what part important others are able to play as you study how to enhance your own life development. The startling truth keeps coming at you, in one way or another, that even as you find salvation in connection with others, it is in actuality your own depths that you are thereby exploring. The perspective of active partners can be enlightening as an aid to your own blossoming understanding of what makes your heart keep up its steady and stealthy beat, leading you to a new high-water mark of inner exploration and self-understanding. What begins with equal parts of shutdown and wild euphoria leads you, through the time of the mid-month eclipse in your sign, to a more conscious sharing.
SCORPIO(Oct. 23-Nov. 21) This continues to be an exciting and a difficult time for you, Scorpio, the less so the more you can simply let your process take you where it will. You are entering upon yet another twist in the spiral of your destiny, as you follow your road to the next level of accumulated wisdom. While transforming at the very core of your being, you are finally beginning to understand more of where you are heading in this season of change. It is not the easy path that works for you, nor yet the path that consensus thinking seems to dictate. You are possessed with extraordinary dedication right now for inner work, and for finding that place within yourself where you can answer the most important of life's questions without the mixed blessing of external confirmation.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) It is a long road that has no turning, Sagittarius, and yours is coming on, through the thoughtful conundrums and complex achievements of this powerful monthly cycle. A deeper sense of yourself, and of your creative output, is emerging, at times quite suddenly. This throws your future plans and your entire relationship with the material world into radical transition. This in the end implies a sense of security that comes, not from the fluctuation of your finances, but rather from inside. Suffering is eased, and close interpersonal connection becomes more available to you as you embody higher consciousness. You are looking into everything more closely, including where you are heading, and this is one important key. Another lies in continuing to take each step as it comes, trusting the grace of the cosmos to guide you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) You are entering into yet another powerful monthly cycle, Capricorn, as you continue the transformational journey of this year. Home and family considerations suddenly predominate, along with the realization that your inner realms occupy a more strategic place in your life path than external ones. Even as you recognize the power of your inner perspective to move mountains, you are paradoxically invested more heavily than ever with idealized plans for a series of outer world accomplishments that you have long dreamed of fulfilling. Your intuitional access is strong and potentially life changing, so that your whole world, including the potential of partnership, is turned upside down. As you proceed with business almost as usual, there is a qualitative difference in what it ultimately means to you, and how you are taking it in.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) You are getting both serious and more light regarding your informal education, Aquarius. Your concentrated learning curve is becoming even more intense amidst the context of a year of meaningful change. This is heralded from the very beginning of the month by the advent of even further potent realizations, together with fresh commitment to a sense of your ultimate life purpose. This might actually involve a greater degree of inner work than you ever would have thought possible a few short months ago. Certain aspects of your existing worldview are crumbling while others are coming into greater figure-and-ground relief, all in accordance with a life plan that you breathed into being for yourself, long ago and far away, in quite another corner of the universe, and which yet sustains your efforts here.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) This is the time of your life, Pisces, all in flux, and with the pace getting faster as the spring commences. Nothing is quite the same as the month unfolds, rather life is renewed and somehow lighter, with the consciousness of major transition. It might be that old wounds could surface now, bringing you into a different sense of yourself as you move beyond them. You could find great alteration in finances and in even with regard to your values, and the basis for your sense of security, in unexpected and yet in the end positive and beneficial ways. This could all be conceived as a crash course in acceptance. Things get so much better once you allow the universe to guide you, getting past the notion that you alone must master your fate.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.
TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY OF 2014 A Synchronistic Month of March By Henry Seltzer
A Synchronistic Month of March
By Henry Seltzer
The astrology of March features a once-more closing in of Uranus and Pluto in their volatile square combination, plus the retrogrades of Mars – only just beginning in late Libra – and Mercury, officially ended but still in its retrograde shadow until the 21st. As in the previous month of February, we are therefore inner oriented. Uranus is also given a boost by a stationing Jupiter in exact square to Uranus and in opposition to Pluto. The trauma of these times is indeed closely related to Uranus and Pluto coming down, in their storied square, to wrest us from our complacency and get us to ask the difficult questions of ourselves such as where do we need to be learning and growing, as we shuck off behavior that has no real utility for us any longer in our more evolved understanding of ourselves. In this way, we are all going through some degree of future shock, based on our own continuing evolution, to the point where we no longer even recognize our former selves.
This is an exciting month of March, because while we are turning further to the unconscious side of our being, in order to examine our inner workings more closely, we are also venturing out upon new psychological territory that is new and daring. This concept is reflected in the close Uranus-Jupiter square that is near exact for the entire month and on throughout April. Its moment of exact comes next month, on the 20th, magically just as Pluto and Uranus form their exact square at very nearly the same degree and minute of their own respective signs. Meanwhile, Mars in Libra in its retrograde motion comes quite close to exactly opposing Uranus. As we prepare for this cosmic event, hailed by many as the "cardinal grand cross," still to come next month, we have in March a very strong dose of Uranus and Jupiter, closely aspected by the Pisces New Moon, indicating that brilliant ideas come to us with more frequency than even lately. These are accompanied by synchronicities that signal their symbolic resonance with meaningful change to take place in our thoughts and eventually our deeds and in a revitalized organization for our society.
Saturn in Scorpio is also powerfully configured in this monthly cycle, stationing retrograde on March 2nd and making aspects to personal planets and to Jupiter over the first week of the month. This introduces a note of caution into the picture of otherwise wildly optimistic Jupiterian high jinks, and reminds us that it is the very structure of our lives that is changing.
Chiron, the Wounded Healer, placed in Pisces near the degree of the recent New Moon, remains in close sextile to Pluto, so that one big factor in these March skies continues to be our recognition of inner wounding, along with acceptance, recovery and moving on with our lives in spite of everything. Once we can take a more wholly spiritual approach to our lives, the trauma of the past can be overcome and lived with, and even gladly taken in. We are getting ready as a collective to over the waterfall into a newer and freer world, and there is definitely some associated angst to deal with, along with much wonder also.
When Mercury leaves its retrograde shadow, passing its previous station degree in early Pisces, on the 21st, one day after the Sun moves into Aries and springtime begins, it comes quite close to the numinous energy of the Neptunian archetype, which it intersects two days later at the time of the Last Quarter Moon. This will be a confusing and a holy time, when we might begin to see through thinning veils to the other-dimensional realities symbolized by Neptune and made manifest within these earthly realms as music, poetry and dance.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). The roller-coaster journey of this climactic year continues, Aries. This month you ride the waves into the next installment of your looming transformation. Inner work is definitely up as you reexamine key areas, not least of these being relationships of all stripes, including business partnerships. Many other areas are in various stages of coming to a new dawning; in particular, the way that you meet the world is in process of a huge seismic shift. This applies as well to career moves and actually to every way that you actualize and relate. This is not to say that the metamorphosis you find yourself in the midst of is anybody else's story but your own. You are the chief architect and planner, as well as the one who must execute on the eventual details.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19).This is an exciting time to be alive, Taurus, as the galloping of your wild ride prolongs itself and realizations continue to pile up. You are getting messages from underground, informing you of more and vastly different sets of ideas for your way forward than ever you dreamed. You are charged with energy for revitalizing your path ahead to your next stage, and your optimistic intentions will bear fruit, although note that the time for acting on these improves toward the mid-month Full Moon. Relationships are changing gear on you, which could mean that you feel as though being thrown a curve. With flexibility and by relying on your deep intuition, you can handle it; especially if you are willing to let go and let the universe just proceed to move you along.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). It is once more a season of change for you, Gemini. After coming through last month's retrograde of Mercury, your ruler, outer achievement means something altogether different for you than it did a month or so ago. There is a compassionate feeling that you have been more recently bringing to the table, and that gets an extra boost early this month as the first week of March wears on. You are tuned to inner proclivities and embodied self-expression as you navigate the sweep of worlds inside you becoming more visible in outer realms. Surprising connectivity continues to suddenly light up your life with new information and chance groupings. It is all leading you to an ultimate purpose, that you might grow in your concept of self-worth and do it on your own terms.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is yet another amazing month for you, Cancer. As you continue to reflect on life and love you are exploring your own unique pathway forward, and your deep intuition is supremely important for this process of self-discovery. As you work with your partnership dynamic in many different ways, you are feeling closer than ever to finding a career offering that makes sense to you all the way through. It is in the absolute alignment of your head and your heart, of your need to produce in order to survive coupled with your talents and your most deeply held convictions, that you will find true happiness. You are building to a better sense of this through the trials of real-world incidents along with the graceful experience of your inner, and essentially spiritual, understanding.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) You are expanding in your heart, Leo. Profound inner process and shifting worldview moves you, as you continue to explore your depths. You are getting a sense of commitment to a new set of possibilities for prospective endeavor that is in the world but not of it. You are bringing in a new sense of curiosity regarding what more you might be able to find inside yourself. Having played this game for many months already, which is actually deadly serious from the standpoint of future benefit, you are fascinated to discover further realizations that await you. It is important to recognize, as a dramatic spring continues to unfold, that it does not get any less intense. As is the case with all spiritual information services, the message will repeat until you get it.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) Your world is expanding, Virgo, at times with a sudden rush that leaves you nearly breathless. It is all part of a journey of self-discovery that feels foreordained. You have recently been exploring concepts of service to others that have been such a fundamental part of your nature that you have been in some ways blind to the nuances. Old patterns of behavior, the ones that you might need to get past for more complete progress could begin to yield if you only are able to face them squarely. You are in the midst of another epiphany-packed month that brings important partners very much into the picture, as an adjunct to your own process of growth and change. You could also be getting clearer about what your most basic premise actually comprises.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) This late winter continues to be a wild ride for you, Libra. Another in a series of amazing months has you in its spell from the very beginning. Investigations regarding principles of service to the surrounding collective are morphing into a revolutionary concept of compassion as a mission statement. You are also looking more deeply into your connection with important partners, and the impact of relationship on your life in general. Surprising insights in this important area seem to arise out of the very heart of the universe itself. This is in the context of an extremely fortunate and at times startling success in the material realms, as you virtually redefine your creative output. All of which leaves you freer to ponder the extra-physical planes of existence that you are also visiting on a regular basis.
SCORPIO(Oct. 23-Nov. 21) You are going all out for the poetry of the moment, Scorpio. You are in the process of redefining yourself and your self-expressive output, with an eye to your inner world, as another intensely interesting month begins to unfold. Dream work and an inner feeling of peace are conduits now to finding a more integrated sense of self. The way that you tell your story to others has become almost more important than the story itself. You are playing a leading role in the drama of your life and the manner in which you come across. Some near-madness at the very core of your being has got your earnest attention, giving you intuitional clues as to your next stage, which likely involves greater soulful communication of your most fundamental and inherently brilliant ideas.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) This is your month to shine, Sagittarius, in positive and life-changing ways. You are also coming alive in deeper moments that get to the heart of difficult matters and illuminate them from the inside out. Your true goals now are for this kind of inner work, which while it does not bring you the thrill of immediate pleasure, actually inclines to the long haul and the lasting lessons. Your creative output is dazzling and could at times suddenly bridge the gap between inner and outer achievement, like a monument that momentarily appears to your startled vision before it slips again into the mist. Your values are shifting, so that surface ease seems only a part of the possible pie, with the other part buried somewhere inside you and containing equal measures of pain and joy.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) A difficult and fascinating time awaits you, Capricorn. You are feeling your way into a brighter future over the course of a month that is not scintillating but filled with a quiet glow and a touch of mystery at the core. This will continue to amuse your mind and bemuse you senses even as it morphs into something else entirely. New information suddenly appears out of nowhere or brought to you through the auspices of helpful partners that seem to be delivering God's own telegrams direct from your Higher Self. The shape shifting quality of this period might confound you but you will not be bored. In the end you will recognize the quality of this time in bringing the deeper intuition at your center together with outer world accomplishment that it truly underlies.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) An interesting and magical month awaits you, Aquarius. You could find that your most prized ideas, mainly concerning what you want to do in the world to make the most of yourself, come together now with sudden unfolding. Through the course of a difficult year you have gradually moved closer to a spiritual ideal, perhaps once thought to be unreachable. Now, suddenly, the impossible dream begins to materialize. Financial and other resources manifest in support. The challenges and changes of the next few weeks and months are additive to what has already gone down, and send you on your way to the bright promise of a more fully engaged sense of self. This is simultaneously mysterious and known, paradoxically strange and yet ordinary, your very own idea and a gift from the surrounding cosmos.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) This is a terrific month for you, Pisces, in this, your birthday time of the year. Your sense of who you are is quite expansive now, and partaking in all the recent flavors of your development, both easy and also those connoting trials and difficulty. These are all important pieces of your current arc of massive development, and you would not want to miss out on any of what has gone down. Your inner process is one important aspect of your existence lately, and this continues, as the stars align for you to prepare for and then to make your move over these next months. You are blessed with a positive self-image along with the feeling that you simply must investigate new pathways forward in order to stay whole and sane.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.
TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY February 2014 – By Henry Seltzer
February 2014
By Henry Seltzer
The astrology of February is complex, with three retrogrades of personal planets in either the beginning stages or having just ended, and with the Uranus and Pluto square still quite active, aided and abetted by an opposition/square from Jupiter and a sextile from Pluto to Chiron, the Wounded Healer. Saturn is also quite active, and actively aspected by both Mars and the antithetical planetary archetype of revolutionary Uranus. Due to all these inner planet retrogrades this is a very thoughtful time, when we are more internally focused than usual. We are examining more deeply both our own internal connection within and as well the times in which we find ourselves as this powerful year continues to unfold.
The almost universally feared retrograde of Mercury is once more upon us this month, and definitely corresponds to a more reflective stance. The retrograde begins on the afternoon of February 6th, and ends officially on February 28th; although Mercury is likely to be wobbly for another three weeks after that as it escapes its retrograde shadow, well into March. The retrograde of Mars through the sign of Libra begins the very next day, March 1st. meanwhile, Venus, in retrograde motion all last month, having stationing direct only on the 31st of January, is barely coming out of her own retrograde period and remains in close proximity to Pluto for the entire first week of February.
We have as well a hugely transformative month ahead since the Aquarius New Moon that kicks off the February cycle has Pluto conjunct Venus and simultaneously opposed by Jupiter to within a few minutes of a degree. Combined with the inward turning that is produced in symbolic resonance with the various personal planet retrogrades, and the aspect that Pluto still currently makes to Chiron, it is indeed a time for deep reflection concerning what we are truly up to at the innermost levels of our being. We will undoubtedly discover areas of our lives that need psychological weeding and pruning, perhaps long neglected. We are better able to tune in and to recognize these dark places within ourselves with the impetus of the events that come to pass over the course of an eventful late winter and early spring time period.
Because Pluto is conjuncted by retrograde Venus at the time of the January 30th New Moon that began the current cycle, this symbolism signals also that as we grow and transform, not the least of the areas that deserve our attention are those influenced by the close relationships of our lives. This month represents an exciting and productive period that will be productive of many changes in the manner in which we see ourselves at the deepest possible level, and in consequence the way in which we relate to others around us. Pluto and Chiron remain in close sextile throughout the month, and with the formative Aquarius New Moon at their mid-point. We are therefore dealing with difficult issues of prior wounding as the month continues to unfold, and this is an important part of the story of our ongoing transformation of issues of identity refinement and relationship connection.
When Mercury retrogrades on February 6th coincident with the First Quarter Moon, its station conjuncts numinous Neptune within a degree, making the onset of the retrograde period of time just a little more confusing and as well suffused with deeper meaning. Neptune is featured later in the month as well. The very nature of prominent Neptune demands that we embrace the paradoxical notion that we might be able to understand soul-level realities as equal in scope to normal practical considerations. If we have the openness to be present for it, an immense mystery is therefore released this month into greater consciousness.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). The transformational tenor of these times continues, Aries, and you are in the thick of it. During an introspective and also intensely revealing month, you are entering into a deeper investigation of life and love, and it stirs you as well as gives you pause. You are engaged right now in an all-important process of visualizing your next stage. As you dream your future self into being, whatever you wish for with sincerity and in alignment with soul purpose will come to pass. Your faith is monumental, and yet you are simultaneously also holding back from the realization of that ideal. Looking into the underlying patterns is more than a current habit of mind, and can ultimately prove extremely fruitful as you continue to navigate the tricky waters your own inner depths.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19). This is an intensely interesting month for you, Taurus, a continuation of the transformational year that has already begun to emerge. Your outer world presentation is sizzling, partially because of what you have been able to assimilate over the previous monthly cycle, when you have been given a good amount of motivation to internally expand your philosophical horizons. Indeed it seems to be that much of what you are struggling to integrate now has to do with perspective and mental flexibility. Important partners in your life provide the stability of a mentorship role as well as a contrasting point of view to be balanced by your own inner explorations. This is a thoughtful time of deeper and more viable connection, even as you make it happen on exterior levels of outer world initiatives.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). This is a thoughtful and reflective month for you, Gemini, a time when you are re-thinking your outer world presence in some deeper way. With part of your mind you are already convinced of needed tactical changes, in terms of both career matters and also your general availability to others, perhaps along the lines of a more receptive and insightful approach. You greatly value the impact that others make on your life, and in your dealings with them could also poignantly be sensing the gap of feeling tone between ideal and actuality. It could also be on your mind to adjust the way that you do things in the realm of intimate partnership, which might in the final analysis come down to a more compassionate regard for your own inner workings.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is an important month for you, Cancer, a powerfully reflective time enabling you to better understand your own inner world, as you more deeply consider your relationship dynamic and continue on the transformational course that you have set out for yourself these past few years. Although issues of inner wounding still come up, your perspective has been gradually changing; you may not until recently have become aware of the progress already made. You possess a fundamental optimism now, operating at the very core of your being, that serves you well as you voyage onward. There is likely to be further movement of an internal variety coming up for you in this month's time frame, an inner tide that you can seize upon and surf to your great advantage if you can get past your fears.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) The transformational beat continues, Leo, in the further development of your ongoing series of changes through the agency of universal forces. This is good timing for progress of both an exterior and also of a more internal kind, in a month in which partnership issues are very much on your mind. You are taking a more and more philosophical approach to these as of late, and, where relationships are concerned, making something of a fresh start in this February time frame. As you draw inspiration from ever widening circles of cosmic awareness, and continue to transform in your concept of service to the larger collective that surrounds you, a deeper sense of spiritual commitment is beginning to emerge that serves you well, and allows others around you to share in the bounty.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) Your season of transformation continues, Virgo, both for your creative output and with regard to your connection with others. You are finding your way forward in a way that maximizes the benefit for your own process of growth and change, and for everyone around you as well. Your ruler, Mercury, retrograding through your opposite sign, implies that your connections to important others in your life become the object of increased scrutiny, along with spiritual commitment to your natural helpful orientation. Your sense of what might constitute service to others is therefore the subject of this month's extended meditation, while you are simultaneously looking more deeply into partnership issues that you may have been neglected for far too long. This all makes perfect sense as you more consciously inhabit an increasingly interconnected world.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) This is an important month of transition for you, Libra. You are rocking it in terms of outer world pursuits and your success refracts back toward your depths to light them up in a new way. Home and family concerns become of utmost importance to get a better handle on and to see change as not only possible but also necessary. You are lately more introspective regarding all of this and opening to new vistas at the very core of your being, spurred on perhaps by partnership revelations. Your own transformation leads to a greater good for others around you as well. Something in your day-to-day activities is the subject of your recent reflections, as you refine and reinvigorate this ordinary area. You win by allowing greater scope to the daydream of potential and possibility.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) You are busy reaping what you sow these days, Scorpio. The focus is on others and the focus is on you, with interesting feedback loops generating overall more progress than dissonance. Home and family concerns lead you into a better understanding of yourself at all levels. You are delving into your depths for the next two months at least, coming up with the pearl of wisdom, as you continue on the huge learning curve that you have outlined for yourself in this oncoming climactic springtime. The dreamy creative potential that comes up for you now leads to new possibilities but not without a great deal of digging. This month is also an excellent time for further dialogue regarding the best utility of partnership dilemmas in terms of your own personal growth and for the benefit of all concerned.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) It is a vitally important voyage that you are in the midst of these days, Sagittarius, and yet it is one that you can take without even leaving home. You are spending most of this month and next touring inner regions and storing up the accompanying deep, and perhaps at times painful, realizations into your holding area for further analysis and reflection. The point is not so much what happened, or why me, but rather what can you learn from the experience. It might be that as the many layers unfold, your seven-week entry into a powerful springtime holds more questions than answers. The results of all your inquiry will take you into a more profound relationship with life direction and with significant partners, once you have more fully opened your heart to your own inner world.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) This is a powerful month for you, Capricorn. Your massive and thoroughgoing transformation goes on, with some particular circumstantial twists that bring you into closer contact with it. You are entering into a time of analysis and inward turning, as you balance security needs with the creation for yourself, and by yourself, of a future that you can really live with. Your professional public statement has been the subject of an increasingly intense inner scrutiny, leading you toward action, and your situation becomes more obvious as you look within. While your acknowledgment of the necessity for significant modification grows upon you, you are also blessed with the recognition of the possibility for meaningful change to come about. Partners in your life continue to provide an interesting and helpful perspective.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) This is a rather intense month that you are currently traversing, Aquarius, in this your birthday time of the year. You revel in outer world pursuits, while your inner landscape has become more important to you than ever as you continue sorting out the fundamental mystery of your existence. You are feeling loads of pizzazz, and the success of how well you are coming across to others, and yet it could all seem hollow when separated from an accompanying process of deeper reflection. Mercury's retrograde motion begins on the 6th and signals an essentially introspective period of time lasting through to the end of February and beyond. You are feeling the expansiveness of life to the extent that you can open to an internal mandate that eventually inclines you toward greater integration of all your parts.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) This month represents an opportunity to shine, Pisces, although not in the usual meaning of the term. Your light these days definitely represents an emanation from the inside. Rather than hiding yourself in some way, you can let your essence radiate outward in peaceful harmonizing with whatever that your soul sense tells you is actually there to receive it. Your creativity is very active now, together with your feeling of important gains to be made in self-knowledge, as you attempt to seek out a venue for your activity that will neither rock your boat nor hijack it for nefarious purpose. Once you have made your peace with inner priorities, you will be in a better position to ride the wave of inner knowing toward a new and more clearly defined horizon.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.
TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY January 2014 – By Henry Seltzer
January 2014
By Henry Seltzer
January's astrology is also in relationship to the New Year's since both start at midnight on the 31st of December. This year, as well, the planets conspire, since the Capricorn New Moon also takes place directly on January 1st. This New Moon is very dramatic, since it closely conjuncts Pluto, and is accompanied by a Grand Cross in cardinal signs, involving, along with transformative Pluto, the trickster energy of Uranus opposed by feisty Mars, with the additional amplification of Jupiter. There is thus a very active lineup of extremely powerful astrological indicators for the year of 2014. Venus is now retrograde, so that relationships of all kinds are on our minds as we meditate on the changes that 2014 will bring.
One keyword for this particularly important period of time is transformation. The idea of beneficial change is in any case subtly on our minds as we roll over the calendar year, a cycle that we take in on more than one level. The underground of our dreams and schemes involves among other things continual and profound change. This is the breath of life – without which we are virtually non-existent. Profound change is, after all, a normal part of that continual process of metabolism and metamorphosis that is vitally necessary at the cellular level and as well in terms of psyche, as we come into closer and closer alignment with our deepest intentions.
Then, with Mars in square with Pluto as the month begins, and opposite Uranus, we have not only an extra push toward necessary transformational change but also the potential for hasty action that we might in time come to regret. Reactivity is always lurking, and with Mars and Pluto combining in this way over a number of days leading up to the January 1st event, we have a real potential over this period for hidden anger suddenly coming to the surface, a danger that is also an opportunity. Being forewarned, we have the chance to rise above knee-jerk outburst and the temptation of hasty moves by taking the time to reflect on ourselves, contemplating from where the reactivity is stemming, and based on what underlying simmering energy, perhaps going back to core issues.
Regarding the storied Uranus-Pluto interaction, we have seen, in recent times, their square increase in intensity with each succeeding year, representing a corresponding urgency within each of us for personal transformation as is symbolically implied by this important collision of outer planet archetypes. We can observe, over the past few months and years, the increasing intensity of revolutionary societal change coming around on a collective as well as a personal level, since the vibration of collective is in essence nothing more than the sum total of every individual contribution. It is as though every one of us is a holographic integral component of the whole; when we are able to change ourselves, the world around us changes. Now, with the advent of 2014, this process is even further intensified. This shows up in the increasing frequency of the exact hits of Uranus-Pluto, coming up again on April 21st of the new year; and we can also see this exemplified in the extremely energized grand cross of this New Year's chart and the January 1st New Moon.
There is also the highlighted presence of Chiron, the Wounded Healer, emphasized last month, and very prominent in these January skies. Transformation implies leaving something behind that is not working; that is the difficult part. This is one place where the painful process indicated by Chiron is appropriate symbolically. We might note as well, that it is by the recognition of where we have in the past been wounded, and where we might yet move beyond that early trauma, that our most important and healing transformations begin to take place.
ARIES (March 20-April 19). The cosmic tide is running, Aries, with the turning of the year, and you are the active surfer of the wild energy that it contains. You have to keep moving just to keep up, and to allow your head to remain above these swirling forces with a modicum of control. This is so, although, in another way, your task right now is to admit that you are not the sole pilot of your craft. You may yet find that letting go is an underrated art form that is truly necessary now. Partnership with others around you is key, and also respect for the winds of change blowing through you. What is no longer useful, nor even in any way functional as an element of your continued growth, might need to be discarded unmercifully.
TAURUS (April 20-May 19). This is an exciting and vitally important year and month for you, Taurus, as life-changing information keeps flowing through you. A catalytic effect seems to be taking place whereby what is interesting in your immediate circumstance triggers a storm of meaning. While fully applying your mind and heart to the task, it takes days to sort out. Meanwhile the pace does not let up. You are entering into the crux of what you have really been up to all along, these past few years, and that is a cosmic learning curve of massive proportions that challenges you and transforms you. It is not too much to say that the knowledge coming your way this month will change forever the way you look at and manage your life; provided that you can allow it in.
GEMINI (May 20-June 20). This new year and month represents for you a significant leap forward, Gemini, which as luck would have it is also a leap down and in. You are moving toward realities within your soul that you had only partially glimpsed before this time. You win by asking no questions and simply allowing. This journey of inner exploration involves others as well as yourself, and brings dedication to your task of assessing where you are truly headed as you take on your normal duties with an extra sense of cosmic responsibility. If you are not able to fully submerge and explore, you will have yet further and more profound chances later on. This secondary world of your inner process informs this one and does not in any way invalidate it.
CANCER (June 21-July 20) This is an amazing month for you, Cancer, as you begin a new year ready to purge away some of the baggage from the old. Your ongoing transformation continues, and has huge implications for the way that you show up in the world, and also for the way that you do relationship. Your public presence is morphing along the fault lines generated by recent seismic shifts to your sense of identity, and the inner meaning of partnership. Outer accomplishment transforms inner recognition, and vise-versa. As the month progresses into a more graceful amalgam of self and other, you are left breathless, and yet, somehow, at least partially in control. Based on deep changes you are also seeing things rather differently on the home front, in a subtle distinction that actually changes everything.
LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) It's an amazing month for you, Leo, presaging an eventful year of inner exploration. Like Magellan you are making cosmic history these days, by proving that your world is not round but deep. The insights keep arriving in multi-dimensional groupings that defy rational ordering and yet somehow coalesce into appropriate meanings. In the midst of rapid-fire learning experiences, you find yourself re-dedicated to your life path. You may note that while ego is useful as a starting position, and in forming an important backdrop for all that you do and say, it fares badly as an end point. In the course of the rather intense journey of these times, you are discovering by faith a grounding that is paradoxically not of this physical world; it nonetheless succeeds in holding you afloat.
VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) This is an intensely interesting month for you, Virgo, presaging an amazing year of 2014. Transformational vision is available to you now, even more profoundly than in prior weeks and months, and it has the potential to completely change your life. That sounds scary, but in the event might not really be so. You are operating in a reflective mode as the month begins, meditating on your sense of who you are, and how your resulting creative output and artistic style is undergoing an important and even a massive shift. While simply keeping on keeping on with some parts of your life, you are awakening to a new authenticity with others. The reality is that this involves a massive restructuring, involving facets of how your path merges with an emerging and powerful sense of soul purpose.
LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) It is a complex and transformative month that is in the offing for you, Libra. This constitutes a very private period when you are yet also involved and even fortunate in the affairs of the world. You are quite intent on progress of a material kind, and a spiritual one as well. All that you are, and all that you intend to be, is coming to a singular focus and intention. Somehow though, your clock is running backward, and with good cause. Rather than blindly forging ahead with outer world plans, you are pausing to sort out core-level issues that could potentially be holding you back. This is ultimately something to be encouraged. All your future dealings will be enhanced and freed up by what you can learn this month and next by a deceptively simple process of deep reflection.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) This is an amazing and intense period for you, Scorpio. Over the course of this month and, actually, throughout the year ahead. What is at hand is a rather significant time of profound learning curve. You are forging higher mind correlations leading to a revitalized set of values and goals. Inner work leads to outer solution plus communicative contact with siblings and peers. You are deep dreaming, both while waking and asleep, in a way that further refines and enables all your contacts. This includes partnership with important persons and connections that are strictly within your own mind and soul. Digging through the internal motivation of your relationship dynamic provides rich rewards for you right now, and could lead you almost anywhere. With the only caveat that you must open to it, an unimaginable future awaits.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) This is an important time for you, Sagittarius, with major progress ahead on your issues, provided that you are willing to let go of what no longer serves you. Transformation is still alive and well in your life, with an even bigger push for that in this new month and year, involving your values and the resources that you command, as well as your connections with significant partners and your very self-definition. You are seeking the best possible alignment with soul purpose. If there is something that is not quite right with the way that you do finance or depend on others, then it is very likely to come to the fore for necessary course correction. You might forever benefit, if and when you decide to take up the requests that the universe is thereby making of you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) You are delving more deeply into yourself, Capricorn, as another amazingly transformative month and year begins. In the midst of a darkly gleaming and yet nevertheless promising time, the energy is mightily available for proving out your outer world intention with deeds, as well as in the form of thoughtful realignments at the deepest levels of your being. Your future plans remain your focus, together with the efforts that you still make to align these goals with your own soul-purpose as you are coming to understand it. Partners continue to provide beneficial perspectives. Your career and your self-expression are the subject of extended interior meditation. It is exciting what you bring to the table: new vision that can move mountains, along with a renewed determination to be of true service to the world around you.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) This is a deeply reflective time for you, Aquarius. You are forging ahead in outer world pursuits, but still more quietly involved with the inner. The subject of your meditation involves both relationship with significant partners and concepts of service to the larger community that surrounds you; thus you create a new sense of your own identity, plus better acceptance for the cosmic forces helping to shape your life. You are beginning to recognize that everything that you do and feel stems from what you believe at core level, and that an enhanced comprehension of yourself in your more unconscious places might yet become the path for finding your way forward. Greater and more empowered communication with others around you in both written and spoken form is one natural consequence.
PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) This darkly beautiful month is for you, Pisces, a paradox and a wonder. On the one hand lies the possibility of a much richer life – as soon as you can manage to let go of certain behaviors that you have come to recognize as no longer in your best interest to maintain – while on the other there is the pain of that loss and the uncertainty of your next steps into an unknown future. As your own intuition is telling you more and more urgently, and as significant persons in your life also convey, you have the world at your fingertips and it is only a gesture away. The next few months represent the process of your exploration of the very nearly infinite potential for you that begins with this current moment.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month's star signs and a variety of astrology reports are available on his website. Henry also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.