Sun into Sagittarius: Fear Less, Hope More and Keep It Real

        (Reprinted from Wikipedia)        On a cold New Year’s Eve, a poor girl tries to sell matches in the street. She is freezing badly, but she is afraid to go home because her father will beat her for not selling any matches. She takes shelter in a nook and lights the matches to warm herself. In their glow, she sees several lovely visions including a Christmas tree and a holiday feast. The girl looks skyward, sees a shooting star, and remembers her deceased grandmother saying that such a falling star means someone died and is going into Heaven. As she lights her next match, she sees a vision of her grandmother, the only person to have treated her with love and kindness. She strikes one match after another to keep the vision of her grandmother nearby for as long as she can. The child dies and her grandmother carries her soul to Heaven. The next morning, passers-by find the dead child in the nook.

        If there was ever a cautionary tale about the excesses of wishful thinking, Danish author Hans Christian Anderson masterfully articulated them in his timeless “The Little Match Girl.”  Does this mean that there is no place for hope in a bleak world nor any room for optimism amongst challenging circumstances?  Hardly.  What the sagacious story teller keenly understood is that hope alone is not enough, and escapism can be deadly.  As the Sun transits the boundless fire sign of the Centaur in 2010, Mercury and Mars will venture into sober Capricorn where they join regenerative Pluto, and Venus, newly direct, will work her way through truthful and transformational Scorpio. Unorthodox Uranus will emerge from its retrograde slumber, and to make sure that we don’t overlook important details, Mercury will begin another retrograde.  In short, this Sagittarius cycle will point the way forward while teaching us how to balance our aspirations with work, integrity and reality.

        Some forms of oppression, like the beatings given to the matchstick girl by her father, are obvious.  Most however work on much subtler levels.  It is often said that it is easy to know what we are against, but the greater challenge lies in knowing what we are for.  Upon that tiny axis lies an entire paradigm shift.  When we begin to change our focus from what is wrong to what we want, that old Sag magic begins working.  Affable, philosophical and kind, Sagittarius’s ultimate aim is freedom, ours.  Upon its archer’s arrow our consciousness soars into the heavens, expanding our field of awareness and showing us what possibilities lie on the horizon.  From this exalted view we begin to see the opportunities gleaming before us.  

        When the 2010 Sagittarius Sun cycle begins on November 22nd, Mercury and Mars will already be basking in the effervescent, expansive energies of this enthusiastic sign.  Buoyed by recent forward motion from Venus and Jupiter, our spirits should be on the upswing.  However, on November 30th Mercury will head into hardworking and practical Capricorn, followed by Mars on December 7th.  Mercury helps us think and communicate clearly and Mars represents how we pursue what we want.  With both in the conservative earth sign of Capricorn, those Sagittarius dreams and visions will not be immune the laws of gravity.  An especially potent dose of the goat’s milk is available on December 13th when Mercury and Mars meet up with the planet of ultimate truth and power, Pluto. That triple conjunction is an excellent occasion for seeding long range goals.

        To prevent any Capricorn pessimism or drudgery from spoiling Sagittarius’s party however, erratic, rule-breaking Uranus turns direct on December 6th. With increasing velocity, Uranus will do what it does best, shake things up. Though it is traveling through peaceful Pisces, its rebellious influence will charge the air with excitement. Between it and a Sun still shining brightly in lively Sagittarius, optimism, all be it the cautious kind, will prevail.  To further keep the ideas fresh and our momentum strong, Mercury will slip out of serious Capricorn on December 18th for a dip back into adventurous Sagittarius.  Its retrograde will be in effect from December 10th through 30th.  So as the Sun’s journey through Sagittarius exposes new frontiers, Mercury’s dance between industrious Capricorn and exuberant Sagittarius will help us distinguish between fact and fantasy.

        Since early October the personal planets (Mercury, Mars, Venus and the Sun) have been traversing the dark, truthful waters of Scorpio, and Venus will continue her detective work in Scorpio until January 7th. The truths about our lives churned up during these transits are typically the unpleasant variety. For example the report from the Presidential commission on the magnitude of the U.S. budget deficit and the hard choices ahead to fix it recently emerged. So as this Sagittarius cycle dawns, we find ourselves not so unlike our newly elected Congressmen and women.  Largely put into office to oust the government, they now awake to find that they are the government.  So it is true for us. The reins of responsibility and power rest firmly in our hands.  This Sagittarius cycle, with its shot of Capricorn pragmatism, can still reinvigorate our spirits, encourage us to blaze new trails and light our way to liberty.  Aim high!

Elizabeth join’s C.A. Brooks on “Simple Tales” next on the Winter Solstice, December 21st on 12Radio.com.

Sun into Scorpio: Turning Kool-Aid into Coffee

During the Scorpio cycle of 1978, a mother stepped before a large crowd and gave her four-year-old child the first dose of Jim Jones’ infamous suicide potion. She then drank her death sentence. Four minutes later the two were dead from the cyanide laced Kool-Aid. Before that ominous November afternoon was over, 909 People’s Temple members participated in mass suicide, and one United States Congressman and four journalists were shot to death by Jones’ followers. We want to dismiss this dark and shocking incident as the unfortunate fate of those unwise enough to recognize and reject brainwashing, the tragic end for “cult members” under the hypnotic control of a madman. We tell ourselves that we are more sophisticated than them, smarter and stronger. Yet we silently endure the latest news of record setting executive bonuses (to the tune of $144 billion on Wall Street alone), while we watch the unemployment rate hold firmly at 9.6 percent and see home foreclosures surpass the 100,000 mark in one month. Instinctively, we know that something is terribly wrong, yet, like Jones’ followers, our conformity persists. With the personal planets, the Sun, Mercury, Mars and Venus, all transiting the sign of truth, destruction and creation during this Scorpio cycle, we are being asked two very important questions. One, are we drinking the Kool-Aid? If so, are we ready to trade our complicity in for a new paradigm?

On November 2nd the American public will weigh in via a national election. Though fiery Mars will have moved on to cheerful Sagittarius by that time, Venus will be the planet to watch in this election. That’s because Venus represents our possessions and our money. Many years ago a political science professor explained it this way. When it comes to elections, it all boils down to how that voter in the booth feels about what is in his or her wallet. If things are going well economically, the incumbents are likely to be reelected. But a thinning wallet generally results in pink slips for those in power. Louise Hay has famously said that she finds that talking to people about their sex lives to be easier than talking to them about money. A retrograding materialistic Venus in do or die Scorpio on Election Day, along with a retrograde Jupiter (the other money planet), will likely put the almighty dollar front and center in the minds of voters. With Mercury, our thinking, also filled with Scorpio’s life or death clarity, the public is unlikely to swallow the usual dose of lies and half truths proliferated by pandering politicians either. For example, those shamelessly promoting themselves as heroes of the working classes, applauding the triumph of Chilean minors, but who have effectively killed the bill to bring worker’s safety into the mines of West Virginia, where 29 American minors died in April, will likely be taken to task. Pluto ruled Scorpio after all has to destroy what is unsustainable, untenable and unacceptable. With Mercury, Venus and the Sun in the fixed water sign, Americans will vote what they feel the most fervently this election.

Elizabeth joins astrologer CA Brooks on Tuesday, October 26th, at 11:00 A.M. PST on 12Radio.com

Out of the ashes, the phoenix rises. On the heels of the election, a new moon in Scorpio occurs on November 5th. This moon is notable not only for its birth in the sign of mystery and regeneration, but because of its wider cosmic context. At 14”19’, it falls next to the midpoint of the Galactic Center of our Milky Way and close to the asteroid Vesta, associated with the Sacred Feminine. The North Node, transformative Pluto and Ceres, the asteroid representing female reproduction, are conjoined in at 3 degrees Capricorn on the 5th. Within hours of all of this, healing asteroid Chiron and spiritual Neptune station from their retrograde motion in visionary Aquarius. It’s as if the Cosmic forces are aligning with the Feminine Mysteries in Scorpio’s deep dark waters to support us in birthing a new path.

How it will all turn out will likely take another five months to determine. In part, that is because we have just begun a cycle of five full moons at 29 degrees of their respective signs. In astrology 29 degrees marks the final point, the end of a phase. That series of full moons coincides harmoniously with the Goddess cycles of death and rebirth. In the dark days of November we may step before the Great Cauldron to give all that is not supporting us to the wise and ancient Death Crone. Throughout the winter she vigilantly tends to our petitions until the Spring Maiden emerges with the form our paths are to take. Expansive Jupiter will also be assisting her and us with the expression of these energies when it moves into action oriented Aries on January 22, 2011. But we won’t have to wait until that final 29 degree full moon of February 18, 2011 to begin seeing the shapes of things to come. That’s because three planets begin direct motion during this Scorpio cycle, Neptune on November 6th, and Venus and Jupiter on the 18th. Instigating Mars and active Mercury will also make the transition from intense Scorpio to lighthearted Sagittarius, on Oct 28th and November 7th respectively, bringing a sense of optimistic movement to the atmosphere. So as this Scorpio cycle descends, we are being forced to look honestly and soberly at the corruption, greed and abuses of power in the forces that govern our lives. Concurrently, we are being given the opportunities and tools to replace those structures for good. See you at the cafe!