Allll-riiighty then!

Go with the flow of the Pisces Moon, void as it is until 6:13PM ET. A slow start to your morning commute? Meetings cancelled or flaked upon because of the freezing cold? Take care of routine and roll with twists and delays experienced in efforts to move forward in a straight line. Patience may be a challenge, with Mars already in RAMbunctious Aries and Venus joining it at 3:06PM ET. Some may be chomping at the bit  by the time the Moon joins the party and quickly hooks up with Mars and Venus between 6:30pm and 7:30PM ET. Passions and tempers may ignite — which would you prefer?  Venus in Aries is such a flirt — and Mars in Aries knows how to close that deal. It’s New Moon energy and a new day — socially speaking — as Piscean empathy, melancholy and soulful suffering in matters of social expression are shelved for the idealism and fearlessness of Aries fire.

Saturday is fine for chores done fast and furiously. At 5:04PM and 6:13PM ET, Moon makes its weekly clash with the Uranus-Pluto square; complete your tasks by then if you want to avoid an upset or a power play. Moon goes void on an expansive trine to Jupiter….not to enter steady, stabilizing Taurus until 7:28PM ET on SUNDAY. That’s a 24-hour chill period — suitable for wandering — and for not making mountains of crises out of molehills. And no shopping, if you please — that thing you impulsively buy is not likely to live up to expectations.

Biggest news on Sunday is the exact conjunction between Venus and Mars. More of the same sparks flying — for better or for worse. The Taurus Moon that shows up just in time for the Oscars slows down the charge, keeping things as they ought to be  — in a monumental, comforting sort of way. And the Oscar goes to…the nominee who best embodies a fiercely quirky independence that challenges the established order;  a fighting spirit that believes in the impossible; and somehow makes everything turn out as it should.  Hmm — why not Grand Budapest Hotel?

Truthfully, I have not examined the horoscopes of the nominees, but suffice it to say that all of them are hot, or they wouldn’t even be in the running. American Sniper would not be my pick, even though it is the favorite of the American people.  This film, which appears to glorify and idealize (Neptune) a gun-slinging (Mars) hero, was released on a Mars-Neptune conjunction. The U.S. horoscope has a Mars-Neptune square.

There’s no Moon void on Monday — no sleeping in . One pattern that’s exact at 8:56AM ET — and will be felt through the weekend –is the heavy challenge between the Sun in compassionate/martyred Pisces and Saturn in righteous Sagittarius. This affords us the opportunity to grumble about whoever was snubbed on Sunday.  This Saturn-Sun square also suggests a righteous reach, based on faith. Fearless leaders everywhere may fish or cut bait — or at least opine about it, with karmic consequences.

And now, the news.

Venus and Mars in Aries suggest new beginnings. Venus and Mars — and any other planet — at the last degree of Pisces suggest endings. Cosmic law: we must go through the ending in order to get to the new beginning. And this can be a melancholic, suffering, martyred or compassionate experience. Even if it is true that “what the chrysalis calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly.” I read that in a book called Illusions years ago. Highly recommended.

So on a day — yesterday — with Venus and Mars at the very end of the zodiac — it was fascinating to see an NYT op-ed written by Oliver Sacks, the beloved author, physician and professor of neurology. A few weeks ago Dr. Sacks learned he has terminal cancer. In this compelling essay, he writes about how he is coping with an inevitable end. It reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a man who’s been on an extraordinary path of spiritual growth, including a kundalini awakening, spirit guides showing up in his living room — that sort of perspective-transforming thing. And he’s come to believe that part of our spiritual work on this planet is to prepare ourselves properly for our eventual demise. “It’s part of life,” he told me.

Dr. Sacks has a planet — Mars in Libra (rational, gracious action) — at the Aries Point. And there he is on the front page. Also on the front page today is Rudy Giuliani.With a 29 degree Virgo Ascendant and a 29 degree Gemini Midheaven, he can’t help but attract attention, especially with nebulous Neptune sitting right on that Ascendant at 1 degree Libra. The glasses he wears are shades of rose, seen as if he’s in his own personal idealistic fog. His Sun-Uranus conjunction in Gemini can’t help but shake things up in a big way, though currently that rebellious combo is also shrouded in heavy fog, as transiting Neptune squares it.

So yesterday Mr. Giuliani makes headlines at a fundraiser for Scott Walker by saying that President Obama “doesn’t love America”. Which is astrologically absurd when you consider that Obama’s Venus (affection) is prominently placed at the Aries Point at 1 Cancer (mom, homeland and apple pie). But isn’t it interesting how the president’s Aries Point planet was triggered by transiting Venus and Mars, and the media can’t help but focus on the president’s affections. Do you think Mr. Giuliani understands that President Obama is not running for re-election next year? “I want an American president to raise our spirits again, like a Ronald Reagan,” Mr. Giuliani stated. Under such a heavy Neptune influence, I suppose we can forgive Mr. Giuliani for not recalling this iconic image from Obama’s first presidential campaign.

I ended up writing about Rudy Giuliani instead of finishing a write-up of the horoscope of the entity known as ISIS or ISIL or IS or Daesh — depending on what newspaper you’re reading. That’s a heavy subject, but it’s not likely going away in the immediate future, as in tomorrow or next week or next month. What prompted me to considering writing about it now is this in-depth article from The Atlantic, which has gone viral. It presents the entity’s ideology as — cribbed here from a related shorter, simpler CNN piece –“an apocalyptic cult that believes that we are living in the end times and that [its] actions are hastening the moment when that will happen”.  There’s also a profile in the NYT of one young man who left his home in Cairo to join this entity, much to the pain of his family.

Ending on the first uplifting headline I see on the NYT homepage. Gail Collins profiles Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is never, never, never giving up…and –ooh — something even more uplifting: an email that just landed in my inbox:

I want to thank you for my report... it has exceeded my expectations and I hope to order an indepth reading

later this year. What an insightful skill you have!