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I am a reporter with a unique beat. I use my understanding of planetary cycles to provide advance notice and analysis on the Zeitgeist of the day. If you have ever wondered “why is this happening now,” my insights will transform your experience of the headlines, adding new meaning and understanding. Call it Astrology for News Junkies. If you’re curious to know why the Impossible Burger is trending…or why the outcome of the 2019 Israeli elections was likely to be a shocker …or why “Woodrow Wilson, Stud Muffin” was a New York Times headline in December 2013, you will find it here, in over a decade’s worth of historical research and reporting.
Note that I do use astrological jargon in The Forecast in my effort to show how the planetary patterns are reflected in mundane events. I explain what the jargon symbolizes, so that all who want to understand the connections between astrology and the news may do so. However, I do not use astrological jargon in personal consultations, just plain English.
Astro-logical Forecast for Monday 9/30: Sneak Peek at the Week
/in The Forecast…and we’re off…to the start of another work week, this time with a fully-engaged Moon in royal Leo, continuing the potential for play, drama queens/kings and creative efforts that allow you and others to shine. No sleeping in! Exact planetary patterns are light today, but we’ll likely feel the reflection of heavier alignments that are exact starting Tuesday.
First, a need for inspiring vision and/or rose-colored fog in thought and communication is suggested by a lovely connection between mental Mercury and nebulous Neptune, exact on Tuesday night at 5:45PM ET.This is an excellent aspect for artists, healers and other creative types. On the other hand, if something sounds way too good to be true, it couldn’t hurt to dig a little deeper for details, especially when the Moon enters discerning Virgo on Tuesday.
I will be in Los Angeles October 3rd – 12th and available for in-person consultations. Please contact me to schedule an appointment.
Second, the potent challenge between the Libra Sun and Pluto (also on Tuesday) and rebel Uranus (on Thursday) suggests all kinds of power plays, resources (nuclear, oil, gas, etc.), news from underground, and other revelations about governments, corporations and other institutions. Throw in some ground-breaking headlines involving revolution, individual liberties and technology — especially outer space. This just in: a cool article about how NASA is using the ground-breaking 3D printer.
Other disruptions to the status quo suggested by the never-ending Uranus-Pluto square can be found nearly every day — in-depth — on the homepage of www.truthout.org. Another revolution — this one in health care — begins on Tuesday, when key provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act take effect. Here’s a little summary of what may be in it for you, courtesy of the New York Times. Fascinating that it will take effect, perhaps with a fizzle, when the Moon is void of course between 12:48AM ET and2:52PM ET on Tuesday. Your other Moon void this week: Thursday 2:57PM ET- 10:59PM ET. Be advised that the next lunar cycle begins on Friday at 8:34PM ET, with a New Moon in Libra.
And just in case you haven’t heard:
I will be in Los Angeles October 3rd – 12th and available for in-person consultations. Please contact me to schedule an appointment — and please forward this forecast to everyone you know in the Entire Free World.
Keep those cards and letters coming…
Astro-logical Forecast for Friday 9/28/2013 & the Weekend: Storm Watch; Ted Cruz, Right on Schedule
/in The ForecastAnother day, another forecast in another time zone. Greetings from the Aloha State, and may I just say that if fate and/or travel fatigue ever leaves you vulnerable to a microbe-induced delirium, there are far worse places to experience it. The warm, nurturing breezes and equally warm, salty ocean — just steps away from a cozy cottage — expedites the healing process. Huzzah! So let’s now examine the planetary potential of the weekend.
On Thursday, at least one person I know appears to have expressed the flaky potential of the early morning void of course Moon by wearing a pair of mismatched ballet flats to the office. Presumably clarity of focus returned around 3:24PM ET, when Moon entered Cancer, where it is now and will be until 3:57AM ET on Sunday. A Cancer Moon suggests an excellent period to focus on emotional and homeland security needs, e.g., creative projects involving the home, family and nourishment. A lovely connection between Venus and Jupiter, the cosmic sugar daddy, suggests enjoyment of abundance and jolly good cheer (the positive potential), or a bombastic and/or waspish emotional excess (negative potential), followed by a large credit card statement next month. Let’s all go for the positive, shall we?
Adding to the expansive atmosphere that spills over into Friday is the 3rd Quarter Moon, suggesting one last challenge to the agenda you set on the New Moon of September 5th. Recognize it; deal with it and be prepared for upsets, power struggles and emotional catharses on Friday morning, as the sensitive Cancer Moon engages with the disruptive Uranus-Pluto square.
Sparks could fly anytime between now and 9:32AM ET Saturday, as loving Venus in action-hero Mars square off. Stubborn, deep, emotional and dramatic are all possible expressions for this clash of polarities, and one obvious arena where this clash can be felt is between the sexes. Juicy and passionate, if you’re fortunate…
I will be in Los Angeles October 3rd – 12th and available for in-person consultations. Please contact me to schedule an appointment.
Sunday, after a void too brief to note, Moon enters drama queen Leo at 3:57AM ET, looking for more love or at least a party. Mental Mercury — a planet reflecting mindset and communication — dives into ruthless Scorpio at 7:38AM ET, adding more than the usual bite to what is thought and said. Please note that the closer we get to October 1st and 3rd, when the Libra Sun will make contact — first with powerful Pluto and then with erratic Uranus — the more intensity and volatility we will likely feel and see expressed in the headlines. This electrifying, transformative energy will be more personally experienced if you were born around the 30th of March, June, September and December…or if you have a planet or point around 9 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.
So what did I miss over the past couple of days while in my microbe-induced delirium? Well, as noted in the last forecast, planetary patterns were rather light and the Moon was in blah-blah-blah information-junkie Gemini. Which fits rights in with a 21-hour blah blah blah performance by Senator Ted Cruz on the floor of the U.S. Senate, summarized here with the usual wit and charm by NY Times columnist Gail Collins.
Ted Cruz was born on a day that lives for prominence — December, 22, 1970 — in Calgary, Alberta-as-in-Canada-which-is-not-America, Canada, in case anyone wants to know. His Sun is at 0 degrees of Capricorn, which avid readers know is one of the focus-pulling Aries Points. Cruz’s Sun is squared by Pluto (power), also at an Aries Point. A Sun-Pluto square suggests a certain level of suppression experienced in the early home life. Making up for lost time now, perhaps?
Current planetary patterns suggest efforts to attract attention for anything Senator Cruz has to say or think will continue to be met with success — for better or for worse — all through 2014. The never-ending Uranus-Pluto square will be making exact contact with Cruz’s potentially brilliant natal Mercury-Uranus square. We can expect plenty of unconventional outbursts in the area of communication from Senator Cruz, as his mind is super-charged with ambition. Note that when we first checked in with him on February 18, 2013, stern Saturn was making a rather militant connection to his action-oriented Mars in stubborn Scorpio…and darned if that Saturn isn’t right back on top of Cruz’s super-aggressive need to take action using knowledge for the sake of power and control…just in time for his “filibuster”. Fascinating, eh? Cue Marvin K. Mooney now, please.
Please do check out the Feb 18th post linked above for valuable information on stern Saturn’s current voyage through Scorpio. You’ll begin to understand why so many stories about unsavory, nitty-gritty and/or down and dirty issues have been making news in recent months.
Last but not least – a reply to a reader who asked for more information on the food I enjoyed while at the ryokan in Hakone. No surprise at all that this request was made while the Moon was in material comfort-seeking Taurus and that the reply should be duly posted when the Moon is in nourishing Cancer. Well, dear Reader, my ryokan dinner was a dreamy shabu-shabu; my asa gohan (breakfast) included the following culinary delights: pickled daikon radish, pickled ume (plum), konjak (Japanese taro) w/miso sauce; kaga age (fried carrots and onions); beans and burdock salad; chicken tenders, okura and grated yam w/wasabi; natto (fermented soy beans with a slime-like consistency — not for the faint-hearted)…to be eaten with nori (seaweed); an onsen egg (soft-boiled egg cooked in hot spring water); aji no himono (a flattened, sundried and salted fish); tsumire soup (soup with minced fish balls). All beautifully presented in numerous teensy-tiny little ceramic plates and bowls. Oishii desu!
And just in case you haven’t heard:
I will be in Los Angeles October 3rd – 12th and available for in-person consultations. Please contact me to schedule an appointment — and please forward this forecast to everyone you know in the Entire Free World.
Thank you for reading this forecast!
Astro-logical Forecast for Sunday & Monday 9/22 -23/2013: Happy Autumnal Equinox!
/in The ForecastAs it turned out, I could not bring myself to pack my trusty laptop in my overnight bag for a sidetrip to Hakone; hence, no forecast. And if you ever make it as far as Tokyo, I hope you will take time to escape to this glorious mountain playground, carrying as little baggage as possible. Arriving at my riverside ryokan after a day’s trek via four different kinds of transportation (including a cable car over a sulfurous volcano), I felt like a character in one of the Dungeons & Dragons type role-playing computer games I indulged in during my “geek phase”. This was back in the day when the plot of the computer game was way more developed than the graphics, and thus far more engaging than the gory (and ultimately tedious) 3-d displays of monster-slaughtering mayhem one apparently must suffer through in computer games now.
Back to the ryokan: it was built in the 17th century, and my spacious tatami-floored suite (!) included a private, open-air hot spring bath overlooking the aforementioned river….were you expecting an astrology forecast? Oh, all right…
If this post is more focused on fantasy and sensual delights, I am guilty of being swayed by current planetary patterns. Moon moved into comfort-seeking Taurus at 6:33PM ET Saturday, and at 12:37AM ET on Sunday it made a delightfully escapist connection with rose-colored Neptune (I hope your “date night” was inspiring). Late morning hours (around 11AM ET) hold the potential for further emotional depth, with this caveat: a responsibility or serious subject rearing its head just before noon.
Sunday (ET) marks the last day of summer — the Sun is at the end of Virgo and will move into Libra at 4:44 PM ET Sunday and then…happy Autumnal Equinox…a perfect balance between day and night.
The first day of each season is especially powerful. We are immediately alerted to the likelihood of change and the beginning of a new cycle. These days are prominent, noticed and in some cultures even celebrated (it’s a national holiday here in Japan). The astrological signs that mark the seasons are Aries (spring), Cancer (summer), Libra (fall) and Capricorn (winter). Thus if you are born on or near the first day of those signs, or you have a planet or angle within the first two degrees of those signs, you will likely have a drive to be noticed in whatever areas of your life that planet signifies.
Libra is a airy, mental sign, generally concerned with relationships, social graces and with promoting fairness, justice and balance. This does not mean Librans are balanced; it means they generally are seeking balance and are quite capable of swinging back and forth wildly as they search for it. As sweet as Libra can be, they are not marshmallows. The term “iron fist in a velvet glove” often applies.
I will be in Los Angeles October 3rd – 12th and available for in-person consultations. Please contact me to schedule an appointment.
More about Sunday: more pleasurable indulgences — or overindulgences — can be facilitated by an opposition between the earthy Taurus Moon and loving Venus in depth-seeking Scorpio this evening at 7:41PM ET. If you’re a night owl, however, be advised that a potential clash of wills may ensue some time after midnight, as the Moon is challenged by ardent Mars in regal Leo.
At 3:13AM ET, Moon goes void of course for 24 hours — until 3:34AM ET on Tuesday, suggesting that Monday will be a bust. Stick to what is routine, chill out and roll with whatever twist crop up in your efforts to move forward in a straight line.
Planetary patterns are relatively quiet on Tuesday and Wednesday, with two exceptions. First, a stubborn challenge between loving Venus and action-hero Mars that can ignite sparks between the sexes. This square is exact on Saturday morning at 9:32AM ET, but aspects are often felt before they make exact contact. The other potentially volatile pattern is the Libra Sun’s approaching engagement with the never-ending disruptive Uranus-Pluto square, exact between October 1st and 3rd, but surely reflected in world events between now and then. Y’know, like a possible government shutdown in the U.S., engineered by our noble elected representatives…now that could be disruptive.
And speaking of disruptive, ruthless Pluto turned direct last Friday at 11:27AM ET, suggesting a potent and potentially destructive release of underground energies, as reflected in headlines over the weekend. Consult the home page of the New York Times for details. Finally, because reading stories about food stamp programs being slashed and other violent massacres around the world is sometimes more than the average mind can handle, I offer this note from the world of physics that “challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental concepts of reality….” Will it change your perspective of current events?
Astro-logical Forecast for Tuesday & Wednesday 9/17-18/2013: Steel Magnolias
/in The Forecast“Tuesday’s dead”, as the Cat Stevens song goes — at least from where I type in Tokyo. It’s 11PM JST, but in other time zones, your Tuesday is just getting started. As of 9:58AM ET, Moon finally got into gear when it engaged in Pisces, softening hard edges, facilitating compassion for the suffering of humanity and seeking refuge in all sorts of intangibles: music, spirit, drugs, melancholy, meditation, film, vision.
Your actions may be helped by a cooperative connection between mental Mercury and assertive Mars — great for making sales pitches and other verbal presentations. A dreamy/spacey/artsy vibe rolls in around 3:38PM ET, when the Moon is shrouded in rose-colored Neptunian fog. This heightens the already sensitive drive of the Pisces Moon, inspiring visionaries and also suggesting the potential for a bit of idealism or confusion.
Meanwhile, those hard edges that may need softening are courtesy of the potentially chilly, serious, take-no-prisoners hook up between Venus (women, social expression, money, art) and stern Saturn in ruthless Scorpio, This aspect is exact Wednesday at 4:54PM ET, and soon followed by a deep emotional connection to Venus from potent Pluto. Changes of perspective in relationship, finances and aesthetics are suggested; the women in your life are not inclined to suffer fools gladly. Cuts are likely to be made, along with serious creative ambition. All of it is deeply felt, as the Moon is waxing full and will be exact — and still in weepy, watery, soulful Pisces — on Thursday at 7:13AM ET. Any “serious talks” you’re planning between now and then may be quite cathartic.
Your Moon voids for the rest of the week: Thursday from 7:13AM ET to 12:58PM ET; Friday 9:25PM ET through Saturday 6:33PM ET. Not bad for a work week; so make the most of it. But do be kind to each other while you forge ahead — very, very kind. Venus-Saturn patterns can feel oh-so-cruel when you’re looking for a pat on the back or a hug.
In the news…there’s no shortage of items to reports in the wake of the weekend’s dynamic planetary patterns (see last Thursday’s forecast for details), and especially the status quo -disrupting challenge to mental Mercury by the never-ending Uranus-Pluto square. Did you hear about our new Miss America? Crowned on a day with Moon in unconventional, equality and freedom-loving Aquarius, in the wake of other planetary patterns suggesting, innovation, aesthetics and sharply worded criticism, some in America wasted no time spewing said criticism into the Twittersphere like so much effluent. With Moon (women) sorely challenged by stern Saturn late Sunday night, we could certainly anticipate that decisions made would not please everyone.
Other sobering news dominating the headlines is that of yet another lone gunman with “anger management issues,” this time at the Washington Navy Yard, where 13 people, including the perpetrator, were killed. A quick glance at the chart for the time of this disturbing incident — 8:20AM ET on 9/16/2013 in Washington DC — paints a compelling picture: Moon’s last aspect before 8:20AM is a combative opposition to aggressive Mars; disruptive Uranus and Pluto are on the angles of the chart, as is a rattled/imbalanced Mercury (mental state), sitting right on the Ascendant (impossible to miss). Other measurements suggest surreal and bewildered states.
As I have written in prior forecasts, we can expect disruptions of the status quo pretty much every time a planet engages with Uranus and Pluto. The next time that happens will be the first week of October, when the Libra Sun is opposed by Uranus and squared by Pluto. But since I want to end this forecast on a positive note, here’s an article from last week about a fascinating study on creativity. It’s an awesome piece that effectively communicates the essence of two planets: Saturn and Uranus. Why? I’ll tell you. Saturn is order, conservatism, the established way of doing things. Uranus is chaos and innovation. The study revealed that if you put people in an orderly room (Saturn) and give them choices, they will tend to be more conservative. If you put them in a messy environment — i.e., chaotic and thus Uranian, they will seek more innovative/creative solutions and experiences. This is a major plus side of times when everything feels like it’s falling apart. Got that?
Last but not least, in honor of the recent mind-bending Mercury-Uranus-Pluto T-square, wrap your head around this item: “Maps That Will Change the Way You See the World”.
I’ll post again before the Full Moon on Thursday, as I am allegedly now on vacation for a few days, having delivered my talk in Tokyo…
Oyasumi nasai!
Astro-logical Forecast for Friday 9/13/2013 thru Monday 9/16/2013: Get Up and Go!
/in The ForecastOhayo gozaimasu!
In other words, “good morning” from Tokyo, where the day is already done — and I didn’t even get to live it, having crossed the International Date Line several hours ago. It’s 10:30PM JST, but for most of you, the day is just getting started. And thanks to the enterprising Moon in Capricorn as of 5:56AM ET, you have every reason to get up and make things happen — and that goes for Saturday, too.
Other than the usual disruptions and emotional intensity we’ve grown accustomed to experiencing once a week when the Moon challenges the never-ending Uranus-Pluto square, we have a number of planets supporting the Capricorn Moon’s need to advance progress, fueled by the Virgo Sun’s energy to hash out the details in an effort to make things perfect. Plus we have three other planetary connections not involving the Moon that are just hunky-dory, and they are all exact on Saturday.
First, a lovely connection from Neptune softens the ofttimes waspish Venus in Scorpio, suggesting a need for beauty and ideals of substance in relationships, art, finances and women. Second, a challenge between mental Mercury and ruthless Pluto helps us dig up dirt and express ourselves persuasively in all communications. On the down side, this may be reflected in power struggles and seriously sharp words (so think a bit before you speak, ok?). Third, another harmonious connection: this one between action-hero Mars in regal Leo and rebel Uranus in pioneering Aries suggests a successful application of willpower in especially innovative ways. This is all great news for creative and investigative enterprises of any kind.
Get your Saturday chores done by 7:17PM ET and then chill during another Moon void that lasts until 8:05AM ET on Sunday. That’s when the Moon enters humanitarian, stubborn, freedom and fringe-loving Aquarius, where it will travel mostly unencumbered throughout the day. Get together with some of your wackier friends for some unconventional exchanges. More bright, albeit disruptive ideas may be put into play then, as mental Mercury challenges Uranus at 2:41AM ET.
Wanna make this a three-day weekend? Congratulations. Moon will be void of course from 4:19AM ET until 9:58AM ET Tuesday. Feel free to take the day off to do non-type A activities, and sure, tell ’em your astrologer said it was OK. Just avoid the malls, signing contracts and things you wish to be of consequence. I know I spend a lot of time advising you what NOT to do during Moon voids, because I believe most cultures are so wired to go, go, go — produce, produce, grow, grow — that they NEED to be reminded to CHILL OUT. Otherwise, what does that get you, eventually? Burn out. A depletion of resources. Etc. These long voids are great opportunities to re-charge.
Here’s an interesting article that was on the front page of last Sunday’s NYT — about efforts to change the Type A, Gordon Gekko-worshipping culture that was apparently the norm at Harvard Business School. Seems a few people decided it was time to level the playing field with the concept of gender equity — a perfect read for a weekend with Moon in ambitious Capricorn, followed by equal opportunity-loving Aquarius.
Reminder to readers in Tokyo: I am available for in-person consultations for the next several days. Reminder to readers in Los Angeles: ditto for you, too — the first two weeks of October. Reminder to everyone else: I always available for consultations via Skype and/or telephone.
Have a great weekend — the forecast will return on Tuesday…
Jaa, mata...
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