Why did the Goddess invent grief? What is its purpose? Most of us think about this powerful energy, if at all, only in terms of the specific things that trigger it for us. And how to avoid them. But the skies this month are asking us to consider grief in a different way.

How appropriate it is that, just as Neptune (pretense) conjoins Chiron (wounds) for their last hit on America's Moon in Aquarius, it’s election time in the USA. Negative Neptune manifests as addiction, self-delusion and the passive acceptance of unhealthy situations, which the shrinks have delicately termed enabling. I propose that we all take a pledge not to enable this November.

The weather is changing, the Wheel of the Year is turning. We’re heading into an eventful Equinox. Among the planetary cycles clicking into new patterns all at once in mid-to-late September (discussed in detail in the 4th lecture of my 2012 series; see box at right): Pluto, star of the Cardinal Crossroads, makes a station on Monday the 13th. Five

Have you noticed that every time you think the culture wars couldn’t possibly get any wackier, they get wackier? Saturn, the planet that is supposed to keep us sane and grounded, is under stress. For the past two years it has been slapped around by Uranus and Pluto, and it's now opposed by Jupiter (exact on May 22nd and Aug

The WikiLeaks story hit the headlines under one of the most powerful Full Moons of the year, July 25th (see second lecture in the 2012 series box, at right). Mars, the planet of war, was conjunct Saturn, a combination associated with the army. Saturn was within hours of making its last exact opposition to Uranus -- a contest that had

Sometimes feeling overwhelmed is a good sign. Under skies like these, to feel overwhelmed means we’re not shut down. Personally and globally, late July and early August should raise urgent questions in all of us. The Full Moon on 7/25th and the New Moon on August 9th (see the lecture series announcement in the right-hand column) are bookends to an

I know I’m not alone in feeling perversely gratified that oil has made its way to the white sands of Florida. Certainly I wish no ill to the local tourist industry, any more than I wish more suffering to befall the fishermen in Louisiana (who, screwed and angry, are calling the compensatory pittance BP has offered them “shut-up money.”)

The planetary patterns of 2010 and beyond are astounding. As Spring turns to Summer we are feeling the approach of the long-anticipated square of Pluto and Uranus: the longest arm of the Cardinal Cross. As the angle between these two celestial heavyweights becomes more and more exact, the potential increases for the people of the world (Uranus) to realize how much power

A decade ago when the millennium was freshly hatched, Pluto (dirty secrets) was on the Ascendant of the USA chart, opposite Saturn in Gemini (official stories). A major threshold for the country and the world, that period was when the worms started crawling out of the can. Information about the Enron scandal trickled out from the nooks and crannies of

The 40th anniversary of Earth Day this week falls under a Saturn-Uranus opposition. One more milestone in the 2012 period, the exactitude on April 26th marks the fourth of five times that Saturn and Uranus reach that magic 180-degree angle in the sky. (Their first peak, this cycle, was 11/4/08 -- remember that day? -- and their last will be