People like to talk about their problems. This may seem contrary, even pathological; but I think it stems from something organic. Because we want to solve our problems, we focus on them. Just as Nature created itches to motivate scratches, She instilled in our minds a tendency to obsess about what we think is wrong so that we’d apply effort to get it right

As the month of August begins, the Saturn-Uranus opposition has just peaked for the final time, after two years of spinning us dizzy. Mars is conjunct Saturn and opposed by Jupiter, which is conjunct Uranus; and they are all squaring Pluto (dismantling) in Capricorn (nation states; the economy). Into this fraught setting the New Moon will arrive on August 9th.

When planets change signs (make ingresses), there are shifts in the ethers. The more we sensitize ourselves to the ingress, the more we benefit from its energy. It only makes sense to honor the planets when they do something noteworthy; e.g. enter a new sign, station direct or retrograde, or lend their heft to an important transit like the Cardinal Climax. The next major milestone of the Cardinal Climax centers around this month’s Full Moon (see lecture series box in right-hand column).

For years I’ve had up on my bulletin board a copy of the chart for this month’s Full Moon. The paper is now curling at the edges and the ink is faded from the Sun. What’s happening on June 26th not just any full Moon; it’s a Lunar Eclipse. (My lecture series on the powerful transits upcoming begins with this eclipse; see Announcements at right). And it isn’t just any eclipse: it’s the world’s formal debut into the Cardinal Cross years. Its chart features a tight Grand Cross made up of no less than seven planets. We’ll have Jupiter, Saturn,

A new warrior cycle begins on May 27th. For the first time in 84 years, Uranus is going into Aries, the most courageous sign in the zodiac. Are you ready to act upon what you know to be true? Uranus will form a significant corner of the Cardinal Climax, a world-altering transit pattern with many peaks between now and 2015. For about half a year, Jupiter will be orbiting next to Uranus, putting a bellows to the flame. Together they will create leaders and heroes.

Neptune and Chiron are inching forward in the sky throughout April, slowly separating from their conjunction in February. They remain neck-and-neck all year, which indicates that they still have a job to do; and they’re doing it at the same celestial location: around 26 Aquarius. Where does this degree fall in your natal chart? This is where you are getting the teaching of a lifetime. By house and aspect, this placement indicates where you are getting glimpses of enlightenment, of a peculiarly modern sort. It also indicates where you are vulnerable to the most curious addiction of our age.

About 30 years ago I was at a lecture by Rob Hand, whom I vastly admired (still do), that blew my mind. I haven’t thought the same way again, about history, ecology or the state of the world. But at the end of his talk, he said something that appalled me.

The world is melting. And I don’t mean just polar ice caps. Neptune conjoins Chiron to the degree on the 16th -17th of this month. Neptune is the planet of dissolution; that is, what sugar does in hot tea, and what our self-control does when we have an emotional melt-down. Neptune dissolves, erases and effaces things. On a personal level, Neptune is associated with the little ego-effacements we endure in the course of living: those moments when our sense of competence disappears. It can throw us off-message; make us feel slack, ungrounded and confused. Such experiences weaken our focus on