Thanksgiving, in America, is a holiday with supposedly secular origins.  It exists because the Native Americans provided the Pilgrims with enough turkey and corn to not die.  A little known fact is that the Native Americans also taught the pilgrims to trace their hands with crayons in order to create crude turkey drawings.  These hand-turkeys were then stabbed repeatedly, much like voodoo dolls, in order to ensure a bountiful turkey hunt.

      Well, even though Thanksgiving has a supposedly secular origin, it harkens back to a number of European “thank-fucking-god-we-have-enough-food-to-not-die-this-winter” celebrations.

      But there’s some conspicuous astrology surrounding the date of Thanksgiving.  First of all, Thanksgiving always occurs during the first week that the Sun is in Sagittarius.  Which is interesting, because one of Sagittarius’ primary attributes is being a festive and revelrous sign.  In fact, the Baron feels like throwing a party every year when the Sun makes it out of the glooms of Scorpio.

        Second, Thanksgiving is always held on a Thursday, the 4^th Thursday of November, to be precise.  What’s interesting about that?  Well, there is a tradition of attributing each day of the week to the Sun, Moon and the 5 visible planets.  This tradition stretches back into the dusty battlefields of antiquity and is still encoded in the words we use for the days of the week.  Why do think its called Sunday, dummy?  And why do you think Easter is always on a Sunday?  Maybe because Jesus is a solar myth, and his resurrection represents the rising of the Sun after the long night?  Maybe, hmm?  Anyway, In this system, Thursday is given to Jupiter.  The etymology of how Thursday refers to Jupiter is Germanic, and is based upon the fact that  Jupiter and Thor are both awesome male skygods who smash things that they dislike and make sweet love to what pleases them.  Anyway, Jupiter’s proper sphere is generosity, abundance and gratitude.  Like the gratitude you would feel if Thor made sweet love to you.  And that’s the kind of gratitude that people are supposed to feel on Thanksgiving.  Sort of.

      So, Sagittarian revelry and Jupiterian abundance and gratitude.  Wait, there’s more.  Jupiter is actually considered the ruling planet of Sagittarius, meaning that abundance and gratitude are actually the basis of the revelry.   So we have a supposedly secular holiday of an overtly Jupiterian nature that occurs on Jupiter’s day of the week, and just as the Sun enters a Jupiter-ruled sign.  The Baron doesn’t buy it.  This is the kind of precise calendrical placement only star-gazing heathens use.  Thanksgiving is clearly a-

      The week begins with the New Moon in Scorpio and Mercury’s entrance into Sagittarius.   Mercury is the first planet to break into Sagittarius, and will be followed by the Sun on Sunday the 22^nd.  Venus, currently in Scorpio, will take her time sailing the dirty waters of Scorpio, entering Sagittarius on December 1^st.  This movement of Planets from Scorpio to Sagittarius is the primary change we’ll see over the next few weeks.  Its the transition from the thorny stem to the geometrical vision of the flower itself.

      The Moon finds the Sun again at the end of Scorpio, a mere week before the Sun’s ingress into Sagittarius.  The New Moon begins the next lunar cycle, which will climax on the Full Moon on Wednesday, December 2^nd, and wane over December until the New Moon on the 16^th.

     To understand the cycle we’re about to begin, we must understand the nature of the one from the which we are about to depart.  The Sun’s ingress and stroll through Scorpio has driven deep into the heart of a problem/opportunity that has yet to fully unfold.  This bloody rose, a nexus, lies beneath and beyond the channels which the underworld rivers ply.  As planets pile into Sagittarius, we’ll race closer and closer to that unfolding truth.

      Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius this Monday puts the messenger in an awkward place.  His intuitive, non rational faculties burn bright, and he develops a lack of patience for the linear chains of logic.  In Sagittarius, the mind is goaded to be bright and fast while cold logic is abandoned.

  

     Sagittarius is considered the Detriment of Mercury in traditional astrology.  “Detriment” means that the Planet has difficult time performing its archetypal task in the sign.  For Mercury, that task is reception, assimilation and projection of accurate information.  The planet’s primary areas of concern are thinking, communication, travel and technology.  Sagittarius is concerned with the mind, but not necessarily the intellect.  Sagittarius is concerned with a much more fundamental, Buddhist definition of Mind.   Sagittarius is Jupiter-ruled, and is concerned with the mind’s direct and intuitive comprehension of wholes.  Mercury’s concern for discrete facts seems small minded, and Mercury’s obsession with crafting language in order to convey the facts and ideas with accuracy and logic seems like a waste of time.

      The result is that with Mercury in Sagittarius, vision hijacks the intellect, and that imagination and intuition guide speech and communication patterns.   The focus of communications becomes sharing a vision, a set of principles, a way of approaching the world.   The results can be propaganda, motivational speaking, and tricky zen koans- none of which are terribly interested in staying within the realms or abiding the rules of logic.  The point is to convince, to share one’s enthusiasm and to lead another to a viewpoint.  The piece is forgotten in pursuit of the whole.

Mercury will be in Sagimatarius until Dec. 6th.  Enjoy.

     While Mercury and then the Sun surge into Sagittarius, Venus lingers behind in Scorpio .  The little lady with the pretty horns is taking the slow boat through Scorpio.  She won’t make it through the tunnel until December 1^st.  Venus in Scorpio remains a steady influence, with feelings not necessarily following the brighter and more enthusiastic perspective that Mercury and then the Sun in Sagittarius provide.

Venus in Scorpio squares Mars in Leo for the first half of the week, providing a focal point for the adjustments couples will have to make in relationships in order to accommodate the swiftly mutating energy of Mars in Leo.   It’s the kind of energy that might make for a good fight, and even better make up sex.

    Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius clarifies your thinking process, transforming suspicions into visions.  Meanwhile, the New Moon on Monday emphasizes your entanglement with other’s resources, but by next week, the focus will shift towards  big plans, long term goals and long distance travel.

     Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius shifts communications from tense relationships issues to areas of shared resources, likely surrounding the current shape of your professional space.   The New Moon in Scorpio on Monday re-emphasizes the status of your important relationships, though the center of events will, by week’s end, move onto the aforementioned power-sharing situation.

     Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius heats up communications with you and potential partners.  Meanwhile, the New Moon in Scorpio this Monday re-emphasizes the mid-mutation status of your bank account.  Before the next week begins, the invisible center will activate and invigorate your partnerships, especially those that have an important long distance or spiritual component.

     Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius sees communications slip into a rather detailed phase.  The mind moves to inspect the mechanics of the finances and body and begins making plans to shore up both.   The New Moon in Scorpio re-emphasizes the changing nature of your good fortune, but that invisible center will drift away from pleasant times and find itself in the same, detailed space as your mind by the time Sunday rolls back around.

      Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius sees suspicions and resentments coalesce into swift realizations.  The New Moon in Scorpio this Monday re-emphasizes the changing state of your living space.  You can begin making these adjustments now, or you can wait until things explode late in the year.  Up to you.

       Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius sees the mind abandon peripheral suspicions and begin to focus on the bedrock of your situation.  The New Moon in Scorpio re-emphasizes the changing state of your social world, although by the week’s end the spotlight will move toward the influence of shared resources on your living situation.

      Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius shifts the focal point of communications towards local contacts and hangout people.  Meanwhile, the New Moon in Scorpio re-emphasizes your finances.   Although it is by no means specific to this, Libras are also beginning to accommodate the entrance of Saturn into their sign.  Feelings of guilt, responsibility and a desire to sort things out are quite appropriate.  Go with it.

      Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius turns your head toward your finances.  The New Moon in Scorpio on Monday re-emphasizes the changing aspects of your identity, but by the end of the week, the spotlight will shift to your bottom-line.

     Mercury’s movement into your home turf clarifies your thinking and communications considerably.  Meanwhile, the New Moon in Scorpio this Monday emphasizes the half conscious knot of issues yet to be resolved.  A few more uncomfortable moments, and you’ll be back to feeling like a human cartoon just in time for you birthday.

      Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius on Monday plunges your mind into…itself.  The next few weeks hold a number of introspective insights for you.  Meanwhile, the New Moon in Scorpio on Monday lays some emphasis down on the changing state of your friends and contacts.   By the end of the week, the spotlight will shift from your larger social field to coded messages from your subconscious.

      Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius on Monday brings thoughts and communications to bear on your web of contacts and friends.  Helpful contacts, the kind that can assist your strange dreams in manifesting, are likely to appear out of nowhere.  Meanwhile, the New Moon in Scorpio this Monday re-emphasize the convulsions your professional life is currently undergoing.

       Mercury’s movement into Sagittarius this Monday shifts communications toward your professional sphere.  New developments, out of nowhere, are likely to occur under this influence.  Meanwhile, the New Moon in Scorpio on Monday re-emphasizes the importance of whatever the hell journey you’re on.

      Fresh on the heels of Saturn’s ingress into Libra, this week begins with the Full Moon in Taurus.  It is a tense Full Moon, the usual syzygy between the Sun in Scorpio and the Moon in Taurus interrupted by a Mars in Leo, and to a lesser degree, by Jupiter in Aquarius.

      Mars is always a bit of a rabble rouser, but deep within the shadow of his retrograde-to-come, his urges are dark, coming from an unconscious place and often emerging in an untoward form.   Mars’ influence on the Full Moon charges us to manifest at a breakneck pace, make urges real before they’re entirely clear.  Its alot of energy, but it is difficult to direct.

      If we take into consideration the configuration of the Full Moon, Mars in Leo and Jupiter in Aquarius, we find a type of harmonic configuration considered not all that easy to reconcile, the Grand Cross.   Planetary energies tug in 4 directions, making simple movement an act of profound, Christlike reconciliation.  And who wants to be Christlike on a Monday?

      However, on Monday, the same day as the Full Moon, Venus in Libra comes into a mighty pleasant trinal configuration with Neptune in Aquarius.  Not only that, but Neptune’s about to start moving forward again.  It’s been since the end of May that Neptune’s strode backward through the Water Bearer’s turf, and once he starts moving forward again, he won’t quit gaining ground until well into 2010.  Amidst an unknown path, full of contradictions and fraught with fear and uncertainty, a dream blooms, like a flower planted in the soil of the horizon.

      This energy unwinds and spins out through the rest of the week.  Mercury in Scorpio catches the Sun on Wednesday, providing a conjunction that will help to sort out and make sense out of the heavily encoded energy coming into the human system this week.   The abundant contradictions can be woven into a way through.

      The grand cross that begins the week lights up your resources.  Physical, mental, social, emotional, financial- all of ‘em.  If your sperm bank’s running a little low, Mercury’s conjunction w/ the Sun on Wednesday will likely hatch plans for profitable joint ventures.  This is one stage in a several level video game where your sense of self is going to get reconfigured in relation to your ability to work with others.  Just keep a leash on the beast.

      The week begins with a Full Moon right on top ya face.  The Grand Cross involved lights up all the big flashing signs- Career, Relationships, Home, etc.  Take in the energy, take note of what the glowing signs say, but don’t feel like you need to act immediately.  Let things sit in those multiple stomachs for a bit.  The bovine digestive system is a marvel.

      The week begins with a big Full Moon.  Lunar rays light up a few material matters you forgot about, and shine a funny light on a number of little things you’ve got to take care of before a plan can unfold.   Spend a little time this Wednesday soaking up the facts and possible actions.   You’ll see a hidden logic  weaving its way through all the little acts you’ve got to perform to make the situation work.

       The week begins with the Full Moon making a big Grand Cross.   This one highlights your network of friends and associates, and also drives hard at your finances.  You’re going to be juggling big demands on your resources, physical and otherwise, but there’s a route that begins to open on Wednesday, a subtle path to a better place.  Find it, even if it means feeling your way through a tunnel.

      The week begins with the Full Moon making a big grand cross.  It’s an important signature, lighting up your professional situation, the ground beneath you, relationships to others and your own growing desire to get back into the game.   There’s a degree of drive and enthusiasm that’s brewing inside you right now, a bubbling black crude that doesn’t quite know what to do, besides explode.  Find the hidden path Mercury’s opening underneath all the contradictions this Wednesday, and use that petrol you’ve got to light a torch.

      The week opens with a big fat Moon, crossed by Planets aplenty.   The Moon blooms full in Taurus, highlighting your long term aspirations toward stability, but there’s plenty to do in the mean time.  Take a few seconds out of your busy routine of busy bodying to consider whats pushing you forward.  Take some time to find the power that’s working its way through your gears.  The movements you’ve been going through might make a lot more sense.

      The week begins with the Full Moon in Taurus, crossed and squared.  The powerful energy highlights the relationship between your personal resources and the ones you share with other people.  These are likely held tight together, knit together with friends, contacts and a bit of luck.  If you can wait til a little later in the week, Mercury’s conjunction with the Sun will provide a plan to secure a bit of abundance.

      Happy birthday, creepy crawlies.  The heavens have plenty in store for you this week, as the Full Moon shines at you from across the zodiac.  Latent changes to your professional situation are highlighted by a big focus on your relationships to others, and commented on by your living situation.  By Wednesday you’ll begin to sort out the way to weave all this together into the kind of plan you can get behind and push.

      The week begins with a lovely Full Moon, criss-crossed by planetary influences aplenty.   This one’s likely to light up all sorts of small tasks, forgotten thoughts and emerging visions.  The primary place of manifestation’ll be your bank account and your physical reserves.  You may need to tune up your habits in order to keep everything in working order.  The little bit of insight that comes this Wednesday will open one of your mind’s back doors, leading down a subtle tunnel into a store house of neglected drives.  Go, explore, bring back souvenirs for friends.

      The criss crossed Full Moon that begins the week places a heavy emphasis on your resources.  The temporary lock up of energy is stagnating the steady flow in and out.  Take a second to check in but don’t freak out.  Things’ll get moving again soon enough.  Keep an eye out for beneficial contacts on Wednesday, as they may well be keeping the keys you need.

      The Full Moon and its attendant aggravations light you up like an out of season Christmas tree.  Changing relationship dynamics, career modifications and more shine down on the bed you sleep in, bringing cause for a little consternation.  Stay calm and don’t worry about getting the big answer all at once.  Wednesday’s Mercury-Sun conjunction has a silent spot where thoughtful plans can bloom.  Plant your ass there for a few.

      The Full Moon starts off the week with a cry of consternation.  It’ll likely see you with a number of things to do and places to be.   Attend to what you can, but don’t get your head in a tizzy about peripheral concerns.  Wednesday’s got a Mercury-Sun conjunction that’ll tie some of those loose ends into a witch’s luck charm.  Just stay centered, and don’t get too attached to the frayed ends.

     Saturn in Libra opens our mind to new approaches to truth, which will, in turn, yield new truth.  If we have been using our hands to feel the world, we get a different picture than if we use our ears.  Some things are easier to perceive with certain senses.  Some times are more easily negotiated with certain paradigms.

     The Moon waxes over a not-so-bad week.  The heavens are, for the first time in months, not completely contorted.   Venus in Libra, as well as Mercury in Libra both provide a certain amount of balance for us to find a workable equilibrium in the wake of the last Saturn-Uranus opposition. The Zodiacal Man straightens out his aching limbs, and does a few calisthenics to get the ole life’s blood pumping.  And oh how the blood will pump.  The only factor that darkens the astral landscape is Mars in Leo’s  slow movement into his shadow.  Gouts of  heart’s flame flare unbidden, breaking the placid Libran veneer of the week.  A little strength can be a dangerous thing.

     As the Sun crosses the border from Libra into Scorpio on Friday, the 23^rd,  it leaves balance and poise behind to drive to the heart of the scorching sun.  As the underworld Sun drops lower and lower into the Northern hemisphere’s horizon, we pursue a burning sensation deeper.  Into our pants.

      The Sun’s movement into Scorpio shifts the spotlight toward intense emotional and psychological entanglements.  The Sun in Scorpio, being ruled by Mars,  looks to red planet for guidance for how to aggress, while Mars in Leo, being ruled by the Sun, looks to the central star for guidance on how to shine.   This loop is called, by astrologers, mutual reception, and it will characterize the intense relationship between the Sun and Mars for the next month.

     But it won’t be all hellfire.  Venus is holding down the fort, er, tea party, in Libra for next few weeks, which will provide access to a sense of emotional equilibrium and poise amidst the growing shadow of the red planet.  Mercury is also in Libra for now, providing the opportunity to keep communications more civil than they may feel.

   The key is to hold the balancing scales over the fire and utilize the heat to cook up the alchemic concoctions needed.  If you lose control and drop them into the fire, you’re gonna end up singing your paws when its time to retrieve them.

       All the while, Saturn strides slowly over the last few degrees of Virgo, getting ready to cross the equinoctial boundary between Virgo and Libra just before Halloween.  His entrance into Libra will contribute the last key puzzle piece to the new jigzaw that’s getting shaken out at our feet.  We’ll deal with the olde devil’s transformation from Virgo repo man to Libran judge next week.

     A burning orb melts its way into the earth, leaving a molten tunnel in its wake.  The sinking, hellbound star that we follow shows the way into the next act of our story.  It does not matter if we dare follow, for no other way is open.   Our guide Venus, the lady Aphrodite, rides down the glowing walls of the tunnel on a fierce lion.  Her cools hands are stretch outward, carefully holding loaded scales.  Her face is serene porcelain.  Cracks threaten as her poise is challenged by the ferocity of her mount’s movement down the hot tunnels.  It’s a journey to the center of the earth, to find thehologram of the sun deep inside. The way down will become an undersea journey through an ocean of liquid magma before we find the burning core, the molten star at its heart.  Its there we’ll find the revelation of Self we have only begun to blindly seek.

     Mars’ movement into Leo unleashed a burst of energy that will settle into a slow burn you’ll be living with for more than the next 6 months.  Take advantage of Mercury and Venus’ movement through Libra by clarifying and smoothing out communications and negotiations with those close to you.  The Sun’s movement into Scorpio at the end of the week deepens the focus on relations with others, shining a light on entangled energies and resources.

      The Sun’s movement into Scorpio at the end of the week shifts the focus toward your important relationships, shining a powerful light  on the hidden entanglements between yourself and others.  Competitive feelings are likely to arise where previously there seemed to be none.  Mars’ ongoing presence in Leo unearths your need for soveregnty in your kingdom.

       The Sun’s movement into Scorpio on Friday shifts the focus towards deeply ingrained and largely unconscious habits.  If you look within, you’re likely to find a growing desire to take care of yourself a little better.  However, Mars slowly unfolding presence in Leo may well see you blowing vast amounts of energy.  Keep it in check.

      The Sun’s movement into Scorpio on Friday begins to shift the focus from your living space to creative endeavors.  It may feel like someone’s lit a fire under your ass, but your just going to have to live with the burning sensation for a bit.  The next month is what you make of it, dependent on how you spend and structure your energy.

     The Sun’s movement into Scorpio this Friday shifts the spotlight from peripheral social affairs to the earth beneath your feet- your living space and what it contains.  In the weeks to come your living space will increasingly come to represent the state of your personal power.  Have you made yourself a prisoner?  Or perhaps a tyrant?

     The Sun’s movement into Scorpio this Friday shifts the spotlight from monetary affairs to peripheral social ones.  As you walk down the connective corridors that shuffle you from home to work to play, don’t be surprised to find messages from your unconscious graffitied onto the walls.  The writing’s on the wall, just for you.

     The Sun’s movement into Scorpio this Friday shifts the spotlight from personal issues to the status of your bank account.  That status is about to undergo an important shift over the months to come, likely owing to what you’re planning with your associates.  You’re getting ready to ascend a throne in the social kingdom you exist within.  Hopefully you won’t need to resort to regicide.

     The Sun’s movement into your sign marks….your birfday!  That’s right, you’re even older now.  Eternal respite is just around the corner.  Just keep on keeping on.  For you birthday this year, you’ll get a new sense of your personal power within your professional life.  In addition,  you may even get the attention you secretly crave!  The other, non-birthday Scorpios also get exactly the same thing, so its not really a birthday present.  But we can pretend.

     The Sun’s movement into Scorpio this Friday marks the beginning of a slow fall of energies and events into your subconscious.  Your hidden heartstrings will be strummed over the coming weeks, producing a haunting soundtrack that will follow you for the next month.  Fortunately, those heartstrings belong to a guitar, and the haunting soundtrack will be death metal.  A symphony worthy of creating (or destroying) a world.

     The Sun’s movement into Scorpio this Friday marks a slow shift of energies away from your professional situation and towards your shady web of associates.  The resources you’ll be able to pull on are likely to change aplenty in the coming months.  Keep an eye out for stars you can hitch your wagon to.

      The Sun’s movement into Scorpio this Friday indicates the beginning of a shift from questions of long term direction to one of professional presence.  Meanwhile, your relationships are heating up.  You may need to allow people a little extra space to flex and strut in the coming weeks.  Properly channeling the power of others in your life is a task worthy of your attention.

The Sun’s movement into Scorpio this Friday indicates the beginning of a shift of energy from entanglements with other’s resources to bigger plans.  Long term aspirations are activated, and a voyage may well be on the horizon for you.  That, and work.  Work work work.  You may have perform surgery to give birth to the dancing star currently burning its way through your bowels.

     Mars entered Leo on the 16th, and he’s going to be around until June of 2010.  That’s alot of Mars in Leo.  Wherever Mars journeys, he poses questions to us that concern power and the lack thereof.  Mythically and symbolically, power is represented by weapons.  Weapons provide us the ability to defend what is ours, and to take what we can.  They are morally ambivalent, capable of being the instruments of both good and evil.  Where ever Mars goes, he beats plowshares into swords.  What will we see lining the walls of Mars’ archetypal armory as he journeys through Leo?

      Mars, the old lord of War, moves through Leo, the sign made of the Sun’s light.  The question of what the archetypal Mars in Leo wields is- what weapons can be made of light?  Light can be focused into tight, cutting beams.  When the light of the physical world is focused in this way, we have the laser.  When the light of the Self is focused in this way, we have a light saber.  Although the light saber is, in the Star Wars pop mythos, a technological innovation rather than a psychic power, the possession and use of a light saber is intimately connected to and a reflection on the character of the Jedi/Sith wielding them.  They are always an extension of the power of the Self, the energy of Self focused into a weapon.  Like auras, some are green, some are blue, others red and other such things.  The Jedi can never really be separated from their weapon, it always returns to them, because it is, symbolically, a direct extension of their power.  In the cases where they are separated,  there is an obvious sense of theft, almost like the stealing of a soul.  The theft of another’s power.

         The glowing light sword may well be the best fictional representation of the sacred tool of Mars in Leo, but glowing swords of focused light don’t exist in the physical realm.  The Jedi’s light saber is a combination of two real tools/weapons that do, however,exist- the Sword and the Wand.  In many cultures, especially the Japanese, the high quality sword is seen as the mark of a noble warrior.

        One has a sword because they deserve it, and the sword is emblematic of the honorable Self.  It is unthinkable for the samurai to be separated from his sword, or King Arthur parted from the mighty Excalibur.  The connection between the Weapon (Mars) and the Self (Sun/Leo) is encoded heavily into these cultures, and likely formed the prototype for the handling of the light saber in Star Wars.

      The image of the light saber has something magical about it, a link between the Weapon and the Self that is more intense that than that of the sword alone.  The light saber is an extension of Self- the very body of the light saber- the brilliance  of the Being focused to a single point.  Here we see a profound resonance with the role of the Wand- the ubiquitous tool of the magician, the tool through which they extend their will and make it so through the power of magic.  The suit of wands, in the Tarot, refers to those situations and characters directly related to asserting one’s Self and Will.  In esoteric traditions aplenty, the wand is exactly that- it is used to create changes in the word that are in harmony with the ritualized will.  As the sword cannot be separated from the Samurai, the wand cannot be meaningfully separated from the magician- it is an extension of him/her.

  

       The wand also has powerful mundane connections with act of creation in tune with the Will.  The bandleader times the marchers and music to a wand.  The conductor leads the symphony with a wand.  It directs rhythmic manifestation.  This association of the wand with music is by no means confined to the European, though.  Wikipedia states:

       In Vedic mythology, the drum is used as an emblem of creation.  It is the passive component in the process of generating vibration.  The wand/drumstick bangs on the drum, and reality is created.

Interlude: Now, we can’t go on and on about wands and swords and clubs without a few good penis jokes.  So here’s one.

      If we look at the Tarot Card Strength, which is said to represent Leo, or we consult the cognate myth of Hercules and the Nemean Lion, we see that the weapon used is- none at all.  It is the raw strength of self that is brought to bear in the situation.  The wand, the knight’s sword and the light saber are all symbolic extensions of the self’s power.  They are powerless without their connection to their wielder.  This is not a matter of technological leverage, but of magnifying and making way for the strength of self.

       If we look at the Hercules myth as a model, he uses the empty hand to subdue his fearsome leonine opponent.  But there are tellings of the story where he uses a club to first stun his fearsome foe- the most primitive and simple weapon, no doubt the first weapon ever to be used.  It is also exactly the same shape as a wand, only it is thicker.  In fact, in the exoteric title for the Suit of Wands is, of course, Clubs.

      In all these manifestations, the key pattern is that of the weapon proceeding naturally from the self, because it is extension of self.  With Mars in Leo, we are always tracing power back to the Self from which it proceeds.  The many months of Mars in Leo to come will ask people- what is your power?  From where does it proceed?  What form is most natural to it?

In other words- What color is your lightsaber?

        This week we shift out of the necessary but brutal configurations we’ve been subject to for the last month and a half.  Mercury clears the shadow of his retrograde, Venus moves into Libra, Mars moves into Leo and Jupiter stations direct.  By the time the week ends on the New Moon in Libra, the Sun will be shining on a different state of affairs.  You might have won or lost the last hand, but the game ain’t over.  So take a look at your new cards.

         Mercury ceased retrograde motion weeks ago, but has yet to clear the degree of that about-face (6‘ Libra).  This week Mercury finally clears that degree, and begins to explore new territory for the first time in over a month.  On a practical level, this means that we can finally move past the same subjects which have been haunting conversation, thought patterns and plans.  Mercury will continue through Libra until just before Halloween, helping to grease the wheels and make the deals that need to get done.   More on Mercury in Libra…

        Mars entry into Leo this Friday sets the stage for his long, retrograde haul through Leo.  It won’t necessarily look like much at first, but those seeds’ll start going off like grenades later this year.

       Mars leaves Cancer, entering the tropical sign of Leo on Friday, the 16^th.   Most of the time, when Mars enters a given Sign, he only intends to stay for a month or two.  Not so, this time.  Mars will be in Leo from this Friday until early June of 2010.  Oh yes, its going to be more Mars in Leo than you can shake a stick at.

       Why the extended stay?  Well, about every two years, Mars goes retrograde, and spends the next couple months backing up.  Then he goes forward again, covering the same degrees a third time.  The section of the zodiac that is destined to be covered three times is called the “shadow” or retrograde shadow.  Mars will turn retrograde on December 20^th, at 19’44 Leo and continue backwards until March 10^th, where he straightens out in very first degree of Leo (0’18” Leo).  From there he will begin his journey through Leo again, this time uninterrupted, clearing the degree of the retrograde station on May 17^th and finally making it out of the royal and roaring sign on June 7^th.

      The nature of the coming retrograde of Mars through Leo will take on some of the mythic outline of Hercules’ tussle with the Nemean Lion.    Hercules’ 12 labours have been associated with the struggles of the 12 signs since Alice Bailey’s obfuscated opus on the topic, The Labours of Hercules.  In this analysis, Hercules is understood as the Solar Hero, journeying throughout the 12 signs.  However, its not much a stretch to see Hercules as a rather martial character.  He does do a lot of smashing.

The quick version of the tale of Hercules and the Nemean Lion goes a little like this:  There is a big scary lion that terrorizes people.  Hercules tries to shoot and it cut it, but he didn’t realize the lion was invulnerable to weapons (DR 30/Barehands).  Then he pummels and chokes the shit out of that beast.  He is the winner, and people think he is great.  For a less saucy and more thorough telling of the tale, try this link.

         The motif here is the struggle between between beast and man.  The Nemean Lion is impregnable to all weapons because it represents the strength of one’s nature.  One must match the strength of their nature against the strength of their will.  No external weapon, no product of artifice, can interfere in the struggle of a person with their own nature.  The same struggle is depicted in one of Major Arcana of the Tarot in card VIII Strength.  The woman, representing the spiritual nature, controls the lion, representing the animal nature.   It’s a question of strength over strength.  Meta-strength.

      “Meta-Strength” describes the normal formula for Mars’ march through Leo, but a retrograde journey always involves a detour into the underworld of the sign, where the formulae twist and turn along with the tunnel itself.  Here we’ll see the lion, Hercules and the prim lady entwined in all sorts of compromising poses.   We’ll be in midst of this battlefield for a long time, and the Baron will have updates aplenty as the battle unfolds.

       Venus does her Cinderella thing this week, as she goes from conjoining Saturn in late Virgo, squaring Pluto, and then riding free and easy in Libra.  On an experiential level, we’ll go from serious moments and intense emotional shifts to a re-emerging sense of emotional poise.  After the powerful shifts of the last month and a half, a little balance would go a long way.

         Venus rendezvous with Saturn at 28 Virgo on Tuesday the 13^th.  This brings the passions, and often the finances, to a difficult point.  Stress is likely, as is taking things a little too seriously.  Don’t start selling kidneys and destroying relationships until you see how things pan out.

        As Venus enters Libra on Wednesday the 14th, she is greeted by a square to Pluto in Capricorn .  One can imagine friendlier receptions.  Under this configuration, Pluto demands the passions adjust to the contents of underworld depths.  What’s been ignored becomes emotionally relevant.  It’s a brief but intense check in with the deeper levels of your relationships.

       After Venus clears her square to Pluto, the air brightens considerably.  The sense of balance, the emotional poise promised by Venus in Libra begins gently adjusting the debris into a more aesthetically pleasing arrangement.  The truce begins on Friday. 

        After months retrograde, Jupiter in Aquarius stations direct this Monday, the 12^th, though it will resonate throughout the week. A happy occurrence, it will be accompanied by a general increase in positivity, and blooms of opportunity.

Jupiter turned retrograde on June 14^th,  when it was conjunct both Neptune and Chiron.  The dreams generated by this interesting configuration carry within them the extraordinary seeds of a real future.  Now, as Jupiter begins to travel forward once more, these ideas, refined by Jupiter’s retrograde begin the long march to the real.   Jupiter will drive forward through the rest of Aquarius, rejoining Neptune and Chiron at the end of Aquarius in late December.  Amongst roasting chestnuts and a bevy of holiday suicides, we will see if the clouds seeded last June and July can actually bring the rain.

       At the end of the week lies the Moon’s monthly return to the Sun’s scalding embrace.  The New Moon occurs Saturday night, and folds into a very different set of conditions than the last lunar cycle.  The cycle we left behind had difficult portents written all over it, while the one ahead sees many coming to balance with the radically altered conditions of their life.  It is not a permanent or static, stagnant balance, but a new starting point from which to approach the numerous challenges this particular part of time has in store for the humans.  Use the next few weeks to find a place to approach the incoming challenges of the months to come.

        Mars’ ingress into Leo heralds a small stirring of your spirit.  This small fire will grow over the coming months into a key battleground inside and outside yourself, one that aches for your triumph. .  Meanwhile, the planet’s move to Libra augurs important beginnings in your vital relationships.  Jupiter’s direct station looks over it all, opening channels of contact through which strange new blessings flow.

       As Venus’ condition improves throughout the week improves, so shall your own.   The scales stop trembling at work and strike a deal, for a week or three.  A gate of professional opportunity thus far only half open widens to take you in, like heaven’s gaping mouth.   Meanwhile Mars dives deep into the earth beneath you, the confidence upon which you’ve built your farm.  He’ll build a battleground there in months to come.

       The heavens find themselves in a fine configuration for Geminis by the end of the week.  The New Moon  in Libra should mark an enjoyable lunar cycle to come, complete with Halloween revelry, the only time when anyone really appreciates your evil twin.  Guard against wasting the creative energy of the time on manifesting frivolity alone.  Instead be guided by the reflective light Jupiter casts on you, and consider the categories in which you’ve been framing the world.

       The movement of planets into Libra, along with the New Moon on Saturday, foretell a new balance within your living space, a more comfortable poise to be found upon the ground beneath you.   Meanwhile, Mars’ entry in Leo spells an end to tantrums, and instead kindles a fierce desire to make some damn money, or achieve something equally solid.  All the while, Jupiter’s direct station opens channels of access to other’s resources, allowing you to draw upon what you may wish was yours.

       The movement of planets into Libra highlights a number of communicative and social activities.  Jupiter’s direct station in Aquarius opens the door to benefits from others, and is also point of possible clarity in relationships.  Mars’ entry into your sign begins what will become a tremendous struggle with yourself.  Prepare to pit the strength of your will against itself and its tendency to force its way down the wrong path.

       The movement of Venus out of Virgo marks the end of a very intense month and a half for you.  The lunar cycle waiting to begin this Saturday will have a gentle focus on rebalancing your finances.  Gentle compared to the last few months, at least.  Mars’ entry into Leo marks the beginning of what will be a long series of lessons in confidence and self expression.  All the while Jupiter shines over the week, providing real insight into how to improve your financial habits, work ethic, and/or physical health.

       You’ll suffer one last bit as Venus conjoins Saturn and squares Pluto, but before the weekend arrives, you’ll find a profound and pleasant equilibrium begin to settle over you.  The next few weeks favor you in a way that they often don’t.  Take advantage of this time to get things moving in the direction you desire.  Meanwhile, Mars’ entry in Leo takes the painful emphasis off of the difficult professional situations that Mars’ stay in Cancer has presided over.  You’ll be learnin a lesson or two about networkin’ ye will.   All the while, Jupiter’s direct station in Aquarius suggests an even greater intensity of pleasantries.  Happy Birfday!

      The direct station of Jupiter in Aquarius opens a pleasant gate within your living space. Angelic energies drift like vapors up and around your feet.  Not that you’re into that.   The more pleasant aspects of the emerging balance may be a bit lost on most Scorpios, but its not to say you won’t benefit from a little peace of mind.  In fact, it may just make you lazy.  Meanwhile Mars’ entry into Leo  marks the beginning of a long season where you’ll be reexamining the relationship between your career and yourself.  There may be some struggles waiting for you, both within yourself and with others.  Remember, independence is a good thing, in moderation.

      The movement of planets into Libra and out of Virgo will take some of the professional pressure off later in the week.  The New Moon on Saturday shifts the focus toward pleasant networking amongst friends and peers.  Meanwhile, Jupiter’s direct station in Aquarius blows a fine wind over the week, intensifying the pleasant social atmosphere gathering.   Mars’ movement into Leo this week foreshadows a philosophical odyssey to come.   You’ll travel far and wide, in and out, in a quest to reconcile the warring parts of your own paradigm.

      The movement of planets into Libra shifts the focus from direction and long term goals to finding a state of balance within your professional life.  The direct station of Jupiter in Aquarius hovers over the week, suggesting an opportunity to make a little extra scratch.  Or at least a good idea about how to make some.  Meanwhile, Mars’ movement into Leo sets a small fire that will illuminate an unfolding struggle for independence from other’s resources.

      Jupiter’s direct station in your sign is a happy thing.  The growth and optimism that has been in the background throughout the year pours into the foreground again.  Sweet froth from the water bearer’s carafe.  Meanwhile, the movement of planets into Libra signifies the beginning of a couple weeks with a focus will be balancing out your perspective and long term aspirations.  Mars’ entry into Leo begins a long period where unignited conflicts in your relationships begin to flare.  It begins a period where independence within relationships becomes an increasing priority.

      The movement of planets out of Virgo will reduce the pressure on both you and your relationships that’s been heightened through the last month’s rather rough transitions.  The New Moon in Libra brings the next few weeks to bear on your access to other people’s resources, with Jupiter helping to highlight previously hidden opportunities.  Meanwhile, Mars’ movement into Leo begins a long stretch of time where you’ll be waging war on your work habits and waistline.

      A week of transition, where we’ll sort through the various climaxes and crisis of the last month and attempt to come to a workable hypothesis.   Chaotic life configurations give rise to new, experimental behavior patterns.   It remains to be seen if the heart can survive laboratory conditions necessary to test these emerging ideas.

       This week Mercury plows through the separating Saturn-Uranus opposition, starting off the week with an opposition to Uranus and moving into his third and final conjunction with Saturn on Wednesday, Oct. ^7th. The rest of week Mercury finds his way through the final degrees of Virgo’s maze and emerges into Libra again.   Just as Mercury finally liberates himself from the stress of the Saturn-Uranus opposition, Venus enters the fray,  chasing Mercury through the clashing rocks.  Venus opposes Uranus on Friday and heads toward conjunction with Saturn early next week.  Meanwhile, Mars crawls toward the end of Cancer, finally meeting the South Node on Friday.

       The difficult, experimental arrangements of the last month are beginning to gel into something rather new.  There a few plans left to be made and a few lingering problems to be solved before the rubix cube of personal reality finds another stable configuration.

        Venus opposes Uranus this Friday, trigger sudden explosions of feelings, both positive and negative.     After the opposition with Uranus, Venus will walk toward a conjunction with Saturn, meeting him next Tuesday, the 13^th.  Venus, charged with Uranus’ energy, will move to see whether these alterations in the pattern can make it through Saturn’s reality gate.

       On a simple level- this one isn’t going to feel very pleasant.  However, after Venus clears the Saturn-Uranus opposition and makes it past that little square to Pluto, she’ll  be walking down the beaches of Libra like one of those dames in a feminine hygiene commercial.  Sort of like this.

       Point being, although your inner goddess of ease and beauty may currently be stuck filing taxes 6 months late or scrubbing dishes, the upcoming ingress into Libra will stanch your spiritual wounds.  Venus doesn’t move into Libra until the 16th, but the Baron wanted to give you a reason not to off yourself this week.  If you did, you’d miss out on a whole lifetime of suffering. Which would make the Baron sad.

       As we check in with Mars this week, we find him at the very end of a cycle.  By the end of next week Mars will be in Leo, ready to begin a new retrograde cycle in the lion’s sign.  This back and forth will begin in mid-October, but it will take Mars until early June to build a new gladiatorial arena.

       This week we come upon Mars in Cancer, at the very end of the old cycle, but before the new one has begun.  It is here that Mars meets the South Node.   The South Node, also known as the Tail of the Dragon, or Ketu, acts like a roving black hole, gobbling up worn out emotional patterns, and helping us to dissolve attachments which no longer serve life.  Mars meets up with Ketu this week at the end of Cancer, not far from the stellar site of the big sun eclipse this summer.

      The journey of Mars in Cancer has been one of recognizing and reliving ineffective behavior patterns.  Theoretically, this is in order to learn from them.  Like learning to stop doing them.  For some, this may be acting like a lazy coward, while for others it may be more about being a dramatic mess.  Whatever retardation Mars is inspiring in your life, its all about not doing it.  And not doing it is exactly what Mars’ conjunction to the South Node is all about.

        As Mars conjoins Ketu on Friday, you can either kick and scream and hold onto the suck, or you can go with it, and use the unique opportunity to work through and let go so old bullshit.  The Baron suggests the latter.  However, if you’re really committed to stagnation, don’t let the Baron stand in your way.   The Baron is pro-choice.

      This Friday Venus opposes Uranus, entering the axis of the opposition, while Mars conjoins Ketu in Cancer.  This is a recipe for rather stormy seas this weekend.  However  the heavens are not without mercy.  The Sun will help sort out the intense feelings stimulated by Venus’ journey across the Saturn-Uranus opposition, aided by the trine to Jupiter in Aquarius, which will provide access to an even headed and detached perspective.  It’s not a great weekend to plan an outrageous good time.  It might be better one to plan an appropriate time out.

      After a not terribly awesome Full Moon in your sign, you enter what may be rather difficult week.  Mars, you ruling planet, your inner buddy, the one  who tells you to go and kick the asses of things- he’s not doing so good.  This week they’ll be less ass-kicking, and more thinking about all the dumb, insecure things you do, and how being generally great does not make up for it.

       Dear Taurus, this is not likely to be a terribly pleasant week, although it will probably be an important one. Big emotional adjustments are in store.  And we all know how much like adjusting.  Let’s be honest, you don’t even really like getting up off the couch to look for the remote once you’re settled.   Unfair?  Certainly.  Enjoy your pivotal emotional adjustments.

      Dear Gemini, things are actually less shitty for you than most folks.  Your buddy Mercury is no longer retrograde, and heading straight out of purgatory.  Your course is  likely follow to follow Mercury’s, as you scrape together the devastated remains of your life and make a “found object” sculpture out of it.  And they call modern art mental masturbation!  It is the business of life itself.

       If your birthday lives near the end of Cancer, congratulations!  You’re going to be a moody fuck this week.  Even if you’re not the winner of this prize,  all Cancers will be treated to a bout of melancholy navel gazing.  As you gaze into your soul, you can expect to be treated to a slide show of misdirected aggression.  Learn from it, grasshoppa.

      Serious financial considerations and epiphanies about wasted energy hover about this week.  Maybe you’re not as great as you feel.  Or maybe you are, but you aren’t acting like it.

       The week that looms before ye is…stressy.  You’re at the ass end of making all sorts of important changes.  Finish them.  Finishing them means feeling them, which, unfortunately is not your forte.

      Happy birfday to the Libras! Consider the above video clip your birthday present.  Mercury’s conjunction with Saturn this week helps solidify the insights which have been emerging out of the details over the last month.  Mars’ conjunction with Ketu at the end of Cancer highlights negative emotional patterns impacting your professional life, while Venus’ journey between Saturn and Uranus triggers a number of intense emotional adjustments.

      This week sees you make significant progress on the project of re-engineering certain aspects of your lifestyle.   In the midst of this, Mars’ conjunction with the Dragon’s Tail highlights the negative feelings that have tarnished your outlook for a while now.  Perhaps you will remove the dead bug on the windshield of your perspective.  And perhaps you will just stare at it, feel sorry for yourself, and plot revenge.

      This week sees Mercury finally clear the Saturn-Uranus opposition, bringing completion to a number of changing arrangements in your professional life.   Mars’ conjunction with Ketu in Cancer signals a need to flush energy overcommited to draining relationships.  You need to develop better boundaries around your resources.  Ignoring these things does not make them go away.

      Mercury’s conjunction with Saturn this week is particularly interesting, and will likely trigger an intense period of mastur-planning.  The road ahead emerges brick by brick.  This raod  leads deeper into the season, where new professional opportunities hang low, riding the clouds in from weeks away.

      The conjunction of Mercury to Saturn this week brings a month or so of intense cognition about the facts, figures and arrangements of your life into a more solid form. Now we’ll see if the clever arrangements you’ve designed will work emotionally.  You’ll have to feel your way through the experiment you’ve designed.  Meanwhile, Mars’ conjunction with Ketu in Cancer highlights nagging factors which have been eating away at your financial and physical health.

       This week continues the saga of changing arrangements with the important people in your life.  An experiment is likely to emerge out of the combination of new energies and old duties.  In the first half of the week, solidifying thoughts bring clarity and most of a plan to your living situation and partnerships.  During the second half, Mars’ conjunction w/ the Dragon’s Tail unleashes a number of pent up creative energies.  The initial outpouring may be toxic, but are ripe for transmutation.

Sol in Libra, Luna in Taurus

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