Forecast for July 29 – August 4, 2013

by Kathy Biehl

Where we start the week and where we end it are likely to be miles and miles apart. It begins with a rare and welcome moment of stabilizing. After that … fasten your seat belts.

The stabilizing comes from a fleeting but dazzling configuration that has the potential of harnessing all the water energy of the last two months. If that brings to mind the possibility of generating electricity, you’re on the right track. The rest of the week is an intense, volatile and ultimately freeing ride hosted by the cosmic change agents.

In the process, some of what you’re carrying could and probably will fly out without your noticing. (I’m remembering once coming off the Runaway Mine Train at Six Flags Over Texas and discovering that my sunglasses and all the candy sticks I’d just bought had escaped from my purse.) Where the ride lets you off may not be the expected destination, but it will fit the trajectory of the last year or so.

Throughout it all, collectively, wounds are out in the open, with Chiron in an easy flow to the North Node. A lot of what’s coming up for air is dank and festering, from being below the surface for years. Sunlight and air will do them, and us, good. Eventually.

On Monday a second grand trine briefly moves into place, in earth (linking the Moon in Taurus, Venus in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn). This interlocks precisely with the water grand trine we’ve had since June and is creating a Star of David, with each point the same distance from the next. (Gaze upon the chart for yourself.)

Whether this presages some magical, mystical development remains to be seen. At a minimum, the line-up is pouring spiritual and emotional potency into practical areas of your life and giving physical structure to the energies and other intangibles that have been coursing through us. Watch for opportunities to ground the rampant water/emotions in mundane situations — love (commitment even), finances, restructured obligations, baggage dumping — and to nourish all the physical manifestations we’ve been seeing of dreams and inspiration.

Some of the current is rushing deep into foundations, too, and reaching the places where we’ve been experiencing cracks, fissures and tectonic shifts for the past year.  The flowing water may wash away debris and loosened boulders; it may also cut new pathways and even canyons as it cleans and reshapes internal landscapes.

During the moment of stabilizing you may feel somewhat like a frog plopping onto a lily pad, or an athlete pressing onto a springboard, or a martial artist sinking deep into his torso and legs before striking. When the moment of rest ends, though, the movement that follows is not one lyrical arching leap into the air. It’s closer to a video game character frantically flying and kicking and flailing this way and that until a barrier collapses and a way out opens.

July ends with an open current between the planets of desire and money (Venus and Pluto) and drastic, sudden clashes between our drive and the cosmic agent of unforeseeable change (Mars and Uranus). Cravings and compulsions override hesitation or common sense. Temptations and triangles defy resistance.  Passions and tempers flare and lead to the unexpected. Walls will tumble. Don’t be surprised if you kick a few down yourself.

Crossroads appear before the dust settles. (The Sun and Venus are making adjustment aspects to Pluto and Uranus.) Will you base your choice on fear or other primal instinct, or stand in your own truth and personal power? Another issue is breaking from the/your norm because it suits you now, as opposed to doing something for shock value or rebellion.

Relationships could turn on a dime. The ones that pivot toward “yes, please” will find opportunities to link up nicely on Friday. For that one day, the archetypes of the masculine and the feminine are getting along and cooperating, which should yield interesting developments on a societal and legislative level.

No matter where your route takes you — and there’s no one-size-fits-all path for this —  everyone’s enjoying fresh air by the end of the weekend. Inner constraints are simply no longer an issue. You’ve been going with the flow, letting life lead you and not forcing your hand for so much of the summer. It’s time to drop the poker face, pick up your cards and play them boldly. 

 

More’s in my extended weekly forecast, which includes day to day analyses. For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for five years without missing a single installment. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation via PayPal to kbiehlATempowermentunlimited.net. Thank you! And thank you to those who have donated — I truly appreciate your gesture.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

Forecast for July 22-28, 2013

by Kathy Biehl

Finally, a change of pace. Go-with-the-flow mode is so last week. This one begins with a thunderclap, a flash of lightning or a clink of chains unlocking and triggering and motivated action.  We’re climbing — or maybe shooting — out of the water in which we’ve been swirling, swimming, surfing and, at times, drowning. And suddenly we know what we absolutely have to do. Actually implementing that knowledge, though, is another matter.

Maybe our time out of the wet is only long enough to look down/back at it and get a fresh perspective. Maybe we actually find a tiny island where we can briefly touch down. Either way we can shake off some of the sogginess and feel the warmth of the sun. We place our feet on the solid ground of sober habits, discernment and healthy boundaries.  We can contemplate the week’s epiphanies, awakenings and liberations and sit a spell with the call to action we’re feeling so intensely. We may pull off some forward movement. The week’s biggest movement, however, is getting some distance on the water and all it entails.

The gear shift hits on Monday, with enough abrupt changes to cause whiplash. First, the watery, emotional flow escalates into another tidal wave as Mars, planet of action, teams with bigger-is-better Jupiter.  Thereafter sociability takes a dive. What we want most is to clean up and dry off, when Venus trades Leo’s fun and drama-loving mode for the earth mother trappings of Virgo. Meanwhile, the Sun leaves the waters of Cancer for his warm, fiery, high-energy home of Leo and quickly sets up the summer’s first Full Moon in Aquarius. (A second comes late next month, at the end of the sign.)

This week’s Full Moon is in the very first degree of the sign, delivering a raw, unrefined and unsophisticated blast of Uranian electricity. It’s shocking, alarming, awakening and motivating. (Read more in my mooncast).

And that’s just on Monday.

As we come to grips with this Full Moon and all it unleashes, the week unfolds in one long void of course Moon after another. Moon voids are floaty, diffuse stretches between the Moon’s last major aspect and her entry into the next sign. They can feel as if nothing’s happening or nothing can happen, and even when they bristle with activity often little comes of it afterward. This week’s will bring to mind a cartoon character running wildly in place in the air, after a chunk of cliff fell out from under him.

There will be plenty to think about within those voids, and during the rest of the week as well. Cosmic messenger Mercury is now direct again and will return to noticeable movement by mid-week. Confusions will begin to clear up; information will come loose that explains much; misunderestandings may begin to unsnarl.

As the weekend approaches, Venus links up with the major players in the grand water trine, which is creating the rushing round-robin of emotional and other nonrational energy. She brings all that we value — relationships, beauty, creativity, money — within reach of the flow that is connecting Neptune (transcendence of physicality), Saturn (rules, order and the epitome of physicality) and Jupiter, whose golden touch heightens whatever he touches, for good or ill. Love may feel at a standstill, briefly, as opportunities appear to improve and solidify situations, to impose structure, obligations or responsibilities on arrangements, or perhaps to tighten them up in a big way.  (Sounds like more news about legislating women’s health.) The positive spin on this process is optimizing. Go for that.

More’s in my extended weekly forecast, which includes day to day analyses. For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for five years without missing a single installment. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation via PayPal to kbiehlATempowermentunlimited.net. Thank you! And thank you to those who have donated — I truly appreciate your gesture.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

July 2013 Aquarius Full Moon

2013 Aquarius Full Moon
July 22, 2013
11:16 AM PDT / 2:16 PM EDT / 7:16  PM GMT
0 Leo 6 / 0 Aquarius 6

By Kathy Biehl
This month’s Aquarius Full Moon is the moment when the dog runs out of the water and shakes himself wildly. This is the moment lightning pierces rainclouds and strikes the surface of the sea. This is the moment of suddenly breaking free of the emotional soup and seeing with new vision.

We are at the first of two Full Moons in Aquarius, which will return the moon sequence to the usual order of new moon in a pair of signs first, followed by full. (We’ve been experiencing the reverse for much of the year.) The two Aquarian Full Moons are fierce breakaway influences, sending us out of the water that’s been engulfing us to vantage points outside or above it.

An insistent dynamism pervades this Moon. It is making a t-square to Saturn, pressuring us to take into account cost and return on investment and forcing action in matters of sharing, intimacy, trust, investments, sex, death and taxes. Saturn is the influence that favors going to bed earlier, eating your vegetables, following rules and generally behaving responsibly. He’s in cahoots for the long haul with formidable, unavoidable cosmic change agent Pluto, whose resonance plays into this pressure as well. Issues involving surveillance, guns and laws related to them will be feeling the heat of this Moon.

Pluto’s current challenger, the other cosmic change agent, radical, unpredictable Uranus, is in play as well. As the ruler of Aquarius, Uranus is in charge of the Moon. The events, harvests and developments of this Full Moon tie to the ongoing revolutionary fervor and pervasive upheaval of the Uranus/Pluto square, which has been reworking our foundations since early last summer.

Another hallmark of revolution is also in the game, transcendent, escapist, illusionist Neptune, which is making a tight adjustment aspect to the Sun and growth aspect to the Moon. As has been a factor in recent weeks, the question is still live:  Is it real? Or it is an illusion?

Given the nature of recent news items, it’s worth pointing out that the last time Neptune traveled his current path in Pisces was the lead-in to the Civil War. Noticed any residual tensions from that simmering lately?

Expanding on that theme, take note that Uranus’ last trip through Aries coincided with totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy and Russia and Roosevelt’s well-intended but massive expansion of both the federal government and the executive branch. And Pluto? He is visiting turf he last saw during the American and French Revolutions.

The three outermost planets are all in locations associated with revolution, and all of them are factors in this Full Moon. Watch for evidence in your own life of hitting the point that you can no longer put up with abuse/limitation/unfairness/fill-in-the-blank, of drawing a line in the sand, of standing up to a bully, of taking bold and brazen action (likely without thinking about it in advance), of doing something you might never ever have dared at an earlier point.

So, as detached and unemotional as Aquarius usually is, this Full Moon is likely to be break that mold. This Moon is awakening — a wake up call, the going off of the cosmic alarm clock, for some, just plain alarming. We don’t have the luxury of a snooze button, either. We’re being jolted into awareness. Waking up in that way can be jarring, and after you come to, you act.

The insights, the epiphanies, the jailbreaks, the shatterings, the logjams breaking up and loose are easing the way for next month, when Jupiter riles up the cosmic change agents and quickens the contractions that will push people, relationships and situations down the birth canal.

 

© Kathy Biehl 2013. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

Forecast for July 15-21, 2013

by Kathy Biehl

A tsunami alert is in effect all week. The same goes for monsoons, flooding and abnormally high tides. The summer’s water energy is hitting a peak. Dams are breaking, rivers are overflowing their banks, and streets are filling with runoff and more. Rushing water is finding pathways, toppling or wearing down impediments and carrying anything that moves along with it.

This will play out literally; the weather promises to be spectacular. For many of us, the flow will be primarily symbolic and emotional. Hang on to your boogie boards, ski harness or oars; we’re riding big waves and rapids now.

The flow is a natural continuation and escalation of matters that have been in process since early June, at least. (Possibly as far back as June of last year, too, with some streams from 2009-2011 as well.)  The current ramping up is sending the waters to the highest we will experience this summer.

The defining astrological influence of the summer, the round-robin of energy known as the grand trine in water, is linking up exactly this week, with two different influences completing the circuit. (The grand trine is activating the areas of your chart that contain the early degrees of the three water signs. If you don’t know where they fall, you can run your chart for free here, if you know your time of birth.)

The first planet to complete the circuit is Jupiter, the planet that ups any action he gets near. As he whips up Cancer’s home, family and territorialism midweek, expect cartoonishly large developments and breakthroughs, with nary a rational brain cell in sight. This means new horizons in moodiness, sentimentality, turf-staking, comfort food and petulance — but also miracles, rainmaking, manna and pennies from heaven and situations beyond your wildest dreams. (He’s also going to push women, mothers, children and their issues more into the streets and into the fore.) Whatever impulses rise up within you, or come at you, he is simply going to make them bigger.

Movement below the surface is adding to the agitation of the rising waters. Turmoil is summoning upheaval and rebellion up from the depths as Uranus, the agent of unpredictable change, begins a backward march that will last for nearly the rest of the year.  The waters aren’t merely gaining in height; they are also reaching deeper and deeper parts of your being. The ongoing tectonic shifts in your life are providing the cracks, fissures and other entry points for the flow and emotions to rush down deeper. They’re carving out caverns, canyons and new internal landscapes.

After Jupiter sets tidal waves in motion, the current opens fully in the wing of the grand trine that connects Saturn and Neptune, the most earthbound and least physical influences in the zodiac.  We are well and truly living on the bridge between spirit and matter — we *are* the bridge, I’ve been contending — and what that makes becomes clearer. Realities and ramifications and consequences come down on us. Dreams solidify, or crash against the rocks. Authority figures ramp up lies and shady dealings. Who knows, maybe a government will even expose its citizens to odorless gas. It could happen; this week is a probable window for one of the three days in July that the NYC MTA is releasing fluorocarbons in the subways in a so-called safety test. (Read more about that mind-boggling program here and here.)

After we’ve been carried along on this wild ride, limbs flailing as we hoop and holler and gasp for air, a huge force will push against the water and off we go some more. The cause is Mars, the planet that rules our motivation and drive, taking Jupiter’s place on Saturday and unleashing-to-encouraging assertiveness, aggression and the will to shape where all this is taking us.  Action happens, and how. Emotions surge. Baking frenzies ensue. Anger spins out of control (remember, pushing against water leads to backwash.) With the warrior god so active in the realm of the Great Mother, the political effects will be fascinating.

During this storm surge, Mercury, the ruler of communication and transportation, ends his retrograde. Clarity is not immediate; it’ll be a few days until he begins moving. His slow-moving turnaround in emotional waters has the speed and nuance of an ocean liner changing course. The waves, the surges, the dramas, the fast action will take on a timeless, endless quality; we’ll feel suspended in them, probably clearer on our own reactions but not yet able to convey them.

More’s in my extended weekly forecast, which includes day to day analyses. For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for five years without missing a single installment. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation via PayPal to kbiehlATempowermentunlimited.net. Thank you! And thank you to those who have donated — I truly appreciate your gesture.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

Forecast for July 8-14, 2013

by Kathy Biehl

We are in the boundless present. Notice this week how time feels like it is slowing and expanding, inviting us to dive into the eternity of each moment and ride the emotions as they surface, crest and flow.

And my, is emotional flow everywhere. It is unleashing outpourings, clucking, clutching, finger-pointing, guilt trips, personal attacks both real and perceived, reaching for security blankets of all kinds (fabric, food, human, symbolic) (emphasis on the food), yearning, nostalgia (for a past that never was), sentimentality and holding family (blood or chosen) close.

Saturn, the planet of order, structure and authority, is stationing to end his five-month retrograde on Monday, simultaneously with the New Moon in Cancer. Saturn insists we take our time, and when he stations his influence becomes the slowest of the slow.  (Think: ocean liner turning around.) His pause prolongs and heightens the coming into being we are witnessing of inspiration, dreams,  non-violent rebellion, ideology and authoritarian, dissent-silencing moves.  Situations will begin taking shape now that have been brewing behind the scenes or below the surface since mid-February.

This is bringing an “I/we know what’s best for everyone” mentality more out into the open. Not only is the federal government monitoring our phone calls and Internet activity, but as Saturn began stationing last week The New York Times reported that the Post Office is also photocopying and logging our mail. Big Brother authoritarianism is on the rise in state legislatures as well. Astrology in action is one way to view the epidemic of silencing dissent, changing the rules and ramming through legislation that a majority of constituents do not want.  (As for other ways to view … they are up to you.)

Saturn’s preference for slow and steady may be agonizing, it’s to your benefit this week. Use it to  prepare, work on, clean up or shore up your own end of these slow-brewing situations. They will break loose quickly and forceably starting next week, when Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune lock into the grand trine and whip up the waters’ movement. (For more on the grand trine, read my July outlook and forecast for July 1-7.)

Watch for the parent/child angle to crop up everywhere now, particularly in terms of who gets to be in control. Saturn is the father and the patriarchy (evident in many a state legislature at the moment), while the New Moon in Cancer, sign of the mother, is drawing attention to home and family, nurturing and emotional security. We’re feeling these issues keenly, personally and not at all rationally, because our experience of them takes root before our brains have fully developed and continues to exist below the reach of conscious thought.

A full discussion of the Cancer New Moon, including suggestions for working with its primal impulses, is in my mooncast. A gigantic push to implement this new phase in nurturing comes Saturday, when Mars enters the amniotic fluid of Cancer and begins his approach to the grand trine.

Mars is the planet of action and anger. His entry into Cancer provides the Wheaties, spinach or energy drink we need to dive into the waves and and swim through them. When he starts shoving the water around, splashing, surges, backwash and waves will follow.

In the most positive sense, this will motivate us to nurture ourselves and others, to tend to our families and take care of our own emotional needs. Mars is also going to encourage emotional behavior, some of which is going to be pissy, childish, petty, and self-pitying. If you catch yourself heading in that direction, give yourself a time out. If you see this type of behavior coming at you, think of the source as a kindergartner who needs milk, cookies and a nap.

For the six weeks that Mars is in Cancer, a lot of people are going to be pissed off to the point of doing something about it. The patriarchy will ramp up its actions against women, children and families; women will ramp up their actions to protect themselves and their own. Fighting over the food supply will escalate. Note what Russia’s President Putin does to put weight behind his outrage at what Monsanto is doing to the global food supply. Look, too, for more home-gown strikes against genetically modified crops across the world and on our soil, even if it’s not being reported.  The incentive could grow to take more control of your own food — such as buying locally, gardening in whatever small way you can, canning, dehydrating and preparing more of your own meals. Don’t be intimidated by those suggestions, though. Your reaction could be as simple and natural as spending more time in farmers’ markets and the kitchen.

Your beneficial course remains to (a) disengage periodically, empty yourself and sit still long enough to hear your own inner voice, (b) heed your emotions, intuition and energetic impulses, (c) rest when you are tired, (d) eat when you are hungry (and pay attention to what you’re eating), (e) not take other people’s behavior, words, assumptions or above all accusations personally and (f) give your mind the job of acting on your impulses, rather than dictating and forcing a plan of action.

Remember, too, that it’s summer. Inside you lives a little child who’d like to go outside and play every now and again. Why not?

More’s in my extended weekly forecast, which includes day to day analyses. For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for five years without missing a single installment. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation via PayPal to kbiehlATempowermentunlimited.net. Thank you! And thank you to those who have donated — I truly appreciate your gesture.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

2013 Cancer New Moon

July 8, 2013
12:15 AM PDT / 3:15 AM EDT 7:15 AM GMT
16 Cancer 17

“It’s like a wave. Resist and you’ll be knocked over. Dive into it and you’ll swim out the other side. This is a new and different world. The challenge is to cope with it and not just cope — but thrive.”
— Mrs. Greenslade, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

This month’s Cancer New Moon ushers in a new phase in families, nurturing and emotional security. It prompts us to take in and act on the waves of emotions that have been throwing us about for the past month.

We are in an intense, volatile time. The element of water is dominating events and our experience of them, and it is one that our conscious minds can neither control nor entirely fathom. Uncanny, unnerving impulses are pulling and pushing us, as our water-based bodies and emotional beings respond to the fluctuation energies around us. Influences we can not see, can not grasp and can not halt are triggering nonspecific anxiety, physical discomfort and primal, nonrational behavior.

Think of the flow of the tides, dogs howling at the moon, or a werewolf transforming under its light. Think, in fact, of the moon, which is an apt symbol for the cause. Find an image of the Moon card from the Tarot. Really look at it. In the Rider-Waite tradition, the card shows the Moon with her eyes closed and three animals responding to her enigmatic command: a wolf (representing the wild), a dog (the domesticated) and a crawfish (the nonconscious) emerging from the water. Whatever version of the Moon card speaks to you, tack the image in your line of vision as a reminder of what’s going on.

It may help you understand the potential of this month’s Moon, which is in her home sign, Cancer, the most emotional, nurturing and moody of the water signs. Issues loom large here of home, family, parent and child relationships, emotional security and safety, food as a vehicle for such, nesting, traditions and loyalty to the clan. Apple pie, motherhood and country are one short-form summing up of this amniotic sac. Even shorter is the phrase I frequently use for this placement: Mommy Moon, which generally begs the question of who’s Mommy and who gets to be the baby.

For the past few weeks, one celestial body after another has entered Cancer and completed this summer’s defining astrological configuration, the free-flowing round robin of energy through the water signs known as a grand trine. This New Moon is already past this completion point. She is no longer in the process of setting off the grand trine, but instead setting up what we are going to do with all the emotions and waves and currents we’re experiencing.

What do feel washing away? Washing in? You could be looking at the past wistfully; you could be letting some parts (and people) go and reconnecting with others; you could be sensing soul-feeding connections emerging from the spray. Don’t be surprised if you experience and encounter an upsurge in sentimentality, nostalgia and tearing up. (Listen to “Sunrise, Sunset” at your own risk; don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

This is an appropriate time to begin approaching your day and your life in more conscious awareness of your feelings and their power. Periodically sit with them. Don’t analyze; don’t think; simply sit. They’ll come to you more easily with quiet or down time. Carve out the space and time to sit quietly by yourself at least once a day. The time it takes to drink a cup of coffee is enough. Let them guide you. Wait until they lead you to send a text, make a phone call, make a decision or walk out the door to run an errand. Instill this approach under this New Moon and it will become a habit.

Look around your home, too. How can you make it more comfortable to you? Fluff the pillows. Soften edges with soothing fabrics and lights. Make your bedroom more cozy.

What about your food? Don’t fight it: food is intrinsically connected to feeling loved and safe. If you are going to take comfort in it and you ARE going to take comfort in it — do it mindfully. Go ahead and indulge in a cream-filled doughnut, or ice cream, or pie; just make it a really good one. Sit at the table. Use your favorite dishes, even if you’re eating alone. (As the mother in Repo Man says, “Put it on a plate, dear; it’ll taste better,” and this article explains why.) Don’t multi-task; pay attention to the food while you’re putting it in your mouth. And if after the last swallow you’re still feeling unfulfilled, ask your body what the hunger’s really about.

Look at the emotional flow from you to others, too. This Moon marks a new beginning in how you express, not just receive, caring and nurturing. With your own mother, too, if you’re brave enough to allow that. (How many of you felt a physical shutdown or terror at that concept? Be honest.)

How can you — the real, true, authentic you that is showing its face more boldly to the world — share love? No smothering, please, no controlling and no guilt-inducing, guilt-demanding sacrifice. No matter if your family background is the stuff of a bestselling memoir. No matter if you don’t have the greatest track record in this department. A new world is emerging this summer. Allow your emotions. Trust them. Let them flow.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

This image is completely wishful thinking 😉