Do you feel well and truly ready for a new start? What could be newer than the first New Moon of the Astrological New Year, in Aries? In the UK that will be in the early hours of Sunday morning, so make sure that you do something special on Sunday to mark how you mean to go on throughout the next month, if not the next year. You could spring up from your bed with a new outlook on life, or raring to start a new creative project. Venus also enters Aries on Sunday, symbolizing new life and new love. Monday (7th) could find you back at work, but preoccupied over new dilemmas revolving around the new life and love, for Venus squares Pluto and you may find it difficult to square the old and the new. It may be an opportunity to make a quantum shift in your understanding of love and relationships and the vulnerabilities of the human heart. A new understanding may ease things, and letting go of what you cannot fathom for the moment. The middle of the week is a bit of a transition period: from the square of Monday to two squares occurring on Thursday. You might feel tense or uneasy and not know why. Yes, realize you are in the transitioning zone. We are all experiencing these squares of the Cardinal signs, and learning to use our energies constructively and sensitively. So the two squares to tackle on Thursday (10th) are Sun square Jupiter and Mercury square Mars. Not too daunting – these should be easier, even if there are two of them, than Monday’s square. Jupiter and the Sun just produce a lot of enthusiasm and sometimes hot air, unless they are combined with binge-drinking, in which case they might get out of hand. Mercury squaring Mars can produce minor incidents, such as a tussle over the hole punch in the office, or the train arriving a minute early (just set out earlier, as you’re in the know). Practise your deep-breathing if you encounter any of these problems. Yes, practise deep-breathing, and meditating in public places. And if you are svelte enough, the lotus position.

Following on from last week’s Introduction to this event which occurs at the end of April and beginning of May this year, depending on whether you take the True or Mean North Node, I will now indicate how to spot where it is taking place in your life. If you don’t know your Ascendant, you may be able to sense where the conjunction is placed in your chart from the following descriptions. If two neighbouring descriptions seem to fit, then the triple conjunction may be on the cusp between the two houses, with Chiron (healing) in the first of the two and Neptune/North Node (entangling and disentangling) in the second one. If you find yourself away from home during that period, you may have karmic links with the people or place involved. [Ascendant in Aquarius, triple conjunction in 1st House]: You are quite possibly at the centre of this triple conjunction experience for you and your circle. In fact, you probably feel as though this situation is revolving around you. [Ascendant in Capricorn, triple conjunction in 2nd House]: There may be a complicated financial transaction around now and you will need to be very clear on your values, and be aware of just how much you value yourself. [Ascendant in Sagittarius, triple conjunction in 3rd House]: You may be in the midst of some long convoluted mental journeys at the moment, literally going round the houses. Try to keep your mind clear. [Ascendant in Scorpio, triple conjunction in 4th House]: Your home may have karmic issues at the moment, such as having to look into your rights and how you can secure them. [Ascendant in Libra, triple conjunction in your 5th House]: Your creativity or love life could reach a pitch of complexity and be tantalisingly subtle. [Ascendant in Virgo, triple conjunction in 6th House]: Health issues are the complicated area for you at the moment, ensuring someone receives the necessary treatment, becoming aware of your psychological issues in relation to health, or learning to perfect your practice if you are in the alternative health field. [Ascendant in Leo, triple conjunction in 7th House]: The complexity surrounds your relationship area at this time, and you find it difficult to hold the issues in your mind, having to surrender it to meditation or prayer. [Ascendant in Cancer, triple conjunction in 8th House] You may be aware of your spiritual links to Ancestors and Angels, how they interact and are grouped. Alternatively you may be trying to extricate yourself from a financial partnership which may have been draining you. [Ascendant in Gemini, triple conjunction in 9th House]: The abstruse finer points of philosophy may be obsessing you at the moment, trying to find the key to the meaning of life. Alternatively you may be worrying about long-distance travel, grappling with a fear of flying or incurring air miles. If you are in the publishing industry, be sure your practices are squeaky clean. [Ascendant in Taurus, triple conjunction in 10th House]: In drifting with existing ways and circumstances and allowing them to shape your career and life direction, you may be unwittingly losing your way: time to re-claim it and take charge of your career. [Ascendant in Aries, triple conjunction in 11th House]: Groups and friendships may have you all in a pickle, they’re sweet and sour and dizzyingly-interlinked pods of people in your life. [Ascendant in Pisces, triple conjunction in Pisces]: The karmic entanglement may be so subtle that you find it hard to put your finger on and may feel it doesn’t apply to you. This placement is best worked with through dreams and meditations, which may bring a breakthrough for you. More Next Week!

…segueing nicely on from last week, Aries of the week (don’t worry, it’s not going to become a regular feature) and today’s birthday boy is Piers Morgan whose Solar return gift from the Universe was winning the U.S. Celebrity Apprentice. Aggression rules the day it seems today, because Sun is square Mars and even those who have a prominent Appeaser archetype in their make-up could get steamed up today. A reminder to those in the UK who have woken up with a hangover today that you have also lost an hour of time for whatever you were planning to do. Irritating? That sums up the mood today. But some of you may have been feeling aggressive for a few days, and the build-up to this aspect may be responsible. So channel any superfluous energy into some painting or singing, but resist the temptation to flick paint at your painting companion or shatter chandeliers with your vocals. Monday and Tuesday the raw energy is likely to ebb away, and when we reach Wednesday (2nd April) be ready for switches in gear. First Pluto goes stationary prior to turning retrograde, and it’s a good time to assess how far you have come since Pluto forged its way into Capricorn at the end of January. Some of you may have experienced real transformations, especially if the cusps of signs are prominent in your birth chart. Others may have stood back in awe. But everyone will have experienced something of the subterranean shifts. Now it’s time to revise and take stock and test out whether those changes were for real. The second factor for change on Wednesday is Mercury’s entry into Aries. If you have been holding back or embellishing your words over the last fortnight since Mercury was in Pisces, then it’s now time to be direct, to the point and say what you feel. Mercury’s travelling really fast now, and will only be in Aries for the next fortnight, so you might find yourself just blurting things out, or being pushed for publishing deadlines, or even be aware of time speeding up. Moving swiftly on, Thursday (3rd) is linked with one of the Fixed Stars, Alpheratz from Andromeda. According to Deborah Houlding Alpheratz “has a very fortunate influence and is renowned for attributing honour, harmony, popularity and wealth” very fitting for Leona Lewis, who just topped the U.S. charts and is an Alpheratz gal born on this day. The day also finds us with a square between Mercury and Pluto to contend with. Maybe all the aggression from Sunday, and the verbal carelessness from Wednesday, have contributed to building up a situation where nerves are to say the least frayed, and deeper resentments come out of hiding. Take care, too, while travelling, as those baggage handlers at Airports may have reached their stress limits by now. The consolation of Saturday (5th) is that it is the day before an Aries New Moon, and you can look forward to a new start and let go of the tears and tantrums of the week, even if you’re not quite there yet. It’s in sight and within reach.

The conjunction between the North Node, Neptune and Chiron which is for the purpose of disentangling karma, is getting closer. They are only 5 degrees apart now, and for many they will be stirring up events in one particular area of your chart. For some, they will be spread over the cusps of two houses. For those born around 11 February you may feel yourself to be at the centre of this situation. Neptune conjuncts the North Node at the end of April, but Chiron turns retrograde in May and doesn’t make it to the conjunction but its presence needs to be accounted for in the mix of energies. If for instance, a situation concerns three people, it may be that two become closer at the end of April, while the third drops out of the situation and finds another healing path. Later in the year through retrograde motion the North Node and Neptune will separately conjunct Chiron. What are the energies involved in the conjunction? Well they are all intangible, and tantalizingly so for an Astrologer, yet some people may feel that nothing is going on at all! All three are in a sense linked with karma and spiritual evolution. If you are not comfortable with their energies, you may sense that you want to push the issues to one side. Indeed, they may not affect you strongly, but for some the issues will become intrigues and mysteries which deepen and manifest in a way they cannot be ignored, e.g. involvement with someone who is dependent on drugs. To describe the individual energies: Neptune represents spirituality on a higher level, mysticism and the dissolving of the ego. Emotionally, it can lead to dependency and addiction to substances such as alcohol or drugs. The North Node represents karma, and more specifically our karmic purpose – with it being a transit and not our own natal North Node, it represents the karma of the society or the planet, how it impinges on the disentangling of our own karma, and in its highest form is part of the outworking of the Divine Plan. The third component of this triple conjunction is the asteroid Chiron, the wounded healer, the emergence of the inner healer-teacher. Like the North Node, it connects us to past-life patterns, while Neptune connects us with our participation in the oceanic collective unconscious. Neptune also represents our boundaries,and the process of breaking down a karmic situation through sensitivity and compassion. So look out, from now, for a situation which has been stealing up on you for some time, which is complex and possibly urging you to dissolve past-life patterns. It may crystallize into a merging or union with the divine towards the end of April, but if handled negatively may perpetuate health problems. It is useful to work with this triple conjunction consciously, and also apply our understanding to those around us who may be part of our triple-conjunction experience or whose experiences augment our own knowledge and understanding. The first step is to identify it. Next Week: Triple conjunction in the houses.

Confused? This is the Easter blog and we have the full snow scene…I am wearing three layers of the winter woollies I had scheduled to put away last week. We are contemplating regeneration, rebirth and resurrection and the pictures outside don’t match, well in the UK at least. Are you over the Cardinal T-square between the Sun, Moon and Pluto on Good Friday? Are you ready for the rebirthing of this first week of Spring? If it’s your birthday this week, you’ll probably manage it better than most, because you carry that Aries fire into everything that you do. Our Aries of the week is Sir Alan Sugar, a real Ram, with both the Sun and Moon in this sign. A new series of the Apprentice reminds us all that the first week of Spring is a good week to launch any new enterprise, or renew an existing successful TV series. Here in East Anglia we are launching Med Pod, devoted to the exchange and analysis of interesting meditations. If you want a tip for a starting time, tomorrow lunchtime (Monday 24th, Sir Alan’s actual birthday) is looking good, with Venus conjunct Mercury favouring artistic and business ventures and all their permutations. So make that the actual start of Med Pod, then. Wednesday (26th) evening at 9 p.m. is the start of the new series of the Apprentice, which is not an astrological aspect, but may give you a chance to see the Aries fire in action, with the corresponding Aries verbals such as “You’re fired!”. But it’s towards the end of the week when the intense action begins, starting on Thursday (27th) when we have two significant aspects to Mercury – a sextile with Jupiter and a conjunction with Uranus, both dynamic and both related to the development of thought, business and travel. There is a double thrust in these activities, characterized by expansion and innovation. On Friday (28th) our Sun is aligned with the fixed star Algenib in the constellation of Pegasus the winged horse, at the tip of its wing. This is the first major fixed star we encounter in the Astrological new year and is credited in “Starlight Elixirs” by Fred Rubenfeld and Michael Smulkis as being helpful to creative visualization. Friday is also the turn of Venus to shine, with her own enjoyment of the sextile with Jupiter and conjunction with Uranus. So the dynamism is applied to our social lives and relationships, adding a sparkle to these, champagne celebrations and brilliantly original artistic directions. It would be a great day to re-kindle an old friendship, or make a surprise new contact. Facebook will be buzzing. However, the important focus of the week, toward which all these bright initiatives and warm relations have been networking, comes on Saturday (29th) when Jupiter sextiles Uranus. This is of major importance in connecting two areas of our lives, one where we are expanding and radiating outwards, and the other where we are receving the latest information through our telepathic vehicles, downloading information about how to create a new life on a personal level, and renew the planet on a more worldwide level. Vow to recycle all the plastic bags you’ve got, and equip yourself with enough holdalls made of natural materials that you never again get caught short having to buy another plastic bag. And take part in Earth Hour at 8 p.m. that day (see their website), a global movement to switch off all lights for an hour.

I’ve been a subscriber to this treasure of a magazine for 22 years, and have kept some of the vintage copies. The current issue (find the link to their website on my Contacts page) has a printed copy of my mandala “Sextuplets” on its cover. The mandala, which I painted in July 2005, represents my Light Body page on this website. The Editor has written on the editorial page of Breathe: “The cover image is from ANON? I know someone will recognize it and say ‘Hey, that’s my design’. DO let me know. It happened like this: an email arrived with an image or a link to images; I made a copy, stored it in a folder for the next issue of Breathe then a few months later realized I didn’t make a link to the person who sent the email; now I can’t remember who sent it.” Breathe magazine began in the early 1980s growing out of the Rebirthing Breathwork movement that formed around the ideas of Leonard Orr. In the last 10 years Breathe has focussed on varieties of breathing techniques used for healing and self-development, including Holotropic, Buteyko and others. The current issue has some very worthwhile articles as always: Healing Post-Traumatic Stress and Life Mastery and Quantum Reality shift among them. I look forward to being properly credited in the next issue.

Hope you didn’t see any flying buddhas last week…and that’s all I’m going to say about the weather in this blog. Venus is trine Mars today, and the Moon is trine with the Sun, which promises at least a balance between the sexes, and romantic trysts for some…and that’s all I’m going to say about male-female relations in this blog. Tomorrow (17th) Mercury is opposite Saturn, cutting short communications… and that’s – a stuck record. Tuesday (18th) is more dynamic, with Mercury trine Mars, the energy is beginning to flow more readily, people will be more inclined to open up and warm to their themes, take action and walk their talk. Trains will be punctual, signatures will appear on dotted lines, information no longer withheld. That’ll bring a sense of relief, as we let go of the winter in preparation for the Spring Equinox. For the entry of the Sun into Aries occurs at 5.48 a.m. (UK time) on Thursday (20th), and perhaps Mother Nature will wave a magic wand. So it’s bring on your Spring wardrobe, pack away the Winter woollies, and wear a smile. You’ll need some sort of chocolate fortifications for Easter Friday (21st), which brings a square between Sun and Pluto, and a Full Moon in Libra. To be fair, Easter always brings an emotional crisis because it’s calculated on the Full Moon, as it was in biblical times. So we should be quite practised now in its symbolisms and outworkings in our lives and charts (think back to all the Easters you’ve known: is there a pattern or theme?) If you are a traditionalist, you will need look no further than your local church or synagogue. But if you are looking for a new paradigm, try the latest book by Chris Griscom “The Evolution of God”. I’ve only just got my copy, and it’s hardly unwrapped, but I’m hoping to find time to read it over Easter. Happy Easter, and happy reading, gardening and/or worshipping to you!

Uranus in Pisces is currently exactly conjunct the Sun in the chart of Tibet, if we take the chart of 10 March 1959 at 6 a.m. If ever there was an indication of rebellion, from a literal cri de coeur, that would be it. The transit of Uranus to the Tibetan Moon will happen in April 2009, bringing more emotional and patriotic stirrings, but in the meantime, if the birth time is correct, then this week also sees the transit of Uranus to the Part of Fortune in this chart. I would interpret that as an expression of the spirituality of Tibet. Will that come from a statement by the Dalai Lama himself perhaps, who has asked that the Tibetan restrain themselves from resorting to violence? A more heavyweight transit comes in February, May and December 2009 with transiting Pluto trining the natal Pluto for Tibet. In an individual’s chart this would mean a process of empowerment. It is difficult to picture a material victory at this time for Tibetans, but a moral victory may be on the cards, and a symbol of the spiritual power of Tibetan Buddhism.

You may already have made a complicated start to the day. I have been fiddling around, looking at different charts before settling to blog. Venus is conjunct the North Node, and Mercury is conjunct Neptune. Venus and the North Node up close and personal force us to examine our close relationships and how they are currently working, as well as looking at older relationships and how we are travelling together with the people in our lives. Are we on the same path, or have our paths diverged? You need to know what path you are on and if it is the right path for you, honour it and stay focussed. Relationships come into our lives at different times for different purposes and cannot always maintain the same intensity or closeness in other times, places or circumstances. But it’s the Mercury conjunct Neptune which has me all in a tiswas this morning, and has steamed up my glasses. How far do we take the warnings about “an intense area of low pressure” forecast across the UK this week? Mercury does rule weather, and Neptune does rule complications. Should we be battening down the hatches? One fellow commuter told me at the end of the last week she will be buying a special screw to fix her bins to the wall, so that she won’t have to run around the garden. So can Astrology tell us whether this would be necessary? There are some pertinent aspects to Mercury, planet of weather, this week especially for Wednesday when another storm is apparently brewing. So we’ll come back to that…but in the meantime, you’ll just have to use your own instincts about your own locality…There may be Astrologers who can pinpoint where the disruptive weather is going to land, but my own efforts are embryonic. I hope that Monday’s predicted weather patterns do not catch you running around your garden picking up rubbish, and Tuesday (11th) looks a quiet day Astrologically and weather-wise (famous last words), which brings us to Wednesday (12th). There is a lot going on on Wednesday: Mercury conjunct Chiron and squaring the UK Venus and conjunct the Mars in the UK chart, plus Venus entering Pisces. The Mercury contacts to the UK chart could be significant meterologically, but may also highlight the more social and even sexual issues within society. Globally, Mercury’s alliance with Chiron directs us to look at the consequences of our actions in relation to health and healing, so the world healing organizations may have statements to make on that day. Venus entering Pisces cold also touch upon health issues too, but may also bring new initiatives in the Arts. On a more personal level, you may move from a focus on friendship, to experiencing a deeper level of sensitivity and emotion in your closest relationships. On Thursday (13th) Venus sextiles Pluto and this theme deepens even further. You can experience the very essence of your relationships, and this means also experiencing more deeply who you are. That could be wonderful, or it could be scary! The week continues apace with Mars sextile Saturn on Friday (14th) and Mercury joining Venus in Pisces. The Mars-Saturn configuration favours planned activities, with in-built caution, and careful timing and pace. Mercury’s arrival in Pisces may enable us to analyse and express our feelings about art, or about wider humanitarian issues such as the plight of Darfur. It would be a good day for charities to make impassioned pleas to our hearts and pockets. The week ends on Saturday (15th) with another mixed combination: Mercury sextile Pluto and Venus opposite Saturn. Venus in Pisces opposite Saturn in Virgo is waving a tearful goodbye, but Mercury sextile Pluto is travelling with a spirit of mission accomplished, message understood and “I’ll be back…”

For those of you still trying to catch up on sleep after the English Earthquake, the conjunction between Venus and Chiron over the next couple of days may help toward healing. Whether or not the earthquake woke you up, you may still be affected by it on some level, and may need to reassess your relationship with the earth and make it whole. That may include honouring your mother, and self-mothering. Chiron then segues nicely into a conjunction with Mercury on Tuesday (4th), enabling us to make sense rationally of what we felt about healing when Venus was conjunct Chiron. Of course, Chiron brings healing crises, so mini-emotional and mental storms may come as part of the package, but healing is the potential, and you may envision the answers to your problems almost as soon as the questions have been set. Also on Tuesday Mars is entering the sign of Cancer, which normally would make us all protective and stir up our parental instincts and again re-emphasize the role of the mother in our lives. But at the same time, Mars is limbering up for an opposition with Pluto, and so is in no mood for outside interference. Be aware of what your passions are leading you into, where they are focussed, so that your own Mars-Pluto process becomes a constructive one. I am getting ahead of myself here, but some preparing of the ground may be worthwhile. Don’t let the prospect of this forthcoming opposition spoil your unalloyed enjoyment of Sun sextile Jupiter on Thursday (6th). Really go for the pleasures life has to offer on that day (provided you have attended to your subconscious simmerings first and taken note of where they are likely to land up for Friday). Just take the day off work and celebrate life. If it’s not a public holiday where you live, then employ Zen and the Art of the Workplace. Friday (7th) starts with Venus conjunct Neptune, the afterglow from the more rumbustious pleasures of Thursday. Perhaps you really did reach some high spiritual states in connecting with your inner joy on Thursday, because you may find yourself starting Friday in total serenity over breakfast. That first fine careless croissant will be blissful. But you know what is lurking soon after, the opposition between Mars and Pluto. Perhaps someone tries to shatter the inner peace, and you will need to put into practice your highest ideals in order to show that you are not going to rise to the bait. Or perhaps you are on the other side of the fence, determined to be brutally frank, at the expense of the delicate flower on the opposite side of the breakfast table. Yes, we are still at the breakfast table, hiding our true feelings behind two different newspapers. Verbal sparring at dawn? Who will leave the table first, throwing down the napkin? Can there be any winners when discussing politics? Can you sort out the conflict in the Middle East or the rights and wrongs of the Obama-Clinton contest over the breakfast table? Don’t go to work on a cross word, or a crossword, agree to disagree if you must, but know that there is a new start at tea-time in the form of a New Moon in Pisces. During the course of the day and by the evening you will have sorted things out in your own mind, and be able to make that New Moon wish or pledge for a new start. With fresh learnings about our subconscious drives, the Pisces New Moon will favour new beginnings in psychotherapy, and in ecology efforts to improve marine life, and on higher levels spiritual unity. This puts us in a position to enjoy the last treat of the week, Sun conjunct Uranus on Saturday (8th) which favours the new, the unconventional, and surprises. It favours telepathy and astrological insights, as well as new group initiatives. It doesn’t favour doing things the way you’ve always done them and the way they have always been done. Emulate Emily, that young Masterchef finalist, and be truly creative and original next Saturday.