It gives me great pleasure to announce a fanfare for the opening of the week (Sunday 5th) to the tune of Venus sextile Jupiter. All you socialites out there, the lovely Librans and the vegetarian Sagittarians amongst you, will be in your element. It’s party time! Monday (6th) will be an interesting day, with a challenging but not unpleasing start to the working week which can be turned into fun-filled assignments and krypton-factor style puzzles. This day will benefit Clowns, Academics and Travellers (Sun square Jupiter, Sun conjunct Mercury and Mercury square Jupiter) but in a way which stretches them and their audiences, tutors and travelling companions. Interesting… Tuesday (7th) is not as interesting but more settled and sedate with Venus sextile Saturn, long-term commitments at the forefront of our minds, balanced talks about finances, savings and investments. Dealing without the wheeling. Loving the one you’re with. If you need to know more about the financial astrology of the time, consult Raymond Merriman’s weekly blog analysis. Friday (10th) could be your favourite day this week, with Venus trine Uranus – some of the outlandish antics of Monday could be paying off, and the loyalty of Tuesday also bringing dividends. coming together in a useful social or financial package. It would support unusual artistic or musical events, too. Just a note of caution: stay grounded and look at your ideals through plain glass, because illusion is the predominant influence on Saturday 11th. The gift of the square of Neptune to Venus will reveal which elements of the week were pie in the sky, or overblown ideas, bringing us closer to truth and the correction of our perceptions. You may look back at this week as a jamboree bag, which contained fond moments from Venus, some worthwhile wisdom from Saturn, plus a surprise from Uranus. The mystery prize is from Sun trine Chiron, healing but not necessarily in the form you’d expect.

Internationally acclaimed musician and sound healer Tim Wheater comes to Abington Barn Education Centre, Abington, Cambridge on Friday 10 October 2008, 7.30 pm for an 8 pm start. Be treated to an exclusive live performance, demonstration and insight into the strength and joy of music as a healing and developmental tool. For booking details go to www.inspiralonline.com – Tickets are £10 for pre-bookings, and £15 on the door. See you there!

Diary at the ready – what were you doing the Saturday before last (20th) at 3.21 am (UK time)? Some of you may have been nurturing a talent for writing (especially poetry), with Mercury trine Neptune. I was preparing to go and see Marianne Williamson. Did you have a significant dream, perhaps? Anyway, whatever it was, may re-occur today as Mercury retrograding again makes a trine to Neptune. So there’s a chance to fine-tune the poem, re-evaluate the spiritual philosophy, find more meaning in the dream. While you are flipping back through the pages of your diary, have you perhaps noticed any odd encounters with Scorpio animal totems over the last two weeks, during the period around the square of the Sun to Pluto? They seem to have been coming out of the woodwork for all around me: we’ve had a fox (cunning) in the garden, a friend had a bat (rebirth) in her conservatory, yet another found a black widow spider (shudder) in her supermarket grapes, and lastly another friend had a difficult encounter with a stoat (stealth) which may also qualify (although may be a Piscean creature). So I’m just wondering if these are harbingers of a collective shift in consciousness, possibly connected with the Saturn-Uranus opposition in November. The New Moon tomorrow (Monday 29th) at 6 degrees Libra will benefit relationships and the Arts especially for those with birthdays around this time or who have 6 degrees Libra rising (which seems to me the commonest rising degree of a sign, the least common being 1 degree Pisces). So there will be many out there who can take advantage of this New Moon to re-align harmoniously with their own hopes and for the world. It could also be a help in new peace initiatives. As we move into October on that wave of harmony, we find on Thursday (2nd) another helpful aspect in relation to peace moves, Mars sextile Pluto. It may have been this aspect which the aforementioned Scorpio animal totems were trying to highlight, for it represents a constructive harnessing of the aggressive forces of human nature and nuclear energies. As aspects go it’s not that rare, but it is essential that these forces are used helpfully and are not kicking off destructively. Under such an aspect it is possible to get people working together, and for loose cannons to arrive where they would do least harm. Mars is at the end of Libra too at this time, so we are placing last orders with diplomats and negotiators. The week ends on another Scorpionic note, with Mars entering Scorpio on Saturday (4th), and the message of those creatures may reach a clarion call. What forces are stealing a march into your life, and what needs to change or transform in order to bring about a new birth? I am currently buying stocks of “Communication with All Life” by Joan Ranquet to give as Christmas presents this year.

…As I was saying last week, we are in the midst of three trines to Neptune providing support and upliftment. Last Wednesday you may have discovered artistic talents (Venus trine Neptune), yesterday literary talents (Mercury trine Neptune) and still to come are the unknown talents of the trine between Mars and Neptune. I dragged my hubby along yesterday to a Marianne Williamson workshop, and he was suitably impressed by her wisdom. I found her to be as ever a beacon of faith and hope in our world now. And of course we need that focus now, with it being World Peace Day in a world not at peace, and with having Sun square Pluto to contend with today. It’s apt for us all to be focussing on peace today, with an aspect which dwells on the darkness. As Marianne kept saying yesterday, you have to bring the darkness to the light. Better energies tomorrow (Monday 22nd) which starts with the promised trine between Mars and Neptune, the third trine of the set of three. If you have kept up your Sunday yoga regime and daily meditation practices, you will fully feel the flowing energies of this aspect. If not, you’ll still enjoy activities which seem effortless and enjoyable. You may discover a new talent, or be moved to act in compassion. And if you’ve enjoyed this triad of helpful aspects, you’ll be pleased to know that at the beginning of next week there’s a little reprise or encore, a little more icing on the cake to come. Meanwhile, still on Monday, it’s a mellifluous start to the working week and also to the beginning of Autumn with the Sun entering Libra, so Happy Equinox all round! Get in tune with nature, hug and heal one of those poor Horse Chestnut trees with the fungus-ridden leaves who have taken the fall for our toxic practices. And Monday evening brings an extra blessing in the shape of Venus sextile Pluto. It’s a time when you can open your heart and see connectivity everywhere. You may also have insights about the current economic downturn, and understand the principles of manifestation at a deeper level. It is a good evening (UK time) for lovers, healers and peacemakers. On to Tuesday (23rd) and you can carry through the compassionate action of yesterday, but in a more organized and verbally active way. A dynamic day, and do what you can get done that day, because on Wednesday (24th) Mercury starts to go retrograde, and even if you have got your communications clear someone else might not have. But before that, in the early hours of the morning (our communication is going backwards remember) Venus enters Scorpio. Venus in Libra was an ideal climate to bring out a new peace website, but Venus in Scorpio will challenge us to deliver. For those venturing into weekend weddings, your union will benefit from the icing on the cake aspects of early next week which take place during your honeymoon period. Last words of advice to the happy couple: make your new double-barrelled names interchangeable.

It has been World Peace Week and now it’s World Peace Day and we have a brand new Peace initiative in the form of a website http://ipeace.me whereby we can promote our hopes for peace collectively. As soon as I joined, I felt hugged by the beautiful aura of peace that this website emanates. Inner Peace and Outer Peace are equally important and mutually dependent. So I am hoping that peace is an idea whose time has come.

Andrea Foulkes the celebrity regression therapist is also prominently involved in World Peace Day, and says today “Bring your Love, Friends and Cushion to sit on Chartres Labyrinth” (at Sedona!), but if you can’t get there at such short notice, download the world peace meditation from her website at www.andreafoulkes.co.uk. Om Shantih…

What is your peace lineage? And where are we going with the cultivation of peace as a human race? These are the questions I have been asking myself in the week leading up to World Peace Day. I have always thought of myself as a pacifist, though I have heard and digested the powerful contrary arguments. Among the most persuasive is Alice Bailey’s concept of the will-to-good being beyond the will-to-peace as particularly applied to the necessity for the second World War of the 20th Century. Here in the 21st Century the human race established a climate of war early on, with the terrorism against the Twin Towers on 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our choice of war or peace is still hanging in the balance. My own peace lineage as I look at it now is that I took a vow of peace at the Siege of Montsegur back in 1243, then carried that through a couple of incarnations in the hallowed halls of Tibetan lamaseries, only to get sidetracked on a downturn of the evolutionary spiral by Napoleonic fervour on the cusp of the 18th and 19th Centuries. In this lifetime, I have carried a peaceful heart, but done little actively to promote peace, other than a few years collecting subscriptions for CND in Watford in the 1980s! So I have found the new peace website (see next blog) a welcome opportunity to state my relationship to peace, and renew my hopes for it. Astrologically, I would look for tendencies to peacefulness in a birthchart in terms of a prominent Venus (the relation of Venus to peace is the desire to unite in harmony) or a well-aspected Neptune (the relation of Neptune to peace is the desire to bring the spiritual peace of the soul into conscious awareness). Where there is an absence of peace in the world or in a personality, it’s a symptom of spiritual disconnection. In our eternal Souls, we all have peace. In our personalities, deep down we all crave peace.

To make the most of tomorrow’s aspects you will need to gather the following ingredients: a notebook, a cafe, and like-minded friends. It has all the atmosphere of writers, philosophers and poets meeting in cafes on west banks to thrash out their angst. Select your equipment and venue in anticipation…The conjunction of Mercury and Venus at 18 degrees Libra actually occurs in the early hours of tomorrow Monday 15th (UK time), so if you are looking at cafe culture in a different part of the globe, please adjust accordingly. Later in the morning comes a Full Moon in Pisces opposing the Sun in Virgo. This may be felt as an emotional pull over two areas of your life. It’s important to notice what this brings up because it may highlight the two areas involved for you in November’s forthcoming opposition between Saturn and Uranus (see previous blog). A trine between Mars and Chiron ensures a healing thread at this time, and a constructive purpose. The rest of the week focusses on trines to Neptune, which can be sublime but for some it may mean going through illusion first before coming into clarity. The first trine occurs on Wednesday 17th at lunchtime, and involves Venus. If there is a romantic reunion planned for that day, your heart will be warmed while your head may be in the clouds. On Saturday 20th Mercury trines Neptune, and if you found your head was in the clouds on Wednesday, you’ll be seeing the clearer light above the clouds by then. If you were inspired artistically on Wednesday, you may be able to analyse the source of your inspiration on Saturday. Saturday’s trine is in the middle of a series of three trines, for next week Mars will trine Neptune. The accumulated effect could be quite stunning, especially in artistic realms and perhaps also in terms of group efforts. So create a buzz in your local cafe this week!

It is less than 2 months until the Saturn-Uranus opposition, on the day of the US Elections. This is being seen by Astrologers as a close contest between the New (as represented by Obama and Uranus) versus the Old (as represented by McCain and Saturn). I feel inadequate to see past the posturing, and do not feel qualified to comment about this unprecedented line-up and crew of candidates. There’s no denying the importance of the consequences of America’s choice on the day, but there will also be other things going on in the world, and in people’s lives. The Saturn-Uranus conjunction of 1988 was a friendlier version of the aspect occurring that day, and played its part in events prior to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall (which actually occurred during a subsequent conjunction of Saturn and Neptune). The Berlin Wall as a symbol or construct and as representing inner fortresses (a phrase borrowed from a friend) seems a good place to start as a concept when considering the upcoming aspect. In your own birthchart, the aspect will represent a long-term construct across two areas of your chart. Tomorrow’s Full Moon may highlight these two areas for you as the Sun and Moon oppose each other in the same signs, Virgo and Pisces. If a wall is involved it may be due for dismantling or renovation, especially if it represents a separation between two parts of yourself or between yourself and family or friends, which is being used to cover fear and paranoia. Trust and surrender are likely to be the antidotes and keys to breakthroughs, survival, and release in such a climate. The November event will occur around 18/19 degrees of Virgo and Pisces, so if any features of your chart are in those degrees the events could be momentous for you. Many of you have been leading double lives (and by that I don’t mean in the French farce sense) and you may be acting as a bridge or emissary between two places, two countries or heaven and earth. Some of you may be caretakers, translators and supporters of those scenarios, especially if you are spiritually or karmically rooted to a particular place. These bridges will be important at the time of the Saturn-Uranus opposition, because the separations need to be bridged at a deeper level than at the time of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. Still others will be experiencing this aspect entirely inwardly, and may be finding that existing psychological or lifestyle structures don’t allow their Authentic Selves to flourish. When such cracks appear, it allows the divine to enter in more easily. And we all need to be caretakers, bridges, and carriers of the healing hologram.

Here we are at the midpoint of Virgo and it’s still raining! It’s difficult to rustle up some cheer, but if you are a Virgoan who is interested in healthful dining and have a sense of humour, why not try the new website by Pete Vincent on Raw Humour? Very timely, very much needed at the moment, especially with the UN climate chief realizing that we should eat less meat. All very Virgoan issues. Today’s a day to get passionate about issues, with Mars square Jupiter at tea-time in the UK. There will be a battle royal perhaps over whether meat should be on the table, or whether it should be a meat substitute such as Quorn, or for the Virgo purists a totally raw vegfest. Heated but all in good humour hopefully with the involvement of Jupiter. There may be some throwing of food, but it could be time to let your hair down. Jupiter is at the hub of some of the shenanigans of the week, and is one of the two planets set to turn forward this week. Tomorrow (Monday 8th) morning sees Jupiter turn direct, which will enable progress in some affairs to take place where you might have felt you were swimming against the tide since May. If for instance you felt you lost your sense of humour around then, you may get it back this coming week. Shortly afterwards, Jupiter is involved in a square dance with Mercury, and if you are exaggerating the truth, you’ll be brought to book and required to state the facts without embellishment. There’s more to come tomorrow (so, so much more): tea-time brings a conjunction between Mercury and Mars (at 12 degrees Libra) – look out for health and safety issues, especially taking care as you are chopping or slicing the raw vegetables. There may also be a war of words, or incisive repartee, across the dining table. The main aspect of the week takes place later still, late in the evening, when Jupiter trines Saturn. This is the most major aspect to take place between now and the US Election in November, so make the most of it with my earlier blog on the subject. In case you’re too busy to read it, in a nutshell it is about balancing two areas of your life and balancing extremes in general. This is followed in the early hours of Tuesday (9th) morning by Pluto turning direct, and it’s a day for psychological reorientation. If you have spent since April dredging through your subconscious for clues about who you are, you may feel you are making headway with Pluto beginning its journey back to Capricorn and pulling away from the Galactic Centre. Just give a respectful nod to the Galactic Centre and acknowledge all we have collectively been through before you take a deep breath and intone “onwards and upwards”. There’s a more frivolous way of looking at things at tea-time on Tuesday, with Venus squaring Jupiter, and the humour this evening may turn silly and verge on slapstick (carrot batons at the ready), but again, that may be what is called for at the moment. By Friday morning (12th), Venus will have found a new playmate, Mars, and it’s a conjunction, not a square, so things could turn intense in the romantic department. What started as a bit of slapstick at tea-time a few days ago, could turn into some slap and tickle in these early hours. Finally, on Saturday (13th) Sun opposes Uranus so the unexpected will rule at the weekend, plans are up in the air, and if you need a tool to get by, it’s telepathy.

Here’s an opportunity this week: finding balance. Jupiter at 12 degrees Capricorn trines Saturn at 12 degrees Virgo. These two in themselves represent optimism and realism respectively, and other such extremes. But this is no aspect for extremophiles: the harder you push towards one extreme the more there is a backlash from the other end. As Newton put it: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. This line-up enforces a balanced outlook because the two forces involved may be realizing they are in a stalemate situation – they have to acknowledge each other’s existence. The forces may be within your own personality, within two areas of your life, or may be seen playing out on the world stage. That process in itself may be pulling at you as they are opposite forces trying to come together in harmony. Not through blending or merging (which it would be if they were in polarity or opposition, or involved with higher consciousness processes represented by Uranus or Neptune), but in balance and in acknowledgement of each other’s worth and uniqueness. If you noticed and worked with the conjunction between Sun and Saturn and their trine with Jupiter last Thursday, you may have some idea what these principles are referring to in your life and at this time. Compromise and negotiation may be needed to find the poise and balance at the centre of the scales or the maelstrom. Find that marker and use it as your reference point for the relationship or project over the next few weeks. At some point, the energies will give way to the opposition of Uranus to Saturn which takes place on November 4th and colours the US Election (and is already being felt), but there is some mileage to be gained by this trine beforehand. It might just be a victory for commonsense.