As with last week, there isn’t a major aspect until Wednesday, so you will have time to commune with the Fixed Star which is aligned with our Sun for the beginning of this week: Tejat, a star which is one of the feet of Gemini. According to “Starlight Elixirs” by Michael Smulkis and Fred Rubenfeld (yeah, yeah, I know, I am always quoting them) there will be “a stimulation of the seventh and eighth chakras”, so as you do your regular early Sunday morning Yoga routine, open up those chakras. As those of you who used to belong to the “North Watford Society of the Thousand Petalled Lotus” (NWSTPL 1981-1995) will know, the 7th Chakra is also known as Sahasrara (I like to mull that over as a mantra, myself). These members are now scattered as far afield as Norfolk and Salisbury, but there are some original members in Watford itself. Starlight Elixirs tells us: “This star can gently and easily increase the ability to bring spiritual ideas into clear and expressible form as mental concepts and direct ideas to be shared with others.” After yoga, it would be recommended to begin reading “The 8th Chakra”, a book by Jude Currivan. You can read it over three days. All that will set you up nicely for the middle of the week, when Sun sextiles Saturn on Wednesday 25th. Here is a marker for your spiritual progress, a taking stock of what you have achieved over the last week or two wrestling with all those Neptunian and Plutonian aspects, and your Inner Saboteur Archetype. Dry your tears, give yourself a pat on the back, and really acknowledge yourself for how you have come through. Here’s a time when you don’t need to re-hash the past, just let those unresolved issues go and start afresh from where you are. It is a good place to be, and you have done enough. Friday 27th brings the U-turn from Uranus, going first stationary then retrograde. Uranus is the spanner in the works, so expect surprises that day, like some unravelling of your knitting stitches. You may have recently got your communication issues straight with Mercury being back on track, and Uranus could unseat them again, especially modern methods of communication such as I.T. and mobile phones. Snail mail should be unaffected, so hasten unto ye olde Poste Office threatened with closure and buy a book of stamps which could come in handy. If you found last week’s Pluto oppositions dramatic, what you learned from them will start to benefit you now, ahead of next week’s trine between Mars and Pluto. So the end of the week sees some limbering up for next week’s action-packed movie. Yoga mat at the ready!

The first half of this week we are digesting the lessons of Pluto’s reverse entry into Sagittarius yesterday. I found that people were analyzing where they might have taken a diversionary route, and needed now to re-trace their steps. It’s time for reflection now, with the lunar energy rising coming up to the Full Moon on Wednesday, and the last songs of Spring, coming up to the Summer Solstice on Friday. There are three main categories of experience with the Full Moon: you dread it, you love it, or you have transcended its effects. Even if you are in the last category you can still get caught up or triggered by someone crying out loud in a group situation. Approach it calmly and meditatively, and organize a group Tai Chi session for Wednesday. Wednesday (18th) itself kicks off with Venus opposite Pluto, which I think of as a tug-of-love situation. The organizer of the Tai Chi group session has an emotional crisis that morning, and rings in to say that she can’t bring in the Fair Trade organic decaffeinated teabags for the late afternoon tea ceremony, because her ex-husband can’t take the 5-year old to school, and she won’t have time to go to the Revital health food shop in Cambridge. This of course sets off a chain of events, because someone else will have to get them. Still in the morning (UK time) Venus enters Cancer, and ushers in our collective maternal instinct. The single parent looks lovingly at her child on the way to school, and feels compassion for everyone including herself and the workers in the third world who are producing the Fair Trade tea. Everyone is her family, including the ex-hubby. Straight from work, the Tai Chi session starts, at 5.30 p.m., the time of the Full Moon at 27 degrees Sagittarius. The Sagittarian Full Moon has global implications, and coupled with Venus entering Cancer, promotes and encourages thoughts of the world as family, free and fair trade, and generosity of spirit. The Tai Chi session is calming for the participating group, as well as for those who have turned out to watch, and who knows where that ripples out. It’s always good to channel the Full Moon energies into constructive group meditation: not too late to look up your nearest Alice Bailey Full Moon Meditation Group in your Yellow Pages. It is too late to join Moon Pod’s research group, which you may have noticed has completed its karmic mission. Full Moon now over, some of you may hail with a sense of relief the motions of Mercury that follow. On Thursday (19th) it goes stationary, prior to turning direct and moving forwards like a normal planet on Friday (20th). For those of you who have been registering and recording all the communication and travel havoc its retrograde motion has caused since 27 May, you will be longing to express unrestrained and undisrupted communication, and there will be long conversations about it on the commuter run. Lee, winner of the Apprentice, will be able to turn to Sir Alan once more and say: “That’s what I’m talking about!” Friday (20th) may also see re-runs of some of Wednesday’s dramas, for the Sun opposes Pluto, and enters Cancer. The emotional charge of the Full Moon will have eased though, and nature will be celebrating the Summer Solstice. Sun opposing Pluto may bring power battles, rather than emotional tussles. There may be more cut-and-thrust debate about the rights and wrongs of the issues over civil liberties, as highlighted by David Davis. Could another party declare an interest? On a more personal level, there may be a dispute over who stepped on whose foot in the group Tai Chi session. Sun entering Cancer ensures that on a higher level, we are all closer to singing to the same group hymn sheet. But the opposition with Pluto means that at the same time, many will cling to their smaller family groups and patriotic divisions. Unless they have looked over the mountain and seen the dream of the Sagittarian Full Moon. Winding down, there are still the aspects of Saturday (21st) to play for: Venus sextile Saturn, and Mars opposite Neptune. Venus sextile Saturn can bring stability, or at least a temporary welcome plateau, in human relationships. Mars opposing Neptune could see some personal or political attempts to deceive, and weatherwise possible flooding, but otherwise there is the possibility of people balancing their use of energy and sensitivity to good effect. It holds the possibility of people helping each other out and reaching out in kindness. And after a long ramble from me, you can log off now and practise your Tai Chi steps.

Having seen David Davis on our breakfast screens this morning informing us with passion that it is the anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta, I feel I must share my vision of the modern re-enactment of this historical drama. First of all, David Davis has natally Sun trine North Node, which gives him a great sense of destiny. At the moment, he feels empowered because Pluto links in with this trine: it is conjunct his Sun and Saturn is trine his Sun now. But he is being pushed to unorthodox actions with Pluto opposing his Uranus. By nature he is conservative, being born on 23 December at the beginning of the sign of Capricorn. And I can’t help thinking his sense of compulsion at the moment is karmic in origin, perhaps as the return of the Soul formerly known as King John, who was born on 24 December and whose Sun is within one degree of his. Maybe he has come to balance some karma now. The story goes that King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta by the barons and by Archbishop Stephen Langton, spurred on by Pope Innocent III. Enter more dramatis personae: the picture of Kelvin MacKenzie being spurred on by Rupert Murdoch to throw his hat in the ring and stand against David Davis, suggesting their possible roles. Alternatively, Gordon Brown (who was in a very coercive mood last week with Uranus transiting his Mars, and Mars transiting his Pluto) – could he have been a leading player in the medieval power play? This is undoubtedly a Soul level issue for David Davis, who was quoted as saying about the vote on liberties last Wednesday night: “I was hoping that we would win, but when I saw the nature of the victory, the shenanigans that went on, the iron entered my soul. I do not think the Archangel Gabriel could have talked me out of it at that point”. I will continue to look into this intriguing scenario…

The 15-month long Moonpod project, assessing the effects of the Moon’s phases on our emotions and lives, ended last Saturday, under the triple conjunction of Sun, Venus and Retrograde Mercury. Thanks to all who took part, and especially thank you for all the heartwarming comments on its demise. I hope that it did make a difference to your moon-awarenesses.

How were last week’s aspects for you? After a heady Chiron/North Node conjunction during the week, I collapsed with nervous exhaustion from the Sun/Venus/Retrograde Mercury yesterday in Gemini (the sign of nervous exhaustion). Spent a lot of time last week hovering around the Astrodienst forum, marvelling at all the debates that were going on, but lost for words. Maybe I’ll pick up courage this week. I think we are in for a slightly bumpier ride this week, peeking at my ephemeris. So prepare for a long and challenging blog. Two people asked me for exact degree locations this week, so I have provided a mini-ephemeris (see “Planets starring in this week’s Aspects”). The good news for today is Mercury sextile Mars: some good work is going to come to pass today. Efficiency and mental acuity constitute the order of the day. Lazy Sunday it is not. Tomorrow (Monday 9th) brings a conjunction between Sun and Venus, which is about love in its many forms, the full gamut from conditional to unconditional, whatever you happen to be practising. If it is your birthday, you’ll be able to bring a full and open heart (is that a contradiction in terms?) to the day, and perhaps also the coming year. People will be able to bask in its radiance. By Thursday (12th) however, affairs of the heart are starting to get twisted up by our human limitations, with Venus squaring Uranus. Living the unconditional love dream for three days may have taken you to your personality limits, and you might be thinking “I can’t sustain this”, or “I want to break free”. It’s no good me telling you to keep your heart open if you feel you’ve reached your limit, but maybe I could tell you to lower the cholesterol in your diet to minimize the damage. Taking it one day at a time, look after your heart on Thursday. Friday is the 13th, and I am not superstitious, but there’s another blow to the heart early in the morning, followed by a resuscitation in the early afternoon (UK time, so please adjust if you are reading from other parts of the world). The early-morning aspect is Sun square Uranus, so you could be awoken in a cold sweat from your dreamtime by a shock nightmare, wondering if it was real. There may be electrical dysfunction at breakfast, such as the toaster failing to pop up. Just stand by it for 3 minutes or so, because the spanner is in the works today. The good news is that Venus trines Neptune in the afternoon, which is superb. You still need to spread the low-cholesterol or soya spread on your toast and look after your physical heart, but emotional affairs of the heart will take a turn for the better. You’ll have a text on your mobile to say that it was all a misunderstanding, and that on a higher level there is a total union of Souls. Perfect serenity for lovers. The return to Sagittarius of Pluto on Saturday morning (14th) is a weighty astrological event. Have you been keeping your Pluto-in-Capricorn diary since January? What practical and earth-shattering insights have you learned? Now take out again last year’s Pluto-in-Sagittarius diary. You should have a few pages left, going up to late November this year, to sort out your remaining Pluto-Sagittarius philosophical issues, before reverting back again. Pluto’s re-entry comes early in the morning, so again there may be another important (and what Jung called) numinous dream to enter into your Dream Diary. You may need a bigger bedside table to accommodate all these notebooks, mind. We end the week on a slightly euphoric high, for Saturday evening brings a trine between the Sun and Neptune. Good for the heart, and good for the Soul. I like happy endings, and don’t want to unsettle you, but if when you are tuning in with the divine, you feel a slight sense of unease it’s because of the upcoming Full Moon which will be quite a happening thing.

Sun will be moving from 18-23 degrees Gemini this week;

Mercury will be moving retrograde from 16-13 degrees Gemini;

Venus will be moving from 17-26 degrees Gemini;

Mars will be moving from 16-20 degrees Leo;

Uranus will be staying in 22 degrees Pisces;

Neptune will be moving retrograde in 24 degrees Aquarius;

Pluto will be moving retrograde from 0 degrees Capricorn to 29 degrees Sagittarius

Well, what a chakra-spinning week that was! Don’t know about you, but I discovered chakras where I didn’t know I had them! We start the aspects on Tuesday this week, just to give you time to get over your chakric jetlag. Tuesday is a New Moon in Gemini, so prepare your wishes now and even write them down as Gemini respects the written word. You could even quaintly write them down in longhand in a notebook, going back in time like, for Gemini communications are of the pre-Internet age. But it’s Wednesday (4th) which really interests me this week, and I am showing my heart on my sleeve here, as Chiron conjuncts the North Node, and I took the trouble of preparing an individual blog about it earlier, under the Karmic Category. Oops, the word karma has suddenly become unfashionable, having been mentioned by Sharon Stone this week. Won’t get entangled, but suffice it to say that part of the new vibe karma needs to have is guilt-free. The guilt associations with karma come from the old-style practices of religions, where you were not allowed to come from your authentic self. Guilt is the time lag between realizing what has happened and what needs to happen to redress the balance. Karma is simple cause and effect, and in that surely we have a common ideology with the scientists? Our lives on Earth are for the purposes of restoring the natural justice of the Universe, and evolving further. The other aspect occurring on Wednesday, and totally unrelated is Mars sextile Sun which equals Passion! You may have two unrelated scenarios happening that day, a karmic healing and a passionate encounter. Possibly, but rarely I think, will the two coincide – for they have been working independently in your life. Anyone planning a reunion that day can quite confidently set forth with an open heart. When you get over the emotional intensity of Wednesday, pick yourself up and look forward to a mini-triple-conjunction on Saturday (as distinct from the maxi-triple-conjunction of Neptune, Chiron and North Node in Aquarius). This one is Mercury-Venus-Sun in Gemini, a veritable red nose day of relief from repressed words, thoughts and feelings. It’s a communication bonanza, so plan a party (charity or otherwise) or set aside the day to write a whole novel.

The prospect of Chiron conjunct North Node graces our heavens this summer, the karmic healing component of the triple conjunction with Neptune, as I have mentioned in earlier blogs. if you have been following the story you may well by now have identified which situations and which area of your life are playing out this healing crisis. If not, check out my Neptune, North Node and Chiron Houses blog from April. It’s a conjunction which is nebulous in its timing because it involves the mean and true North Node, and the latter wavers backwards and forwards, and Chiron can have different readings in different ephemerides. One date for the crystallization of this conjunction is June 4th, when Chiron conjuncts the Mean North Node. This will elicit a variety of experiences, particularly in relation to where you are with your own process with the conjunction. You might be at the point of a healing crisis, or you might be at a point of breakthrough. You can view it as a symbol to work with, perhaps a golden chalice containing your own Inner Healer, or as a healing project handed to you by the Universe if you can’t see it as being of your own making. Mostly it is, on some level. With Chiron, the answer is wrapped in the question, the solution within the problem, and a moment’s perception can change the energy of the situation, sometimes miraculously. One of the aspects of Chiron and the North Node is the concept of karma, and I believe this is being redefined now. Some past-life therapists are now reorientating towards future-life therapy for instance, and the whole concept of karma is being speeded up by interactions on the internet. It has gone beyond instant.

It’s Retro week, with not one, not two, but a record 3 planets turning retrograde: Chiron, Mercury and Neptune. The Chiron/North Node conjunction is inching ever closer, the conjunction with the Mean North Node taking place on June 4th. So next week I hope to write more about the special healing projects it brings into our lives. It’s a good week to notice what requires healing, and in fact to visualize yourself protected by an iridescent bubble of protective light as the strangenesses of the week could require inward searching for answers to fundamental questions in yor life. Chiron itself is the first planet to turn retrograde, on Sunday (25th), and past life work can be relevant to present life dilemmas if you are drawn to work in that way. Bubble-wrap at the ready…But Monday (26th) is really the day you will need it. First Mercury goes retrograde, and just when you need communications and travel to be reliable. Mercury Retrograde has plenty of press these days, you don’t need me to add to it, suffice it to say there is even a book of that name on the market for you to take as travel reading. Very shortly afterwards Neptune goes retrograde and you may experience mental confusion, dreaminess and senior moments at any age on your flight. Make sure you have ordered your vegan wheat-free meal and do not leave your glasses on the tray when the hostess carries it away on your long-haul flight. As if that is not enough, Venus squares Saturn, so you may experience emotional sadness at those you are leaving behind you on your travels and find you are missing them already. Aah, attachment and non-attachment, it’s difficult either way, even if you know which is best. And that’s it – all the main features on one day this week. That just about wraps it up, except that on Thursday (29th) because Mercury is retrograding it makes the same aspect as last Friday, a trine with Chiron, which favours regaining your mental equilibrium. So Shrink rap and Bubble wrap will be handy concepts to remember this week. Cradle your own inner child. Healing on the horizon coming next week, which may mean you need to unpack an old wound from the baggage you are carrying. The mantra for this week comes courtesy of A Course in Miracles: “In my defencelessness, my safety lies.”

You may be in the middle of a healing process this weekend, having earlier experienced a healing crisis. The last few days, due to Venus squaring Chrion, you may have noticed old patterns being stuck and presenting themselves for new solutions. Today brings perfect conditions for those new solutions to emerge and thrive, for doing things in a different way, and applying innovations to long-established routines and traditions. Venus gets the Jupiter-Uranus treatment and carries the day on a wave of buoyancy which could leave you with a new perspective on life. If you are painting or sounding, your brushstrokes and warbles could bring in new frequencies and dimensions in the morning (Venus sextile Uranus), while in the afternoon there is an air of triumph and celebration (Venus trine Jupiter). As with last Monday’s Sun connections to Uranus and Jupiter, there can be breakthroughs. I just hope that all that translates into some relief for the Burmese and Chinese, or what’s a good aspect for? Tuesday (20th) brings just that sort of questioning and some confusion, with Full Moon at the end of Scorpio, Venus square Neptune and Mercury re-entering Gemini on its retrograde path. It’s a day best handled by living a life of contemplation, but if you are trying to get things done you might find yourself going round in circles. It’s a head-spinner, so if you are feeling the slightest bit delicate give yourself some time off – maybe you’ve been doing too much. In relationships, for instance, it will be difficult to know where you stand, and a little more contemplation could clear the mental decks. Negotiate Tuesday and you will find Wednesday (21st) totally different and as promised last week it’s a red-letter day in terms of achievement, surprises and possibly even miracles. If you find it so, you’ll have Jupiter sextile Uranus to thank. If you found that the Sun and Venus links last Monday and today connected areas of your life and psyche in beneficial ways, then you’ll find everything clicking into place in a powerful way on Wednesday for those days were stepping stones to experiencing the full range of Jupiter-Uranus successes. Anthony Robbins, eat your heart out! Moving on, it’s a mixed sort of week because Thursday (22nd) in contrast could see a slump in mood with Sun square Saturn, but in the scheme of things it should not be enough to dent the central events of the week because the Jupiter-Uranus alliance carries more astrological weight. If you are daunted by minor obstacles on Thursday then it could be that you are getting things out of perspective therefore. Friday (23rd) brings a welcome trine between Mercury and Chiron – you can apply your mind to solutions, and mental health will be on an even keel so it’s a suitable day for any charity such as MIND to raise awareness and funds. The week ends with the entry of Venus into Gemini on Saturday 24th which is stimulating for social connections, being a social butterfly, and verbal charm. Terry Wogan should be on good form at the Belgrade Eurovision Song Contest 2008.