Aspects for the week beginning 24 January 2010

There’s a good solid aspect today for those who don’t trust the more flighty aspects: Sun trine Saturn.  It’s a day when you can get practical tasks done and tie up loose ends.  If you are a thinker rather than a doer, reflect on the serious issues in life and you will be rewarded.  Strike a pensive pose, and ponder the nature of frustration, limitation or depression and you may surface with a breakthrough.  This will also be good preparation for next Sunday’s Pluto square Saturn, Phase 2.  Phase l occurred in the middle of November last year, and you may want to ponder what it meant to you personally.  For me, it was at the time that I stopped wearing my glasses, and it is over 2 months now since I wore them.  There have been one or two occasions I have nearly reached for them, but divine interventions stopped me.  I was reading “Restoring your Eyesight – a Taoist Approach” by Doug Marsh this week, and came upon a description of what I was feeling at that time: “If people continue wearing their prescription lenses faithfully through adulthood, as most do, does this second GAS [general adaptation syndrome] phase continue until it reaches a point in retirement years when the eyes scream out, ‘That’s it!  We can’t take this tension any more!  Enough is enough’? ”  So today is for practical work, stocktaking and preparation time.  Venus opposes Mars on Wednesday 27th, bringing up issues such as the battle of the sexes, equal pay, double standards, whether men should have botox, and possibly more serious issues such as body dysmorphia.  It is a time to acknowledge the individuality of our sexual psychology, and be less judgemental about others’.  On Friday 29th the Sun is opposed by Mars, which could be a hotheaded day for some, especially those born under Aries, Leo and Aquarius.  So it will be a challenging day for diplomats and those seeking to calm or damp down the situation, such as the bystanding Librans or the Capricorns ready with the wet blankets.  The fires may rage within your own psyche as inner conflict, in which case you will need to find your own inner arbiter.  But deal with it, for the tension is building up with a Full Moon on Saturday 30th and Saturn square Pluto on Sunday 31st (overrunning my brief, but it is an integral part of the picture).  The Full Moon in Leo on Saturday pits the individual against the group, and actually I have just remembered a dream about this last night.  In the dream, I was toeing the line in a group, quite happily, willingly and conscientiously, and then the leader of the group released me from my obligations.  I then felt as free as a bird.  All dream interpretations on a postcard, please.  It can take a lot of energy, skill and compromise to perform well in a group while keeping your own individuality, and these may be some of the issues that come up for you at this time.  I wrote a blog about the power of the group on August 9th (“Balance in Groups”) at the time of the lunar eclipse in Aquarius.  Now the position of the Sun and Moon are reversed, and the emotional power lies within the individual (Moon in Leo).  Egos will need to be balanced, for the group to be balanced.  There just remains to make a few remarks prior to next Sunday’s Saturn square Pluto (Phase 2): the actual date of the last Saturn square Pluto was quiet, despite the hype, but American Astrologers have linked it with the Fort Hood shootings a few days before.  I have been asked this last week if I thought the Haiti earthquake is linked.  I personally think not specifically, but only in terms of the general climate.  There may be a separate marker of some sort next Sunday, but disasters are becoming more frequent generally.  The British government in recent days have raised the temperature, issuing a raised terror alert level.  If you want a realistic astrological interpretation of Saturn square Pluto, read Nancy’s New Year blog entitled “Times of Crisis: Saturn/Pluto”.  If you would like a more divine view of the times, read “The Crystal Rose of Peace: The Energies for January 2010 and the Coming Year” by Celia Fenn (both links are on my Contact page).  For balance, read both.