Aspects for the week beginning 31 October 2010

Today’s aspect Venus sextile Pluto is well-matched for Halloween events.  If you found last Tuesday’s Sun sextile Pluto constructive and meaningful, today’s aspect is like a different tone of the same colour.  Whereas Sun sextile Pluto was balancing life and death, today’s aspect balances love and death.  Our dinner party conversation last night was about Halloween being a U.S. import.  Our guests were a few years younger than us, but none of us could remember it being celebrated in the U.K. in our childhoods.  Our Yorkshireman remembered they celebrated “Mischief Day” (e.g. scrumping apples) which was then replaced at that time of year by Halloween.  By the time we had our children, tricking and treating on the Scorpionic date of 31^st October had become a way of life.  I don’t have a natural understanding of Halloween, but as far as I can see it is about our relationship with fear and beliefs about death.  We need to become our own Most Haunted mediums or exorcists to negotiate it.  There is also an increasing tradition of celebrating the old celtic festival of Samhain merged in with this.  Oh well, the supermarkets are staffed by witches and warlocks this weekend, and stocking plenty of scary cakes and jellied objects to sink our teeth into…I might just succumb.  Tuesday (2^nd November) is the day of the U.S.A. mid-term elections, and I apologize in advance to the Tea Party in that I am not qualified to speak.  But, we are what we read, and like the Observer leader today, I would like to urge patience to give Obama a chance: “Faced with impossible expectations, Obama has done astonishingly well – on paper.  In two gruelling years, he has delivered on three of the five promises he set up as the pillars of his ‘new foundation’ in a speech of April 2009: healthcare, education reform and financial re-regulation.”  The Saturn-Uranus opposition of his election has now morphed into a square between Jupiter/Uranus and Pluto, more complexity and challenge.  He has been up against this Cardinal Climax, for goodness sake.  Of course I wouldn’t extend the same understanding to our own P.M. David Cameron, who is not in that league of social idealism, having skipped the Saturn-Uranus opposition and come in on the Jupiter/Uranus square to Pluto.  On Thursday (4^th) Mercury trines Jupiter which is a good day for doing business, and for positive thinking (if you believe in positive thinking, that is).  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and there are current ideologies which point out the disadvantages of positive thinking.  For example if employing an affirmation, and if the subconscious backlash is not acknowledged, you might get the opposite effect you were intending.  I once affirmed for a part-time job to be not in front of a computer screen, and landed up with a full-time job in front of a computer screen, for instance.  But, assuming that you like positive thinking, and it’s for you, it’s the day to do it.  On Friday (5^th) Chiron is stationary prior to turning direct, and this favours healing initiatives, and miracle turn-arounds, which might reinforce any positive thinking you may have decided to do on Thursday.  Saturday (6^th) brings a New Moon at 13 degrees Scorpio, a good day for intensive psychotherapy whether in a conventional set-up or your own home-grown version.  And shortly afterwards Mercury squares Neptune as if to test out how well your new psychological structures are holding up, by putting in front of you a litmus test for reality versus illusion.  If you feel that positive thinking is not suited to Halloween week, then you can cut your teeth (not just on jellied spiders) on the conjunction of the North Node and Pluto in the month of November.  These become conjunct at different times according to whether you take the Mean Node or True Node.  If the Mean Node, then 27^th is your date.  If the True Node, then the 10^th and the 22^nd are more pertinent, and may be more spiritual in focus.  [Quote from hubby: “My brain is turning to jellied spiders reading this section”] Basically this conjunction provides an intense focus on karmic and psychological challenges (in combination) in one area of your life (depending on which House it occupies in your natal chart).  You may already know what that is, even if you do not know your Ascendant.  Some deep navel-gazing is called for, seriousness about your karmic mission and the mission of the planet as a whole, and possible past-life researches.  If you do not have time for these ruminations, then life is likely to present appropriate challenges anyway on an outward level, so that you can see what this is about.  Scary stuff?  Ha-ha-ha Halloween!