The sun entered the sidereal star fields of Capricorn, the sign at the top of the zodiac, also called the House of Glory, at 817AM Pacific time on the morning of Sunday 15 January.  The first event which occurred as a holiday, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man of great charisma and charm, a real American hero martyred for advancing equality and respect for human dignity.   Dr. King was a born Capricorn, evincing compassion and toughness in his soul.  He worked tirelessly, fearlessly, both Capricorn traits, and he changed the society he lived in and the world of which he was the product for the better.

     What’s not to like?

     The moon will come new in Capricorn at 1139PM Pacific time on Sunday the 22nd on the Pacific coast;  this is 239AM eastern time on the morning of the 23rd, Monday.  Any time after this, but before 454PM Pacific, 754PM eastern, we are wise to sit down with lined paper and black ink pen, and list down those things we want to accomplish this year.  As we are under the influence of a strongly proactive sign, with great drive, perseverance, and strength of will, we will focus specifically on the positive things we want to achieve;  we may want to be more attentive to our family, while being more present on the job;  more devoted to our spiritual path while being inclusive of our neighbors;  more productive in our worldly search for better, smarter, maximum solutions.  Now is our moment to lauch a thousand new improvements!

     This new moon in Capricorn signals the Chinese new year of the Dragon;  the sign of the sea goat is in many ways like a Chinese dragon, intimidating until you know how to handle it!!

     If you are thinking that it was not predicted by the Mayan calendar to end till December of 2012, ask yourself this:  which will really end, the whole world, or the Mayan world?? Didn’t the Mayan world already end?  Then the prophecy was true and it has been fulfilled.  We don’t have to concern ourselves with Armeggedon anymore.  Won’t the Witnesses of Jehovah be pleasantly surprised?

     Of immediate, real concern to us is the state of the heavens at midnight, 0000, quad Zulu, of 1 1 2012;  I reckon from my house, aka Seattle, since I live here in the far west.  The sun is too close to Pluto for there not to occur changes in perception, in our sense of self, in consciousness; however these changes will have already occurred, as the effect is a separating one.  We will begin finding applications for the changes which have already been made within us.

     There is an inexact Grand Trine in the air element, made up by Saturn in Libra, Neptune in Aquarius, and the MC in Gemini.  Ideas come to us easily that have to do with new approaches to the law, innovations, novel applications, honest interpretations.

     This may have an impact on another real concern of 2012, which is the Supreme Court hearing the Obamacare case;  it begins and ends while Mercury is retrograde in sidereal Aquarius, the sign of new ideas.  This looks unfavorable for the proposed changes to be upheld, and indeed may herald a long and harsh legal battle.

     A harsh battle rages now in the skies above between Jupiter, benevolent and magnanimous of spirit, opposed by Saturn, the heavenly doorstop.  Saturn is exalted in the sign of Libra, which it currently occupies, so the scales are weighted in its favor.  We can expect the themes of frugality, economy, and rectitude to endure this year, as well as less frilly fashions. 

     The one aspect which worries me is that Mars and Mercury are in a tight hard exact square;  Mars in loud, ill-mannered, boorish Leo, and Mercury in mocking, ill-humored, dirty mouthed Scorpio.  Of course we could choose to elevate this hard square to an iron sculpting on white marble with impassioned but disciplined arguments;  but, most of us will bounce around at the level of telling bad jokes and arguing just to argue. 

     There is one more aspect, a mini trine, involving Saturn in Libra trining Chiron in Aquarius, both sextiling the Part of Fortune at 0 degrees of Sagittarius;  I like this one a lot!!  Many traditional astrologists won’t use Chiron at all, as it’s a minor asteroid, and the Part of Fortune is purely arbitrary, based on the chart being cast from my house-  but here is a perfect example of arguing a good thing down for petty reasons!  The mini trine is dignified by Saturn exalted in Libra giving weight and support to Chiron, the wounded healer, in the realm of ideas, innovation, and flights of fantasy.  It could launch a whole new path to Fortune!!!

     If we are waiting, looking up at the deep sapphire skies, thinking of the vast expanses that reach heavenward forever, we will see a vision…  the Centaur is a visionary, clear-sighted and cool, and a wise planner, leaper of obstacles, piercer of aims!! 

     What exactly is our aim for the reborn year?  That the rebirth of the sun on the 21st took place in sidereal Sagittarius tells us that we can achieve what we aim for, if our hand is steady, our arm is strong, and our attention is focused.

     Some of us will consider going back to school this year in order to maintain our standing in the world, while others know that the school of experience sometimes counts the most.  Many if not most of us will be most interested in the Law of the land and how the coming decisions will be affecting us on a daily basis.  Our military will be happy as gamboling colts to be traveling home!

     More fortuitously, our aims do not need to be confined to Sagittarian quarters.  Jupiter, mighty benevolent ruler of Sag, is currently in sidereal Aries, and about to go direct.  Aries invites us to jump in and do it, reach for the sky, rocket up for our dreams, whatever they are and where ever they take us!! 

     Another mask of Jupiter is Santa Clause, about to turn direct, on Christmas day, in a bountiful Sagittarian year!!

     If you pay attention to these things, praying the sun up in the morning and marking it’s setting at the end of the day, you will note that it continues to rise later and set about the same time till mid January.  Make what you will of that, if you are wise.

    The sun renews itself in true blue Sagittarius, the Santa Claus sign of the zodiac, so we are optimistic and hopeful, regardless of the reality we are facing. 

     The moon wanes in sulky, skulky Scorpio at the moment of renewal, which is demonstrative of resurrection from the depths!  Fitting! 

     On Christmas Eve the moon also renews itself, in bright blue Sagittarius, so we are really feeling the season cheer.

     The best and brightest spot is that Jupiter turns direct on Christmas day, really bringing in a Santa Clause rally to our spirits.  When mighty Jove turns his happy face to us, all of heaven will be direct.  Not one single orb will be backward, dark, ill-natured, bad fortuned, or unkindly aspected.  Our fate is entirely in our own hands to be made as we will, without interference from Outside.

     What a Christmas gift!

     The legacy of Scorpio is that it is time of the Fall; not autumn, I mean the Big one, the one where we listened to the advise of a serpent (Serpens sits on the first decan of Scorpio, right on the ecliptic) and got whacked right out of the Garden by its poisoned tail.  If we are of a more scientific bent, we can put our fingers on the craters of the moon, the half-frozen and half-scorched moon Iapetus, or on Chixsalub, and know for a fact that Something Awful happened here.  The lunar holiday of Halloween, which celebrates the dead, or Death, occurred under Scorpio.  When the Pleiades cross the sky meridian under Scorpio we know that we are safe from destruction, for another fifty-two years;  tradition tells us that the Seven Sisters withheld their light as Atlantis sank, that Halloween night, 10, 000 BC.  In the sacred Tarot Scorpio is Death, the all-conquering skeleton on a white horse with his scythe.  All that is dark, damned, doomed, decaying or damaged belongs to Scorpio.

     So no wonder the shit is hitting the fan double time!!

     I like to point out that without death there is no new life in the spring, no rebirth, no chance of resurrection.  But, I am an overly optimistic Pollyanna.

     This year, of which we will long recall recession, and resurgent marxism, and swarming streets stinky of pot and human pee, Scorpio is serving up a triple threat to our sense of well-being.  Many of us have already felt this, hence, the irate tweets and FB trashings.  Thank God for the edit and delete buttons though;  you may want to hit them repeatedly as Mercury, the orb of communications, goes retrograde in Scorpio this Wednesday, Thursday morning on the east coast. 

     Mercury retrograde in Scorpio is a dangerous trend;  not only do we say things which we will profoundly regret, but things we have already said in the past do come back now to haunt us.  Sometimes it’s a well-intentioned lie; sometimes a promise never intended to be kept.  Sweet nothings uttered in the deep quiet dark erupt into cold hard daylight.  Secrets, skeletons, and dirty laundry sweep themselves out of closets, and every murder will out, even if it happened in 1963.  As Scorpio is a financial sign, and Mercury is fleet, our money disappears down a drain!

     Simultaneous with the retrograde, our delight of the zodiac, Venus, shoots away from Scorpio and her erstwhile companion into straight arrow Sagittarius.  She wants to get as far away from this foul-mouthed screamer of secrets as she can!!  With the Golden Girl in the sign of foreign affairs, schooling, and the Law, romance and friendship seems to flounder.  Relations which had been going pretty well suddenly explode;  betrayals rip apart old alliances.  Worst, our pockets are always in hock in the generous sign.

    The next day is Thanksgiving, our own Jovian holiday.  Saturn will balance itself into Libra the Scales just as the sun rises in Scorpio.  It almost seems that this could be a test on our capacity for gratitude!!  I expect some interesting turns of events in connection with the Karmic Judge presiding in Libra, dispensing Divine Justice.  That this begins under a Mercury retrograde in Scorpio lets us know that the least word, the lightest deed, even the best hidden, are open for weighing. 

     As always, there is a bright side to this.  The retrograde, the fleeing of Venus, and Saturn sitting down to our Thanksgiving feast coincides with the new moon, of course in Scorpio.  At 1010PM Pacific, or 210AM eastern Friday morning, we can light a scarlet and black candle, wearing chain mail, or a decorative pin in a pinch, and etch in black ink those traits of Scorpio we wish to develop in our soul garden. 

     Why the hell would we want to plant such seeds in our soul?? 

     Scorpio is strong, physically and tough mentally;  Scorpio is intense, determined, persistent, independent, and innately strategic.  Scorpio manuevers for the best possible shot and thinks ahead.  Scorpio is motivated internally, and Scorpio achieves his end, no matter the pain, no matter the sacrifice, no matter how long or hard the challenge.  Scorpio wins.  Scorpio is a leader of power-hungry people and manager of powerful forces, most of them subterranean, or subconscious.  Scorpio is intuitive enough to navigate the dark waters and avoid the predators, whose hungry nature Scorpio knows.  Laying fallow, unused, unlovely, unkempt, Scorpio develops perceptive abilities and sensitivities that some would describe as terrifying.  Scorpio survives, and rises again, and again.

     A grand lesson, that!  Scorpio teaches us to survive all the chaos and meanness and hardness of heart which we ourselves have generated.  There is no better time to seek forgiveness, make atonement, research the past, read history, investigate past life regression, explore Otherwhere, experience survivalist training, reconnect with old friends and former residences, delve into the mystic arts, or root out the hidden causes of what ails us, personally or as a Race.

     Hidden underneath it all, Scorpio has a priceless jewel of a heart.

     The culprit is, of course, in heaven;  Mars, the bad boy, the soldier of fortune with an attitude, left a comparably safe and sane resting place in Cancer and roared into loud Leo, to set the heavens on fire.  His chief pastime in Cancer was Occupy Wall Street, pretty much a hemorrhoid on the working mans butt till his tail caught fire.

     All along we have heard about confusion, mixed messages, a cluster of causes without leadership, continuing deterioration of conditions; now, rampant drug abuse, increasing senseless violence, blocking even small businesses, rape and violent assaults going unreported because it would make the movement look bad, and finally, murder.

     For this we have to look across the zodiac to Neptune, spinning backasswards in Aquarius, the sign of Brotherhood, the future, freedom, and the group ethic.  Neptune itself is such a diffuse planet;  a prominent modern astrologer, Liz Greene, believes it should be called instead Dionysius, because of its alcoholic haze and trail of dead rock stars in its wake.  It lends inarticulate guttural mumblings as often as bestowing the gift of the Muse.  In Aquarius, you’d think the orb of Inspiration would incite us common men toward unity, equality, liberty, fraternity, not curbside living for the masses.

     (Sigh.)  That’s because Mars opposes Neptune, a nasty fix.  Mars is intense, close to our ego and status in the community;  Neptune is our ideal, that place to which we aspire but never achieve on the earthplane.  Every time Mars strikes out, in what he perceives is the right direction, he gives himself a black eye, while Neptune gets more scattered and confused and vague. 

     What really worries me is that beginning Monday the 7th, we have a Grand Trine in the fire signs in the heavens.  Normally, this is a great good thing, a time of burning of garbage in our minds and fiery determination and the will to win!   Mars sits at the top of the Trine in Leo, lordly and victorious; super sizing Jupiter in Aries lends a certain militancy, and dark Pluto in Sagittarius aims from the rear.  The focus, pointedly opposed to Neptune the ideal, suggests a further downward spiral in society and short flares of temper individually.  It could potentially get really nasty if we don’t access the brighter side of the planets.

     The wise and prudent among us will harness the implicit mysticism of Neptune to the ambitions of Mars, and make a rainbow bridge across this lake of fire which can be as inclusive as Jupiter, lead to Pluto’s buried treasure (material or psychological), and give us all a better ending to the story than the Three Little Pigs.

     The opposition breaks up on Thursday, just as the moon comes full in explosive Aries.  What a conflagration!

     Our survival depends on our overcoming our challenges, incorporating our lessons, and becoming the masters of this game.

     Mars, sexy and muscular, is dragging his toes through the dregs of Cancer, like a man slowly rising out of bed.  At 29 degrees, this is a karmic sign;  it relates to ambitions, women, motherhood, rising, men in relation to the women in their lives.  The Wise among us will make sure we do a good deed for an older woman, a tranny, a mom, or strike a blow for motherhood in general between now and Halloween Monday.  Any misdeed toward women, Cancers, moms, or our homeland will go down on the Karma Kitty’s list, and she will stick it to you sooner or later!! 

     The delight of the zodiac, golden Venus, giddy dispenser of glittering largesse, good looks, quick cash, dream dates, engagement rings, and money in the bank, enters mysterious, murky Scorpio Saturday morning.  Scorpio rules dark dreams and intense sex, bad boys who excite us and make our hearts pound in delirium;  it is also the sign that gives us money or goods as gifts, as windfall profits or settlements or any thing which we did not have to earn.  The Golden Girl of heaven in the Gifting sign is damn good news to most of us!!!

     The next day, Sunday, the day before Halloween, Mercury sinks into Scorpio too.  The orb of communication in the Dirty sign insures that we will be hearing plenty of dirt, crap, trash;  but, we will be able to sift out some sage financial advice, winning tips on money strategies, if we just listen carefully and wisely. 

     Naturally, we must consult our own horoscopes in concert to the planets to when we should act on the advice.

     On Halloween, Monday the 31st, Mars will rocket into Leo, the golden royal cat of the zodiac, fiery and confident and sure.  As Mars has no problems with his self-esteem, and shares this trait with all who ask for it, our vitality and will to win soar to the heights!!  If we need a new job, we exude Martian confidence, and go out and get it!!  With Venus smiling sweetly, the pay is higher than we expect.  Throw Mercury into the mix, and it all happens swiftly, easily, in the blink of an eye!!

     Naturally, we can crash and burn and lose it all just as easily and effortlessly;  Scorpio is the sign of treachery, and Mars is dawdling at that karmic degree for a few days. 

     The Wise, like the heavens, will be giving out treats!!!

     We bathe ourselves and our auras in the deepest golds, brightest scarlets, crimsons, and cardinals, the shiniest coppers and flimsiest oranges of the coming autumn and gather our desires at 804PM Pacific, 1104PM eastern time Sunday night, the 28th of August.  Out of this vibrant caldron comes the seed of new beginning!  Anytime after 804PM till midnight Tuesday morning, we may list those things we wish to awaken within our soul and within our life which fall within the domain of Leo-  new romance, better luck, good fortune, any children, games, gambling, speculations, fun, enjoyment, theater, excitement, vacation time, sports, enjoyment of any kind.

     It’s important to remember to list those things we wish to shed, leaf like, this autumn, those traits like extravagance and brashness, to allow them to become decomposed fertilizer for our future dreams.  We want to recycle what we don’t need anymore, not become overfull!!  This is a real danger now as Jupiter, the supersizer, is trining Pluto the troublemaker while the moon comes new.  If we don’t remember to shed the unwanted and unneeded now, they will continue to grow like weeds, go to seed, and give us renewed trouble when we least expect them!!

     Leo is the sign which involves recreation, fun, any pleasant activity, especially those we share with our kids.  Games in the park, outings to lakes and shores, Wild Waves, theme parks, are all fair game for the Wascally Wabbit to careen into and cause catastrophe.  The Wise and Prudent will consider skipping any such risk now;  the dangers of lost kids, kids infected with lice, kids broken or bruised or bullied by dark strangers, have just skyrocketed.

     Leo also rules all gaming activities, including gambling, and speculating as in the Stock Market.  Who could have predicted that one, huh?  For those of us who follow the Market, Mercury is in the second house of earned income, turned backward;  most all investors stand in serious danger of losing every cent they have so far gained.  Did I say it was gruesome?

     The worst aspect of this retrograde is that it totally ruins our love life.  Be warned, my prudent pals, and be wise;  Mercury retrograde in Leo sours the savor of romance like overcooked onions!  The sweetest joy in life becomes a nightmare baited trap;  such romance as begins or blossoms now is simply not blessed by the heavens.  And don’t take any chances without a condom;  lust falls into this signs’ province, too. 

     Dinner parties turn out vapid and lame;  reunions are disasters in the making, and dates are fodder for water cooler war stories! 

     The only thing we really can do with this Mercury retrograde is wait it out!!  A scant fourteen days, as the swift fleet orb will back into Cancer, and cause chaos at home till the 26th of this month. 

     This bummer summer may end with a roar!

     Since it’s a full moon, we are encouraged to take full advantage!! This time, this mood, is a gift of a supportive and life affirming heaven!  We are here to experience, after all, and now is the time to grab hold and live like it’s 1492!!

     The sun is in sidereal Gemini, so we know that our adventure will involve at least one other person, a partner, whether it’s a close friend, the soul of our soul, or a soul mate or twin soul.  We know it will be fun, thrilling, and full of new ideas, as these are the soul of Gemini!  Since the Sagittarius moon is in opposition in its fullness, we know that our adventure will occur outside of us, in the World, in reality, not in our imagination;  it may occur on-screen, as we live the epic we view, or occur in real life in the theater we are in at the time.

     The dangers of Sagittarius are real;  we can be too blunt, go too far over the edge, be too plain in our approach.  Happily, Gemini shining in the sky gives us the wit and grace to be able to talk ourselves out of any sticky situation!

     So let’s dare go a’venturing while the time is high!