Healthcare, The Aries Point, Go!

The Go square, in the game Monopoly, is the point where the game starts. This corresponds to the first degree of Aries in astrology. As we travel around the Monopoly board, the Go square remains and feels like a second of respite, just past the drama of Boardwalk. Not that I find very much correlation between Monopoly and Astrology, but I was thinking today that The Aries Point has kind of the feeling, but not the exact function, of combining Go with Community Chest, Chance, Free Parking, The Electric Utility and Boardwalk all while if it were possible to put hotels on this conglomerate - hotels where we could sign up for our new Health Insurance.

The Sun has just passed by the first degree of Aries, so we are starting a new round. The Aries point is being activated more than usual by Pluto and Saturn from Capricorn and Libra respectively. The chart to the right shows Sun's ingress into Aries from the perspective Eastern Daylight Time. The four cardinal signs lign up on the angles, with Aries being at the Midheaven, Cancer rising. Today may be the day President Barack Obama and his team will get the historic health care bill passed.
In this chart, the ruler is the Moon solidly placed in the sign of its exaltation, Taurus, in the 11th house of groups, the future and dreams. This Moon makes a positive aspect to Uranus in the 9th house showing favor and eventual comfort with new solutions. Sun will oppose Saturn tomorrow evening. Saturn is at the bottom of the chart retrograde, while the Sun is high in the chart exalted in Aries and only gathering more strength as it trines Mars. This looks to me like an old tradition giving way to the new.
Whether or not you are a fan of getting the new Health Bill passed, my point is, this spring a LOT is possible, we can make a lot of headway in our lives. The astrology is unbearably exciting as Jupiter and Uranus are heading for Go at the Aries Point. This will be exact on June 8 2010, with all the optimism and confidence of Jupiter and at the same time the genius of Uranus meeting up both exactly on the astrological sweet spot, spelling another giant leap for peoplekind.

High Spirits; New Groups

Today is the New Moon in Pisces, and the astrology is welcoming surprises and a big breath of fresh air - like for example going to Ikea and singing opera at the top of the stairs and falling into the arms of a gay lover who is in the guardianship of a dainty one.

Meanwhile the therapist just wants to hang some pictures on the office walls - penguins, sunsets, waterlilies, all in service to humanity, the artists giving their best advice on Ribba frames.

This is the New Moon in a self-less way but like a party, or a seminar or an un-defined free-for-all, planting seeds in motion for the coming high spirited next two weeks.

Mercury conjunct Sun Like a Line Drawing

When Mercury aligns with the Sun in conjunction, we may hear a story like a clear line drawing, where the outline is defined, with the mass not yet filled in. And when Mercury conjuncts Sun like it will this Sunday in Pisces, the line may be modulated, having a dark to light quality indicating the fuzzy gray so familiar to Pisces yet the Mercury influence creates a predominately analytical and story telling effect.

In both astronomy and astrology, when Mercury is moving forward, the Mercury-Sun conjunction is called superior. And when Mercury is retrograde, the conjunction is called inferior. The inferior conjunction will take place on Wednesday, April 28 at 8° Taurus.

I plan to follow these two dates, Sunday March 14, at 23°Pisces, the Superior Line Drawing, and Wednesday April 28, at 8° Taurus, the inferior or interior mass, where the substance or insides may become more defined. These two points may help us understand some insights into the up-coming Mercury retrograde in April.

Love Triangle Pluto Square Venus

My Capricorn friend talked to my Virgo friend and now my Capricorn friend wants to mention somthing. I talked to my Aquarius friend about my Aries friend who suggested we tell the Virgo friend. That Virgo friend suggested the Aries friend know the game is known. And that's just the tip of the iceberg I know in the Pluto square Venus triangulation.

Venus and Mars

Here's an image for us, just as Mars stations forward and Venus squares Pluto. This painting, by Botticelli in 1453, shows a beautiful Venus observing an exhausted Mars while mischievous satyrs are playing with Mars battle gear. This Venus reminds me a bit of Kathryn Bigelow who just won an Academy Award for best director and her film happened to be a war film.

This painting may be about Love Conquering All or All Is Fair In Love And War. During the next few days, here is something to think about — that Venus can conquer Mars, but Mars cannot conquer Venus. So in whatever house Mars is stationing forward in our charts, we best approach with love!

Nature is speaking louder and louder to us. I am thinking of the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. There are lots of "smaller" examples too, like the wave that smacked the ocean liner on the Mediterranean breaking into the side of the boat this week. In these situations, people have come into intimate contact with survival. One topic which reaches people in a crisis is: where will we get our food?

It think it is a human right to have access to food. There is a point in the cosmos which speaks of human rights and that is the Galactic Center, located at 26° Sagittarius, the axis around which our galaxy is centered. Any planet or body passing by this degree addresses human rights and reminds me that we are born naked and when we die, although we may be wearing clothes, if we want a better outfit on, someone else has to dress us, not us. A large part of what we need to live is to eat.

Currently the dwarf planet Ceres is conjunct the Galactic Center. For Ceres as a symbol, I picture a lovely maiden holding an amber wave of grain. This may seem harmless enough, but somewhere in the innocence is the dark power of food. Sometimes we hear these nearly unbelievable stories of parents starving their kids - of food or sustenance, for many seasons, like in the storyline of Persephone and the underworld myth. In the Persephone story, Ceres is the mother - she knew her child had been abducted and in her depression, all the leaves fell off of the trees and it was winter. When Persephone was returned from the underworld, the world became summer. Ceres, in mythology, also symbolically embodies the seasons.

I was in the airport today and there was a long line for our economy flight with Continental. All of us average people were in the long economy line. There was another counter, called "Elite Access", which was empty. I noticed some people trying to get the chance to be in the elite line. One man flashed his shiny gold card, but the attendant shook his head "No".

I also had a longing for elite access - there's my stellium in Capricorn for you. I wanted to have better treatment, get through fast, painlessly with no boredom for me or my son. When I saw the man with the shiny gold card get rejected, I looked around and had a 180° shift, that I was already in the elite line, to just be normal and be on earth we already have elite access to have been born naked.

When I get my economy tray of food at my seat on the plane today, I'm going to lean into the aisle, look forward, and wink at the elite access trays of food in business class. Ceres passes over the Galactic Center is a like a big cosmic saying of Grace, being thankful for the food around us which we can have if we want in any season.