Tending the Pre-Solstice Fire

It's dark over here where I am in Hamburg Germany. It only takes about an hour to get to Denmark from here, so it's dark and every day is still getting darker. We have candle light breakfast, lunch and dinner. The sun never rises over the house across the street. It seems to rain every day. Last week, during some nice Venus transits, I designed a calendar with images I have done recently. I have painted so many flowers this year, that it was easy to figure out the spring and summer months. But when I got to November I was stumped. November in Hamburg is the month everyone here fears all year. There can be a beautiful day in the summer and you can say to someone, "Isn't it a beautiful day?" And almost always they respond with something like, "Take it in while you can - you wont be seeing this in November." So I went through my sketchbooks, found this cat I had drawn in black line, scanned her, and colored her in. Finally to get the feeling of November in Hamburg, I surrounded the cat with darkness. Now she is in her private and cozy black hole. How pale she will be in Spring.

But now it's December and we are working our way out of the November black hole to the Northern Solstice at quite a fast clip. While Mars will soon retrograde, it's important to take stock on what we want. What I notice when Mars retrogrades is that projects can get put on hold, extended, our flame (Leo) can dim and the pace may slow down. If we don't keep our eyes on the prize, it can be easy for distractions to get in our way. Mars will be stationing retrograde on December 20, the day before the Solstice.

Regarding the Solstice, the theme is Relationship and taking responsibility for our success in this realm. Saturn is the ruler of the Solstice, still in square to Pluto and now Juno is opposing. These are tough conditions for a workhorse, leaving not much room for checking out. We may feel that time is running out. The challenge will be not to collapse into emotions. The solution is to think and be like an Aquarian as much as we can. The moon in Aquarius, conjunct the triple conjunction, gives us this signal. Aquarian thinking means to rise above, to distance ourselves from the emotional aspect and to be ready to troubleshoot in a flash - creating solutions for our future.

This weekend, while four planets are in fire signs, we can take some time to sit before the fire and focus once again on what we want.

My illustrated 2010 calendar,
which includes the cat, Miss November, is available here.

A Full Strobe Light Moon

It seems like this year all the Thanksgivings were at least a little different than previous years. Either the dinner had always been held at a particular home but this year it was at a different home, or last year the person who arrived early was this year the person who departed early, or somehow we were all sitting there with some people we didn't know at all and hadn't expected that.I was thinking this was due the slowing down of Uranus ready to station. If you are Pisces, then you are probably used to the quirky energy of Uranus.

My Gemini friend is taking off for a trip for the Gemini full moon. My Libra friend is definitely noticing discipline required. My Capricorn friend is swamped in work, but that's not new. My Aries friend wants to decorate his office and my other Aries friend is sanding a floor. My Virgo friend still has physical therapy everyday. My Leo Friend got mono. My Aquarius friend played some music on a boat.

At this Uranus station, my impression is the full moon, which directly follows, will light up the Uranian blitz, like a flash or a strobe. Those kinds of photos are often interesting, funny but not necessarily becoming.

Sagittarian Nouveau Royalty & Flashy Golden Roots.

When I started this cut flower series a few months ago, I was always thinking, How are these flowers living? But with the reoccurring element, the reference of a typewriter eraser in a psychadelic way, just as a reference that we can play Let's Make Believe, I think the flowers are living from that.

My initial idea was a kind of scientific botanical reference, a bit like they have donated their imaginary bodies to science, or art. When the composition became slightly symmetrical a Tyrolian / East European edge added a new layer to the botanical perspective. Meanwhile this series started at the height of Saturn-Uranus opposition, like Peter Max balancing Thoreau.

With imaginary botany, you can have mixed leaves on stems, a huge magnolia bud blooming from a colored jade plant, some princess elements and greens. Saturn still in Virgo at the time, the structure aims for perfect edging, resisting bouquet. Then Saturn squared Pluto. It became unavoidable to address what happens below the dirt line, and thus it was time to address the roots.
The life giving typewriter eraser morphed into a golden cornflower anyway, shimmering like nouveau royalty, and thus the idea of flashy, golden roots.




Acrylic on acid-free archival paper.
Sizes vary: 30 x 22 inches (76 x 56 cm); 26 x 41 inches (104 x 66cm).
Available for purchase.

Venus Squares Mars, And Keeps Aspecting - Like Cactus Flower

A flurry of Venus activity kicks off tomorrow morning when Venus squares Mars in the early morning hours and may be like the feeling of the movies Cactus Flower, where the love subtitles are coming in sideways and the triangles are flying. Next week the vibe continues as Venus squares the triple conjunction - Monday Wednesday & Friday (Jupiter, Chiron & Neptune) with a trine to Uranus on Thanksgiving Thursday. Enjoy the show and see if you can find the Goldi Hawn, the Walther Matthau and the Ingrid Bergman in your local get-togethers during the next seven days - in other words, for best results, detach!

My Saturn Square Pluto Fantasy: School Bus Graphics for Michelle Obama

JUST as Saturn was in precise square to Pluto on Sunday, I went in to a deep sleep afternoon nap (and I never nap) and dreamed that I was on a team designing graphics for Michelle Obama's cell phone. She specifically looked at me and said, "You're definitely doing the school bus." I was so happy and proud and psyched when I woke up. Such can be the fantasies of proud natal Venus and Mars in Capricorn.

I am wondering if anyone else felt an overwhelming wave of tiredness when the Saturn-Pluto square was exact. I felt something similar on September 15 when the outer planets Saturn and Uranus were in exact opposition, too.
























Has anything mysterious happend to you today? Its the New Moon in Scorpio. My Gemini friend found some mysterious writing on her bathroom mirror saying hello to her today. This took her by surprise and scared her, like Scorpio spooky. My Libra friend has done some research on kissing over the internet. Topics like these may generate some deep, philosophical exploring into ourselves over the next couple of weeks as Scorpio season culminates and comes to an end and Sagittarius bursts onto the scene.