Father Earth-The “Must-See” Film No One is Watching by Marcia Buchart
“You figure he’ll crack quick?”
“I figure,” Val Con said…”that the luck has favored us, in that Nelirikk has been so badly used… I take him for a man who possesses a strong and innate sense of Balance…If we are clever, and give him what he starves for—work, discipline, and respect—we may yet preserve him.”
from Plan B, by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
And so, I offer the solution before naming the issue, because it is all too easy to shudder at the issue and turn away before even asking whether there is a solution. On the very Friday on which I saved Venus’ sacred bee, I opened the Seattle Times to the top story of a father who had been killed by random gunfire while driving his children and parents from the airport. The very next day a man went postal in a downtown club and five more people were shot dead.
While all our eyes and minds are focused on the thrilling—but invisible!—dance between the Horns of the Great Bull, let us not forget the planets that are visible in the sky almost all the night.
Grief hangs over Seattle following senseless shootings 
Let’s think about Mars.
Night after night, since late March of last year He has kept an often lonely watch in the night sky; last May He met, all too briefly, with His Goddess lover, Venus near the baleful stare of Cetus—Rick and Ilsa sharing their last moment together. 
After their parting, only Saturn and Jupiter have kept Him distant company throughout His long months on patrol in the zodiac sign Virgo, against the constellational backdrop of the Lion.
Ewww! Mars?? Do we have to talk about Him?? Isn’t this whole time supposed to be about the special potential signified by the Venus dance?? Well, I hate to break it to you, folks, but lissen up. An ignored Mars is like the Bad Fairy at the christening: the one who has been dissed, intentionally uninvited, and who will therefore pronounce the Curse that it will take a loooonnng time for the Heroes and Heroines symbolized by all those multiple conjunctions to resolve.(Remember those? See Preview of Coming Attractions post)
Quoting from that post:
This whole series of events is a mammoth sequence of conjunctions—Venus with the Pleiades, Venus with El Nath, Sun with Jupiter, the solar eclipse of May 20th, Jupiter with Mercury, Mercury with the Sun (where He sheds His worn-out Explorer’s leathers for His Administrative robes , Mercury with Venus, Venus with the Sun, Venus turning away from a conjunction with Jupiter, Venus with Aldebaran, Venus with Chi1 Orionis [the business end of Orion’s club].
OMG, this whole sequence will last until August 6!
To put it bluntly: if He is dissed, He’ll kill your ass, bitches. And there are very few zodiac signs that are more dissed than Virgo.
Mars began His long stay in zodiac sign Virgo in early November 2011. He spent a looooonnnng retrograde in Virgo and will finally leave Virgo for Libra on July 3rd. “Whew!” many may be saying. Even some archetypally oriented astrologers have shaken their heads over Mars in Virgo; Adam Gainsburg has noted a special tension in people with this placement. So it is perhaps unsurprising that, while all the shooting insanity was occurring in the Seattle area, (Dec 02 1869, 12 noon, Olympia, WA) while in hard aspect to that chart’s Destiny Axis (Midheaven and Lower Heaven).
What can the planet of direct, sometimes brutal action find at all convivial about supposedly picky, detail-oriented Virgo?
One thinks of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Coriolanus, of the warrior who cannot cope with civilized life
(“Who am I without my sword?”).
No swords in civilized life? Think again.
Consider these deeply necessary, detail-demanding endeavors, at the mastery involved in bringing fire, sharp implements and brute strength (all ruled by Mars) under fine control…
Watching this mastery is riveting. I once stood for a half hour at a blacksmith’s booth in a Renaissance Faire, marveling at the precision with which this person struck the blade he was building.
At a granite finishing shop I watched a gnarled gnome of a man work for a solid hour on polishing the same two-foot section of marble slab. 
I watched a physician with hands that seemed much too large for the task tease away the scars and scabs from the stitches in my husband’s hand before deftly drawing them. At dinner overlooking Elliot Bay, I watched two tugboats maneuver a monstrous vessel to berth. 
Homely, ugly, battered little craft, ridiculous-looking tires lining their bows and sides, pivoting like dancers in the water as they passed the towing cable between them. The power implied by their maneuvers took my breath away. Watch Tugboats Working
No nobility in what used to be termed “honest work”? That’s certainly how it seems Governor Scott Walker and the plutocrats who back him see it. And wasn’t it interesting that a bid to topple him took place on the very day of the Venus Transit? “Way to go!” some of us (me) thought; “Get the Goddess (Venus) championing the Virgo Mars!”
Wrong.
That special conjunction of Sun and Venus was not only in challenging (90°) aspect to Mars. She did so while engaging in Sacred Marriage with one of the celestial bodies that Babylonian astrologers believed symbolized the King (Sun). Of course Scott Walker (the local king) won. BUT! the Martial underdog (Virgo) forces also won: Wisconsin’s senate wrested control from their King’s party.
If you click on this link to you will hear a fascinating discussion between Adam Gainsburg and Eric Francis on Mars’ retrograde cycle “lassoing the Lion”. The Lion, of course is Leo, the actual constellational backdrop for this whole drama taking place in the sky. I watched those tugs lassoing the giant beast of a ship and turning it to guide it into its berth. Astonishing.
In another recent podcast, Adam Gainsburg asked with the new beginnings of Divine Feminine consciousness being forged in the heat of the solar transits—the Solar Feminine—where was the rest of the revolution: where were “Father Earth” and “Mother Sky”? Mother Sky has been with us since at least the days of ancient Egypt, in the magnificent depictions of Nut, the goddess who represents the entire night sky. See the following link to a lovely Visual Astrology Newsletter speaking of the return of this Goddess.
But where is “Father Earth”?
With Mars in Virgo, I would offer this idea: He is right under our noses, and we’ve ignored Him just as we so often ignore the daily details of our lives that require focus, precision and exactitude in execution. Chop wood, carry water. Even the most spectacular of Martial idols…Olympic athletes, perhaps?…have put in untold hours of Mars-in-Virgo practice to earn their right to compete for the prize.
Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration (thank you, Thomas Edison)? Believe it.
Don’t miss this opportunity, people: consider in what area of your own life you may need to apply that 99% perspiration to master focus, precision, strength, the symbolic cutting forces of fire and steel. (Contact Claudia and/or Carol for help in figuring this out.)
Consider it now, because, after July 3rd, your window of opportunity to honor and cultivate what we often dis—to give that part of yourself what He starves for: work, discipline and respect—won’t come again for another two years.
The world can’t wait that long. Neither can the Divine Feminine, riding the Horns of the Great Bull, Who longs for union with the Divine Masculine in Love:
“…the sense of having striven against an obstacle and survived is absolutely essential…It is our refusal to recognize this that makes Mars malefic. It is my opinion that only when your Mars has functioned at this level can you love. You can’t love if you don’t know who and what you are and you can’t find that out unless you have striven against resistance and measured yourself against it.”
– Robert Hand, “Handling the Malefics” in Essays on Astrology.
Music at the Wake for those killed in Seattle shooting in May 2012
Venus, me and the Honey Bee by Marcia Buchart
There may be those of you who were intimidated by the last post titled
Previews Of Coming Attractions
OMG…WTF? Is this what we’re in for? Let me find a hole, crawl in, and pull it after me.
Wake me when it’s over.
Let me, instead, give you two models of how to approach the terrific potential of this season’s endless Venus transits.
In Astrology: A Place in Chaos, as well as in her 2008 UAC post-conference seminar lecture (click here to view that lecture), Dr. Bernadette Brady offered a method to sensitize one’s self so as to make the most productive use of current astrological events. One noted the approaching aspect of a transiting planet to a natal planet. Then, one simply changed a detail of one’s habit: one switched the wrist on which one wore; one parted one’s hair on a different side; one put on one’s trousers using the opposite leg (what I did). And one then remained alert, while in the unsettled state produced by the habit change, for signals for what one should truly seek to change.
The other model, offered by Richard Tarnas in a lecture at NORWAC 2010, asked one to keep track of planetary aspects occurring between the planets in the sky and one’s own chart (as described above). But what one did, as the transit became (what we call) active, one simply watched, waited for a sign. As preparation, one accumulated knowledge on the symbolic correspondences associated with (especially!) the transiting planet.
Ever since I noted significant transits (Uranus and Pluto) approaching sensitive points in my own chart (Brady method), I have assiduously put the other foot into my trousers when getting dressed, put on my earrings beginning with the opposite ear, opened pill bottles with different hands performing the different functions of handling the cap vs. the bottle (man, is that one hard to master). This was four years ago. I have attempted new things, tried to complete old things. And the self-knowledge gained has been immense. But “plus la change, plus la meme chose”: the more things change, the more they stay the same. I have been forced into face-to-face confrontation with what I have always been, yet felt helpless to actually change what feels hostile to life and growth (especially spiritual).
Today, without first consciously realizing it, I experienced a Tarnas-style omen. I received a signal that appears strongly correlated to the Venus activity referred to in the previous Previews post and am attempting to decipher what it might mean. For ME.
This morning, about 7:30, as I sat sipping coffee and staring idly out at my backyard, I spotted something floating in the birdbath. It was a bumblebee. After my initial prick of sorrow, I decided to go pluck her out of the water. I gently scooped her up in my hand…and her wings fluttered! 
One of her legs extended in a “warding off” gesture. After a few seconds I could see her sides heaving as she tried to clear her breathing spicules. It was still chilly and the sun was not yet strong (nor is there a lot of it in our tree-circled back yard), so I heated our granite warming trivet in the microwave and placed her on it, with a paper towel beneath her to help her dry out. Later, I had the inspiration to place one of our garden bells over her, to help retain the heat. I could see her sluggishly cleaning her antennae, but she seemed not to want to do much but huddle. “Ah, well,” I thought, “who knows how long she was in the water, how hungry she is, how old. At least she might be more comfortable in her final hours.” But about 9:00, I noticed a very bright sun patch that would be in that place of the yard for a good half hour; so I moved her to a small BBQ table and placed the whole contraption—bell, trivet, towel, bee—there. In 5 minutes she was crawling vigorously around the rim of the bell, seeking exit. I lifted it and off she flew, headed (I think) straight for my neighbors’ rhododendron bushes. I stood, dumbstruck with wonder. And wept.
I’m writing this on Friday and therefore Venus’ day—with bees associated with Divine Feminine mythology in a number of cultures (if you Google “bee mythology” you will find many, many sites in which to peruse the connection).
And then it hit me: OMG, I had saved one of Her creatures on Her day!
There were some very significant connections to my own birth chart at the time I discovered her, ’til the time she flew away. The most significant connection was between transiting Venus and what we Astrology Wonks call the Sun-Moon midpoint (a possible symbol of the sacred marriage of masculine and feminine).
I cannot doubt that I have received a Sign. But what does it mean, Mr. Natural? I have yet no consciously developed idea, but now I am on full alert. I cannot help but contrast the outcome of this endeavor with other care-taking endeavors in which I tenderly cared for something (or some-one) as it/(s)he died. There were times—12 years ago in the spring—when I watched a hoping-to-spawn-salmon—beach itself on a maintenance platform that was part of the very salmon ladder designed to help it reach its spawning stream. I stood and watched it die, helpless to do anything. Someone said, “Say, is this dinner? Can we take it home?” The people around laughed. I cried for three days.
This time—was different. Something is changing. But what? What might I be able to rescue and restore to life now?
Ask yourself these questions: what might you be able to rescue and restore to life? If you watch Adam Gainsburg’s Vimeo of the Venus transit, you will see that She weaves a zig-zag pattern—just like a bee weaving her way from flower to flower—between the Horns of the Great Bull.
This is the Gemini zodiacal season—the season of Alchemical Flutter and Buzz (see John Wadsworth’s site for a lovely tidbit) when bees pollinate like mad. What can you rescue that will flit about from flower to flower, seeding new life?
These are not just rhetorical questions. (Request a consultation with Claudia, Carol or Marcia. They can help you see those possibilities in your own birth chart and life.)
Stay tuned…
P.S. You might also like to view a video preview on The Sacred Feminine website titled Honey Bees of the Venus Star
PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS by Marcia Buchart
On Monday, May 14, 2012, it began…a grand, extended spectacle of high astrological drama set against the stars of the Great Bull of Heaven. Venus stationed retrograde in the tropical sign of Gemini while also conjoining El Nath, the tip of the Great Bull’s North Horn.
She formally turned retrograde the next day — Tuesday morning. 
This is just one of the actions that forms a prelude to the Venus Transit—Venus actually moving across the solar disc—on Jun 5th, 2012.
This whole series of events is a mammoth sequence of conjunctions—Venus with the Pleiades, Venus with El Nath, Sun with Jupiter, the solar eclipse of May 20TH, Jupiter with Mercury, Mercury with the Sun (where He sheds His worn-out Explorer’s leathers for His Administrative robes , Mercury with Venus, Venus with the Sun, Venus turning away from a conjunction with Jupiter, Venus with Aldebaran, Venus with Chi1 Orionis [the business end of Orion’s club].
OMG, this whole sequence will last until August 6!
There seem to be so many energies mixing it up, it’s like being in a multiplex with about a dozen movies playing.
- Fox Theater Marquee, Detroit MI-from artistmac’s photostream http://flic.kr/p/9o8pvb
—But these movies all have a common backstory featured somewhere in their plot lines: that of The Great Bull.
There are observers who find this potentially menacing, especially cringing to see Venus on the point of the Horn. We remember Queen Pasiphae (pronounced Pa-siph-ah-ee) of Crete, smitten by an angry Poseidon with lust for the bull her royal husband, King Minos, reneged on his promise to sacrifice;their union produced the monster, the Minotaur.
And Minos himself was a son of Zeus by Europa, whom Zeus abducted and bore off to Crete while in disguise as—you guessed it—a bull.
But it’s important to remember that Venus is in the process of preparing to make Her inferior conjunction to the Sun to begin a new storyline—the “Gemini Journey”, as astrologer, Adam Gainsburg would call it. And Adam’s read on the possibility for dramatic change in the way we live our Inner Feminine in the outer world is inspiring.
NOTE: You can click here to listen his Podcast on-The 2012 Venus Transit at his site: SoulSign.com and we highly recommend this great video Adam made of the Venus Transit on Vimeo–it is stunning.
So: in that spirit, let’s imagine Venus taking the Bull by the horns—and perhaps even enjoying the wild ride!
Which brings up the next point: is it possible that, with all these beginnings—symbolized by the succession of conjunctions—that there’s a way to view the whole scenario that doesn’t automatically spell death, doom and destruction?
What if…instead of being caught up in a bullfight
we’re caught up a dance? 
We can take a hint from ancient Crete’s bull worship, which involved grabbing the horns, somersaulting over animal’s head (aided by its natural reflex effort to toss you off), landing on its back–and then sticking your dismount.
Hey, Venus is already showing us the way! Dangerous? Certainly. Thrilling? Yes! Inevitably fatal? No.
Don’t forget there are another couple of “bull dancers” up there as well: Mercury and Jupiter.
Say what? How are they possibly bull dancers? Heh!
Ever seen footage of a rodeo?
Bull riding is a major event where the point is not to kill or be killed, but to stay on the animal’s back longer than your competitors. Jupiter, hovering around the Bull’s shoulders and back all spring, certainly seems determined to stay on as long as He can.
Yippee Kiyay! Ride ’em Zeus!
He is aided and abetted by His faithful rodeo clown, Mercury whose main job is to distract the bull after the rider (inevitably) falls off. The rodeo clowns have arguably the most dangerous job in the sport. (Mercury a daring hero? Who knew?)
So come to the multiplex with us as we peek into each theater over the coming weeks to check out all the storylines in play.
Bring your popcorn. With the butter .
STAY TUNED!!
Adrienne Rich and Alcyone
(dedicated to all my poetic sisters–Judith and Andrea in particular)
As Mercury and Mars moondance backwards (Retrograde) ————–and in the midst of rethinking everything it seems—we are blessed with the sight in the east of Lady of the Stars–VENUS. She shines brightly in the Eastern Sky in the 7 sisters—the Pleiades…Stars in the back of the Bull.
Quoting from Dr.Bernadette Brady on Facebook April 2nd, 2012
The above image is from NASA – A bright Venus entering, or I (Bernadette) would say, radiating, the Pleiades on the 31 March 2012. This is exact tonight – 2 April 2012. Lovely. Its meaning astrologically is an emphasis on the Pleiades which is symbolised by the fixed star Alcyone. All that is mysterious, visionary and mystical, a good night to dream those big dreams!
Bernadette writes (via Starlight program) of Venus and Alcyone:
A Love of theatre or the rituals of religion: the poetic soul
So if your skies are cloudy and you can’t see her or even if you can—I am thinking that this Venusian appearance radiating a particularly powerful constellation and brilliant star (Alcyone) honors and perhaps gives Adrienne Rich a marvelous memorial–for she too, is and will always be a fine woman and a poetic soul. My guess is Venus is holding a service for her tonight.
We have only to look up and perhaps light a candle or two.
and read her words–read them out loud
Planetarium
Thinking of Caroline Herschel (1750—1848)
astronomer, sister of William; and others.
A woman in the shape of a monster
a monster in the shape of a woman
the skies are full of them
a woman ‘in the snow
among the Clocks and instruments
or measuring the ground with poles’
in her 98 years to discover
8 comets
she whom the moon ruled
like us
levitating into the night sky
riding the polished lenses
Galaxies of women, there
doing penance for impetuousness
ribs chilled
in those spaces of the mind
An eye,
‘virile, precise and absolutely certain’
from the mad webs of Uranusborg
encountering the NOVA
every impulse of light exploding
from the core
as life flies out of us
Tycho whispering at last
‘Let me not seem to have lived in vain’
What we see, we see
and seeing is changing
the light that shrivels a mountain
and leaves a man alive
Heartbeat of the pulsar
heart sweating through my body
The radio impulse
pouring in from Taurus
I am bombarded yet I stand
I have been standing all my life in the
direct path of a battery of signals
the most accurately transmitted most
untranslatable language in the universe
I am a galactic cloud so deep so invo-
luted that a light wave could take 15
years to travel through me And has
taken I am an instrument in the shape
of a woman trying to translate pulsations
into images for the relief of the body
and the reconstruction of the mind.
Source: The Fact of a Doorframe: Selected Poems 1950-2001 (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 2002)
..a bit more about Venus
From Astro Logos
Venus enters the Pleiades tonight, this is a image from NASA from the 31 March.
If people are interested here is a Visual Astrology Newsletter we wrote in June 2008 about retrograde Venus where she creates a far larger cycle then that of 8 years but rather of 243 years.
Here is the link to the newsletter for those interested in Venus’ path through the sky. http://www.zyntara.com/VisualAstrologyNewsletters/van_June2008/VAN_June08.htm
a nod of gratitude to all the poets and women and star gazers — you radiate me! Claudia
‘BYA’ and You, Too, Will Thrive in 2012
By Marcia Buchart
Well, folks, it’s finally here: that (in)famous year of many prophecies—ranging from the catastrophic
to the exalting.
One of the most thoughtful little takes on the subject comes from a British contributor to the articles in my Astro Diary:
“Whatever the accuracy or relevance of the…predictions, I am nevertheless extremely impressed by the eagerness with which we have latched onto the whole idea. I believe it [the eagerness] is symptomatic of an awareness, resonating deep within the collective, that we cannot continue in accustomed ways.
“Western astrological methodologies are sufficient in themselves to indicate that we are currently living through revolutionary times, akin to the threshold of a new season.” (emphasis mine) –Tchenka
The threshold of a new season. The threshold of a new season! A threshold that will last for three years, because the main aspect between planets which has built this threshold is a 90-degree square between
Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.
And they will open this door seven times now and 2015! The door will be fully operational for the first time in June and again in September this year, at around 8 and 7 degrees of the respective signs.
Hans Baker (also writing in my Astro Diary) terms this “the revolutionary imperative”. Many of my friends’ conversations these days revolve around the hope that they won’t be completely destroyed in the upcoming upheavals.
And yet…
How many of you have walked out in late winter and suddenly sensed that the wind felt different, that it carried hints of warmth and moisture? Or noticed the flush on formerly ashen twigs at the tips of tree branches? Or noticed the first bits of vegetation poking through leaf mold on the forest floor?
Or that it’s not pitch black in the morning when you go out to retrieve the paper from the slop in the driveway? Yes, it’s still wet and raw and soggy and frigid and there’s a long slog of crummy weather ahead, but you can feel the shift beginning to gather force. And you long for this shift, you hunger for it, for the new life that is stirring, readying to burst forth.
How can you ready yourself to receive the new life that could burst forth in you? Well, taking a clue from the planets of the revolutionary imperative, you can do something really game-changing (Uranus) that will help eliminate (Pluto) old crap you no longer need. Yeah, I know you’ve heard this line before and I can even feel myself stiffen up inside against the expected pain of deciding what to toss and what to keep.
But I propose that the truly revolutionary, Uranian, concept you can embody involves not a struggle to become conscious of all that might be tossed or kept and agonized over in the process, but in becoming conscious of the utterly magical, completely natural, Plutonic processes that already exist within you, constantly deciding what to toss and keep, purifying you, preserving your life by getting rid of the outworn, the toxic, the unneeded. And the only times—the only times!—they fail to do so is when you’ve done something to wreck their function, whether it’s taking in too many toxins or trying to interfere with their function because of social embarrassment.
How about…your lungs for example? “Every breath you take”—well, actually, every breath you let out—cleanses you. And it’s not just your lungs doing this job! Oh no—how about your…sinuses?
Magical holes within your head (ruled by Aries, the sign currently inhabited by Uranus) that are in constant clean-up mode. Magical nose hairs, catching all kinds of crud to keep it out of your lungs. We blow our noses in the morning and think, “Yuck! Disgusting!” but the maligned body parts that produced our snot are utterly magical.
Or how about…your skin? What a beautiful, Capricornian thing, skin! It protects and defends you and flushes toxins out through its pores. The next time you cringe at the sight of a pimple or worry about how your sweat smells, or feel painfully embarrassed by being soaked in sweat, realize the magic taking place as it strives to purify you from within. When the first summer heat comes on, I’m often miserable for the first two days. Then, suddenly, it’s as if my body “remembers” how to clear itself via sweating. And suddenly I feel all better, covered in stinky dew but so much less clotted and congested.
Okay, the liver and the kidneys are naturals as well, no? Many medical traditions set great store by keeping these organs in top form. But did you ever stop to consider the miracle of the bladder? The kidneys are often considered the more “valuable” part of the system, but let’s not forget the part that labors day-in-and-day-out against the force of gravity. Which leads us, finally, to the organ most frequently associated with Plutonic elimination, the colon. Well no: not finally. Medical traditions also recognize the value of a healthy colon but think about the endpoint of the colon, the body part we use as a slang term for a really malignant idiot, a total jerk. We don’t refer to such a person as a sinus, a nose hair, a kidney, a bladder, a sweat gland. We call such a person an asshole.
Here, then, is your revolutionary assignment to ready yourself for the new season: stop using the word “asshole” as an insult. To be more imaginatively insulting, try emulating, maybe, Hamlet who referred to his uncle, Claudius, as “a mildewed ear”. (Actually, Shakespeare has a wonderful catalogue of such body-part insults that could be redeployed to good effect; there’s even a website to help you create your own.)
Instead, bless your asshole (*BYA). Thank your asshole with heartfelt sincerity every time you sit down on the porcelain throne of the god (never realized you had divine thrones and altars to Pluto, the Lord of Elimination, so critical to your domiciles, did you?). Especially thank your asshole when you know you’ve ingested that which made its work that much harder. Because that which your asshole relieves you of is also Plutonically magical and, after transformation, can be used to help the new life of the new season—and your life—thrive.
Therefore, be not deaf, thou gleeking, tickle-brained, jolthead! BYA!!
[created with the help of http://petelevin.com/shakespeare.htm]
About the December 10th Eclipse that hopefully we will see!
Our very own Beach Connection digital magazine quotes Jim Todd of Omsi:
Jim Todd, head of OMSI’s planetarium in Portland, said the moon will be in the constellation of Taurus and near its northernmost point in its orbit.
In the northwest, the show starts at 3:33 a.m., when the shadow of the Earth starts hitting the moon. It begins taking a small bite out of the moon around 4:45 a.m.. That shadowy circle of the Earth is called the umbra.
“The partial eclipse ends and totality begins at 6:06 a.m. PST and the point of the greatest eclipse occurs at 6:31 a.m. PST,” Todd said. “The eclipse’s total phase will lasts for 51 minutes. The moon will be only 6.5 degrees above the north western horizon at the instant of the greatest eclipse.”
Todd said that there are some surprises awaiting viewers.
“What makes it so much fun is that no one can predict what color the moon will turn during totality,” Todd said. “Will it be bright orange, or blood red? Only the shadow knows.”
(I’m hoping for red :))
The total eclipse will end at 6:57 a.m. PST as the moon exits the umbra. Then the moon will set at 7:45 a.m. PST.
(if you live somewhere other than the west coast, you can find out find out the eclipse times for your area with this lunar eclipse computer, courtesy of the U.S. Naval Observatory.)
According to the tropical zodiac the Eclipse will cover the axis from a Moon at 18 degrees of the sign Gemini and the Sun at 18 degrees Sagittarius. If this were a person, the chart would look like this:
You might notice the planet Mars up at the top squaring the Sun and the Moon. We don’t really know how to interpret eclipses—but we can speculate that since what was so visible suddenly goes dark or perhaps red and then a few minutes later—it returns in all its glory. A birth of sorts with all that implies…from light to dark to light. With Mars at a critical point (the tip of what we call a T-square) in ‘conversation’ with the Gemini Moon and the Sagittarius Sun, we could say that this moment in time calls for calm and a level head – Mars is such a passionate energetic guy – headstrong and willing to go the distance. In an article in Mountain Astrologer , Gary Caton addresses Mars and this eclipse this way:
We should also note that the Moon is in Gemini at this lunar eclipse. Gemini, an Air sign, is compatible with and helps fan the flames of the Fire placements. In alchemy the Air element expresses itself through the operation of Separation, which involves rediscovery of our true essence and the letting go, or cutting away, of the self-inflicted restraints to our true nature. Mars rules cutlery and is the planet associated with the operation of Separation, as the goal is to cut away any remaining dross or falsity. Mars in Virgo is t-square to this total lunar eclipse and transiting Mars will be doing his retrograde dance in Virgo for the first four months of 2012. So the operation of Separation will be carried out via the use of critical thinking skills (Virgo), which will assist the Air element (intellect) in sorting and sifting through our lives. What parts are working and worth keeping and what parts need to be cut loose?
That would be a great question to ask yourself at this time—this potent time—a full Lunar Eclipse.
Find where the Moon would land in your chart at 18 degrees of Gemini and the Sun and take a moment to use some critical thinking about YOU and your life and what parts/jobs/relationships/attitudes could use a healthy Separation. What restraints could you release and thus find a little freedom—if you let the dark be dark, take a moment and slow down–yes–I said, slow down—Wait for it! Ahhhh the light emerges.. Newly.
But wait—there is yet another fascinating thing about this Eclipse. The Moon is right on the horns of a dilemma!
See that moon in the center of the horns of The Bull? Can you think of any other Bulls you see around the television machine? Keep it clean.
you got it!
Just fyi—the Moon is often said to represent “the people” in mundane astrology. I can think of several ways we could see this, but let’s look at Bernadette Brady’s writing about the constellation called The Bull from her program Starlight (found at www.Zyntara.com ):
This is one of the earliest and most noted constellations probably due to it marking the vernal equinox from about 4,000 to 1700 bce in the golden age of archaic astronomy.
As the spring equinox slipped into the stars of Taurus, The Bull with its red eye became Horus the son of Osiris to the ancient Egyptians. To the Phoenician the bull-god was called Father of Men and was given the title of El, meaning bull.
El was worshipped throughout Syria where the Persians labeled the great red star in the eye of the bull as their Watcher of the East. For them a great ancient cult surfaced involving a figure called Mithra who was a god of the first magnitude, one of military valor without rival and was said to ride the solar chariot across the sky. He was also known as or linked with Ahura Mazda, saviour figure known as the Bull-Slayer, a humanized version of the Bull who seized a great wild bull by the horns and rode him to exhaustion, after which he slayed the bull whose wounds and spilt blood produced life for the earth. His worship involved a baptism of bull’s blood where the initiate stood in a pit underneath a slotted platform and was showered with the blood of a sacrificial bull slaughtered on top of the platform. The initiate would bathe in this blood and ensuring that it touched eyes, ears, mouth and body and drink it as a sacramental act. Thus the initiate emerged from this pit cleansed of sin, washed clean by the blood of the bull.
The Egyptians also annually slew a sacred bull in atonement for the sins of the realm. The concept was that the blood of one god, or the symbol of that god, could cleanse the sins of many. However, after two thousand or so years the spring equinox slipped from Taurus, the Bull, into Aries, The Ram, and this heralded the birth of yet another new god, this time emerging from the Israelites. They distinguished themselves from the bull-worshippers by using the blood of the lamb as a sacred fluid and symbol. For Moses was leading his people, chosen with lamb’s blood, to a new religion. This was the new world age marked by Aries and thus a new god was required. Returning from Mount Sinai with the new laws of the new world order, (the Ten Commandments) Moses was angered that his chosen people were looking backwards to the bull (Golden Calf) instead of forward to the lamb.
In later mythology, as the Bull began to slip from the equinox to make way for Aries it took on a more negative essence as shown in the Greek myth of Jason who had to tame a fiery bull in order to pass one of the tests towards claiming the Golden Fleece of Aries (the incoming god). In another case, it is the bull of the Minotaur, placed in a labyrinth by King Minos, who fed on sacrifices of human flesh until conquered by Theseus who came out of the labyrinth and into the light. The Bull in these myths is seen as darkness or anti-life as it becomes the old religion making way for the god of Aries.
Are the people being washed clean?
What could you put on the altar that needs to be renewed and washed?
Whew! you might say after participating with this magnificent event called a Total Lunar Eclipse. A four star movie that you can’t order up on Netflix. Magnificent.
I tell you what—I look at Susan’s painting and prints newly now…across the road from our home is a pasture and there is a Bull who used to live there. She named him Buddy. And he lives with us in paintings and prints and you bump into him all over our house. We even sent out a Christmas card with Buddy as the main event!
Merry Christmas? 
um– I guess you could call us women who run with the bulls!
Enjoy the Eclipse and may all that is troubling you be washed clean and may the power of that magnificent animal stand up and fight for the “people”—for us.
WHEN THEMIS SPEAKS
By Marcia Buchart
How many of you have seen the video of Elizabeth Warren?
Rather marvelous, Not only because what she says needs saying, but because sometimes, the universe gives you just the right sign. Something occurs that captures the essence of the celestial energies in play so well that it, well, goes viral through the public’s consciousness. It is a terrific bonus when it also illuminates a neglected aspect of a zodiac sign’s energetics.
I’m talking about Libra
On September 27, we had a New Moon at 4 degrees Libra.
That New Moon followed hard upon the autumn equinox of September 23 (when the Sun ‘ingresses’, or enters the sign Libra). Many of my friends had also been biting their nails over the fact that just after the ingress the Sun would promptly form a configuration known as either a T-Square or T-Cross.
It will directly face Uranus in Aries while making a square (90-degree angle) to Pluto in Capricorn. And the Sun was not alone in this dynamic! First, Venus marched across the relevant degrees from Sep 17 – 19. The Sun followed on September 26 – 27, with the Moon catching up to join Him on the 27th while Mercury galloped into the fray on both the 27th and 28th, finishing the dynamic by conjoining the Sun and thereby fully shedding (see previous post regarding Mercury and his roles in your chart) His Explorer outfit and putting on His Administrative robes.)
And on the 28th, Themis, the Greek goddess of divine justice,
stepped up and had some strong words (Mercury) to say about the social contract (Libra) she deemed should exist between the self-proclaimed, independent overlords (Sun) and the common people (Moon).
Mythic Themis, a daughter of Gaia, sat at the side of Zeus to give him counsel.
She also had a function of judging the souls of the newly deceased to determine whether they would enter Tartarus or the Elysian Fields.
This bears a striking resemblance to another Goddess with such a function: Maat. 
She held a feather that was placed on a scale to weigh the heart of a deceased person to determine the soul’s worthiness.
Calmly impartial deities of divine justice don’t often seem to gibe with popular notions of Libra. The sign’s keyword is “I Balance”. But, when we think of balance, how many times do we think of maintaining stasis? Of taking no action whatever? But Libra is one of the Cardinal signs, whose energies initiate the beginning of a season, something too often overlooked.
None of the Cardinal signs—Aries, Cancer, Capricorn and, yes, Libra—are passive, paralyzed or wimpy.
To get a sense of Libra in your own body, stand up. Close your eyes. And just stand there. Feel the minute adjustments your body must make to remain upright. Now open your eyes and, with that consciousness of your body’s balance engaged, walk.
Miraculous, isn’t it, this exquisitely controlled falling forward?
You are using balance to move forward not to stand still!
Just like dancers,
skaters, 
gymnasts, 
—all are using balance in order to move.
“Well, gee,” you might be saying, “all this balance stuff for walking requires an inward focus. Isn’t Libra about focusing on The Other?”
Okay, let’s do another exercise, this time with a partner. Get someone to sing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ with you (maybe after a few glasses of whatever). Sing it first in unison. Not too hard; we all remember the tune. Next, try singing it as a round:
Voice 1: Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream/
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream/Voice 2: Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream/ Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily…
…and so forth.
Harder, yes? You not only have to listen to The Other to know when to come in, you have to focus with great intent on “hearing” you own inner musical line, so you can contribute to the harmony. Without that inner focus on your own contribution, you won’t have anything to contribute.
Wouldn’t you know, this exercise was presented in a class I took with a teacher who had five (count them!) planets in Libra, including her Sun.
But what about Libra’s reputation as Mr. or Ms. Nicey-Nice, who will do anything, say anything to avoid conflict? In an astrological joke series, you identify someone’s Sun sign by what they say after having sex with you. The stereotypical Libra response is, “I liked it if you liked it!” The idea is that balance and harmony are so important to Libra that a Libra Sun person is afraid to rock the boat, to disturb the peace.
Oh really?
How about the Libra who values balance and harmony enough to fight for them? To initiate action?
Such as… Brigitte Bardot
(sexy movie star, to be sure, AND activist for animal rights)
or radical feminist Andrea Dworkin
or real-life hero Christopher Reeves who never gave up striving to walk 
or President Eisenhower who, long before the “I Like Ike” campaign buttons were handed out, was the American general heading the WWII effort in Europe
–Lenny Bruce, the bitter, sardonic comic 
John Lennon, who led protests to “Give Peace A Chance
rebel psychiatrist R.D. Laing, who fought the existing medical models of psychosis
—controversial tennis champions Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova 
–Solidarity co-founder and political leader Lech Walesa 
or Jesse Jackson 
The current march of planets through Libra’s early degrees, which hook them up with revolutionary Uranus and transformative Pluto, have made Libra’s steel, the sword in the hand of Themis, visible.
Do you have planets in early Libra? Were you thinking of hiding under the covers for the next three years until Uranus and Pluto have left town?
Fuggedaboudit.
Walk.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single (exquisitely balanced) step.
Skydog Institute 
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