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This is a week of packing (or growing) up, moving on and standing motionless inside the threshold of our new space. It’s like closing down your dorm room after graduation knowing that your time there is over for good, entering your new place and plopping down on the coach for a bit before you tackle putting your belongings in order.

We’re finishing up lots of business that won’t be with us much longer and firming up others that will with going on with us.  Relationships are the arena that is most widely and obviously playing out this dichotomy. Some are falling apart. Perhaps you’ve noticed? Old fixes aren’t doing their job. If a relationship isn’t working now, we can now longer put it back together with string and chewing gum. Not  all relationships are going through gloom and doom, though. Some are blossoming, flourishing, growing stronger and more supportive.

The years 1983 and 1998 have a lot to do with this end of the week’s process. The 1983 connection belongs to Saturn, the enforcer of rules and defender of the established order. As he was in that year, he is hunkered down at the end of the relationship sign Libra, bringing all kinds of associations and arrangements to a close, to solidifying or commitment, or to a new structure. 

This time, though, Saturn is working with an influence that wasn’t present in 1983. That influence is tied to 1998 and Neptune, who unhinges us from mundane experience through any number of means -- from insanity and substance abuse to confusion, deceit and escapism to artistry and spirituality. He’s finishing up his 14-year journey through Aquarius and is also at the last degree of his sign, which he leaves on Friday.  He will not pass this way again during our lifetimes. 

The connection between Saturn and Neptune has dreams coming down to earth, illusions crumbling into dust, and inspiration turning into solid, physical form. See if you can connect the dots between 1983 and the journey you’ve been on since 1998. How did developments in 1983 lead to a vision that you’ve pursued for the past 14 years? What aspects of that vision proved workable; which did not? The beginning of the week has clarity in store.

After that, fog rolls in. Neptune enters his home sign of Pisces on Friday, where he will remain until 2026.  He’ll dissolve boundaries, heighten universal awareness of otherworldly aspects of existence and immerse us in the interconnectedness of all beings.

This is not all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows by any means. Water, oil, alcohol and drugs (street and prescription) will play ongoing and not always welcome roles.  There will be reasons to hold hands and sing Kumbaya (likely precipitated by events involving those afore-mentioned players), but there will also be surges in media manipulation and lies, doctoring photos and film/video footage and using film, TV and Internet images to romanticize or blur perceptions of reality and history. Physical evidence and guideposts will not be consistently reliable. We’ve already got the fix for this:  Our own inner knowing and guidance will tell us what is real and what is hooey, more than our physical senses will.  (If you do not have my visualization for activating your internal guidance system, you can get it here.)

This first year of his time in Pisces will have us swimming in fascinating paradox.  Neptune, the planet that takes us out of physicality, is traveling with Chiron, the dwarf planet that challenges us to master physicality. We’re learning through living that spirit and earth are not separate realms, but one continuum. The same applies to the differences we draw between groups of humans, or humans and animals, or humans and the natural resources of this planet. 

Situations will arise that drive home the fragility of our waters (the Deepwater well blew out in the Gulf of Mexico within hours of Chiron entering Pisces). The impact of droughts or floods in one region on other parts of the country, continent or globe. The encroachment of prescription drugs on our daily routine.  Our dependence on oil and ramifications to which we blind ourselves.

This will not happen all at once, though it’s entirely possible that one dramatic event next weekend will launch Neptune’s voyage. (Watch the news, and let me know if you spot one.) For most of us, this next phase will come in like fog, inclining us to move slowly and carefully. 

That inclination fits in with the stillness being imposed elsewhere in the sky. Mars, the planet of action, and timekeeper Saturn are motionless, for all intents and purposes. Neither is moving out of his current degree this week. Mars is retrograde (read more about that in my forecast for the week of January 23), and Saturn is stationing to go retrograde next week. Put them together and you’ve got the sensation that time has stopped.

Rather than barreling ahead through the fog, we are suspended in each moment, with movement and progress occurring on such a minute level that we probably don’t perceive it. Think of this time as stop-action animation, or one of those old Disney nature films that tracked a flower’s blossoming. At the end, in retrospect, we’ll see the constant and even quick passage of time. The way it feels now is slower than baby steps. Be gentle.

My five-minute podcast offers another take on this week’s events. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! (Don’t want to use iTunes? Use the Podcast/Video link at the top of this page.)

Monday:  Communication is edgy. Your thoughts and words are stirring up relationship issues, and the messages you’re getting are not exactly making you feel comfy-cozy, either. Whether you want to or not, you’re revisiting themes of relationship dynamics and personal power. What makes you feel safe and secure? What doesn’t? Be open to the answers.

Tuesday:    There are no exact aspects until evening. Sit in your feelings and reactions and musings, whatever and no matter how uncomfortable they may be. Ways out open up by the evening.  Relationships warm. The blahs lift. Motivation kicks back in. You might do/produce more in a few hours than you did all day.

Wednesday:  Last night’s vibes are memories. Today is back to edgy, but trickier than on Monday. This time there’s a potential for words being taken the wrong way and leading to sniping, arguing and skirmishing.  Take a detached perspective and what you’re hearing and thinking will reveal important truths. What you do with them boils down to how you view power:  Is it a force that exists within you or something that you cede or assign to other people and outside situations? Conversations don’t end there. In fact, they whip up and up until a wildcard drops into your head (or path) that invites a second, and definitely different, look.  What you want and how you go about getting it are also in for a birds’ eye view. The cosmic lovers Venus and Mars are halfway across the sky from each other. You may feel that an object of desire is out of reach or sense a disconnect between you and an important other. Each side has something to show the other. No pushing; no shoving; no grabbing. Just watch.

Thursday: Static clears. Most of the day is a lovely, quiet stretch with opportunities to speak from the heart, be heard and understood and feel pretty good about yourself. People are operating from the same basic dictionary again, after a day of words that have one meaning to the speaker and another to the audience.  Pages start getting mixed up again as evening unfolds. Not taking things personally will save you a lot of grief and agitation. Which is not to say that you shouldn’t ponder uncomfortable words you hear and think. The time to act on them will come tomorrow.

Friday: Thoughts, communications and realizations are deep, profound, intense and maybe a little more than nonrational.  Over-the-top tantrums and power plays on reality TV can play these energies out for us....and/or we can turn them more obviously to our personal benefit. (Those shows could be to your benefit, though, if the vicarious thrill would keep you from knocking someone’s lights out.) Primal forces are surging through our minds. We can clear out mental clutter and face raw truths. We can speak them and will likely hear them as well.   We have the rocket fuel to push relationship issues off dead center and knock teetering alliances off the seesaw and to the ground.  Rose-colored glasses are shattering. Disappointment and disillusionment are taking their final bow. They wash away as Neptune enters Pisces and we begin the next phase in our experience of love.                             

Saturday:  The first overnight of the next 14 years brings dreams filled with fantastical possibilities. It’s a beautiful, restful voyage, but it does move beyond our comfort zone. Certain aspects of our status quo will change, a prospect that is both exciting and vaguely unsettling. Consider yourself put on notice. There’s nothing to do about whatever’s rumbling in your psyche, just yet. Enjoy the moments of today. Treat yourself to little pleasures. Simply floating will separate you from inner rumblings (and outer invitations to rumble) and possibly provide enough distance for you to get inklings of what they are.

Sunday: Another day to take it easy and just be. The day’s only major aspect does not occur until evening, when your engine kicks in and sends you on a tear of productivity. Before then, desires feel, once again, just out of reach.  You could focus on frustration, or you could use the distance to take an unrushed, thorough look. Here’s a fine distinction to ponder:  If you were handed your desire, would you really want it? Or is what you want the ability to have it?

© Kathy Biehl 2012. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

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