Astro-Insight Forecasts

2013 Sagittarius Full Moon Lunar Eclipse

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:07:36 -0400

May 24-25, 2013
9:25 PM PDT / 12:25 AM EDT / 4:25 PM GMT
4 Gemini 6 / 4 Sagittarius 6

by Kathy Biehl

We’re made it through a month-plus of relentless upheaval and are starting to see the point. We’re changed permanently, and so have our world and the way we view it. Now for the clean-up: As this gauntlet comes to a close, information is rushing in and causing all manner of inner and outer situations to shut down, shift gear or move into new formats.

This week’s Sagittarius Full Moon is the last intense astrological event of the spring and the end of the line for the eclipses that have been with us since late 2010. The Gemini/Sagittarius eclipses deal with the power of the mind: how what we think, say and believe filters, limits, molds and, dare I say, creates what happens in our lives. Frames of reference, life philosophies and inner chat have been up for revisiting -- especially lately, when so much has fallen apart or morphed that was previously a given. We’re wrapping up that reevaluation now, closing doors, ending chapters, letting go and embracing the new and improved.

Full Moons always bring matters to a point of harvest or culmination. Lunar eclipses escalate and enlarge the summing up (not to mention emotions related to them) and throw in huge doses of revelations. All those characteristics swell to the nth degree when the eclipse is ruled by bigger-is-better Jupiter. This week’s is even more outrageously grandscale, since it comes on the heels of the rip-’em-up, tear-’em-down, freedom-and-revolution-at-all-costs imperative of the latest Uranus/Pluto square.

Hasn’t all the recent turmoil given you a better understanding of yourself, what you want and what you won’t tolerate? Isn’t your reaction more immediate, more instinctive and more efficient? Think back to 2010 (ancient history, doesn’t it feel like now?) What occupied your mind then? What information channels and technology did you use? What did you believe about yourself, specific people or types of relationships, your prospects and goals, political issues and how the world works? What of that is still true? Don’t you know yourself better now?

If you’re not sure, never fear. This Full Moon is pressuring Neptune (illusion vs. transcendence) from both directions. You’ve got every potential to pass through the doors of perception and break on through to the other side. (How so very poignant that this week brought the exit of Ray Manzarek, keyboardist of the 60s rock band that took its name from the Aldous Huxley book the previous sentence references.)

Divine guidance may lead you there; the dictates of your own heart also hold a key. That’s because Venus is a player in this eclipse. She’s conjunct the Sun’s ruler, Mercury, uniting heart and mind. You know what you want; you know what you value; and the overriding imperative is love.

Love and knowledge of yourself is the foundation for everything that spools out from the graduation exercise that is this eclipse. The more clearly you know and value yourself, the more that perspective brings your environment into stark relief. Whatever doesn’t belong stands out so obviously that it can’t be ignored and, increasingly, so insistently that you can’t put up with it any longer. How many friendships and connections have changed for you? How many have ended in mid-conversation, as the other person revealed differing concepts of integrity, responsibility, or how people should be treated (particularly you)? How many longtime activities have you walked into and realized you’d outgrown? Resuscitating is not possible. We’ve all got a finger on the ejector button. We’ve all got a hand on the lever for the guillotine.

It’s not all goodbyes, of course. Some of what you’re seeing in your environment is absolutely, perfectly right. You may be experiencing a new-found appreciation for people and situations that have long been with you. You may hit on ideas for upgrades that would suit you even better. (Technology, software and vehicles are likely candidates; so are beliefs about your worth.) You could even have a religious experience and suddenly see the answer to a prayer standing right in front of you. You just had to update your frame of reference to be able to recognize it.

What I wrote for the 2011 version of this Full Moon lunar eclipse still holds true:

This Full Moon is escalating the role that our beliefs play in our experience of reality, and the role that external sources (the media, the educational system, the legal system) play in creating and directing those beliefs. The Moon’s ruler is Jupiter, the guy who ups any action he contacts. He’s pumping up the Full Moon’s developments so they stretch their limits (and our credulity), making situations so extreme they look like something out of a cartoon. There is no incentive to hold back, to moderate thoughts and words, to realize, in the moment of disclosure, the extent of what you’re saying.

Sound scary? Here’s the benefit. This is an extraordinarily revealing time. Backstories are coming out. So are people’s frames of reference, prejudices, and other aspects of upbringing and experience that color their view of reality. Resist the natural human impulse to assume that your position is Truth and the only correct one (whether it’s about your memory of an event or view on legislation), and “Aha!” moments will abound. You can learn a lot – about yourself as well as about the people in your life and on this planet.

And about the past, too. There is enormous potential now to move beyond a lot of the revelations – to bring them out of the shadows, to think about them consciously and to reclassify the role, if any, we allow them to play. We are being shown the logical consequences of the beliefs we hold (about life, about ourselves, about people, about everything).

Take down your filters. Give them a good scrub and power wash. Replace ones that are ripped or bent. You’ve been doing this unconsciously. Pay conscious attention to the process now.

Remember: form follows thought. What we think and say leads directly to what we experience.

Even more basically, words, thoughts and beliefs carry energy. That’s fundamentally what the cycle that is ending has been about. You are making choices about the quality of energy you want to experience in your mind, in your heart and in your life. Love plays a role in that quality.

You will soon see how beneficial these choices can be. Jupiter, the Full Moon’s ruler and a force of expansion, crosses the Sun’s ruler Mercury on Monday the 27th and Venus on the 28th. Talk and reach out and connect. Let your heart speak.

Forecast for week of May 20-26, 2013

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:23:48 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

The wild ride is hitting a peak at last. Discomfort may remain, but now the reason or point of it is beginning to make sense.

Tectonic shifts are locking into place. Upheaval and restructuring are settling into recognizable contours. Report cards are coming in on matters that have been calling for a reboot since the end of 2010.

Two monumental, long-fuse processes are culminating this week: the third of seven action-demanding clashes between cosmic change agents Uranus and Pluto, and the Sagittarius Full Moon, which is the third of this spring’s cluster of eclipses and the last in the Gemini/Sagittarius cycle.

Uranus and Pluto are fomenting radical change (heavy on brash individualism) and sending shockwaves through shaky structures and foundations. Their insistence on r/evolution has been hammering at specific areas of and issues in your life for the past year, so you should have more than an inkling of what’s in play.

This week the two titans lock into an exact square on Monday, which promises to release some of the relentless intensity we’ve been experiencing. (It’s not going away; we’re merely getting a moment of relief, not to far from what your head feels like when you stop slamming it against a wall). We’ve experienced the exact square twice before, in June and September of last year. (Four more are coming through March 2015.)

What story line(s) can you spin from June to September to now? The current round has three distinct qualities:

1. Metaphoric and actual construction projects and road work (which is epidemic along the Eastern Seaboard);

2. The status quo grasping to maintain power (view the news through this filter, especially the political); and

3. Accepting all the rubble that’s been dug up and piled around us (think: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel) and starting to deal with it. Opportunities will open up now for implementing some of the plans you’ve devised. Taking steps is more important than the end goal. More fine-tuning and surprises are in store. Uranus goes retrograde in the middle of July and will return to the place of the square in mid-September and March. Each time he passes it he will lob lightning bolts that tilt our perspective, break chains and unleash the unexpected.

The other textures of the week come from the Sagittarius Full Moon lunar eclipse Friday night in most of the country, early Saturday morning in the East and the Eastern Hemisphere. This one’s super-sized, with the emotional overload of a Full Moon brimming to the max -- and then some. It’s a cosmic HA! to the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

Normally, the Gemini/Sagittarius axis is intellectual and philosophical. It deals with words and the systems of thought we build from them (laws, religions, education). Those words and philosophical systems can and do pack a powerful emotional wallop, as this week demonstrates. Watch for grandiose displays. The emotions this Jupiter-ruled eclipse lets loose -- and the revelations it pours out -- will hit heights and depths we rarely visit.

Since the first eclipse in this cycle, in December 2010, we’ve been coming up against how our words and thoughts create not only the filters through which we view the world, but also our very experience of life. Frames of reference, life philosophies and inner chat have been up for revisiting. We’re wrapping up that reevaluation now, closing doors, ending chapters, letting go and embracing the new and improved.

The build-up to this event escalates from the start of the week, as soon as the Sun enters Gemini on Monday. Read more about the eclipse in my mooncast, which will be posted by Thursday.

With the square and the eclipse falling so close together, breakdowns and overhauls will abound in Gemini/Sagittarius delivery systems. This means road work and detours. It means technology, software and vehicles hitting the wall (and, perhaps, human sanity with it) and requiring repair, upgrade and replacing. It means the media, courts, legislatures and prejudice reaching illogical and unsupportable extremes.

To find stable patches of ground as you walk through this, periodically unhook from your environment. Disengage from the panic, the terror, the insanity, the focus on trivialities, other people’s agendas (even positive ones). Empty yourself, stabilize and check in with your own guidance system.

For refreshers on this, listen to my talk Navigating the Shift with Ease and read the tips in my discussion of the 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse. If you do not have my Internal Guidance System visualization, get it here.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. Or purchase the app for your iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android and Kindle Fire. For Apple devices. get the free app Podcast Box, then search for the Astro-Insight app (it’s under Religion & Spirituality) and purchase it for $1.99. For Android and Kindle Fire, buy it directly from Amazon here!

Monday: Edginess, agitation and a nervous awareness that something’s coming mark the day. The Sun moves into Gemini and inspires running every which way. The Moon connects to the cosmic change agents and personalizes the demand to break out of routines and make deep level shifts. We want to be done with this already, but the skies have other plans. Look for the silver linings (other people are involved). Conversations and messages take on importance late in the day. Powerful information is passed, and you have the choice to speak your truth. One tidbit in the flurry of exchanges could change your plans or thinking; welcome it.

Tuesday: We get a rough early start to the day. The change agents are not allowing heads to hide under pillows, or issues to be swept under rugs. After jolting reminders of the morphing going on, positive reinforcement follows. You’re not in this alone; in fact, everything that’s crumbling and reconfiguring is encouraging talking and connecting, and pleasantly at that. Store up good vibes. As the day goes on, tension in the air could make you question yourself (please don’t) or your sanity (reality checks are always advisable).

Wednesday: The overnight hours bring dreams that indulge a fantasy, find you choosing and getting comfortable with a course of action, and then feeling jittery a bout voicing it. Postpone acting on any of this. Big pushes won’t get anywhere yet, because the Moon is void of course from 3:36 AM - 4:50 PM EDT. Touchiness and suspicion cloud the air inside the void and after. Please strive to view yourself in the best possible light. This is a productive night for putting writing materials at the bedside.

Thursday: Guidance permeates the overnight hours. Dreams are filled with answers and with the sensation of being loved, connected and secure in your own skin. You’re still processing the latest installments of the ongoing imperative to change. Look for opportunities today to implement the ideas you’ve been entertaining (see bullet point 3 above). When you encounter communication and relationship crossroads, consider what you might adjust to reach a beneficial result. In case of an either/or situation, let your heart lead.

Friday: We have another day for hanging back and watching. The Moon is void of course from 9:56 AM to 5:50 PM EDT. This one could see an uncommon amount of activity, from people looking for external escape from an edgy atmosphere. As the Moon enters Sagittarius and begins her approach to fullness, your mind and heart fuse as Mercury and Venus meet. You know what you value and desire, and your words automatically and effortlessly convey that. Declarations of love and appreciation abound. With embraces comes the slamming of doors on the past. A new phase is here. The lunar eclipse culminates late tonight for the western three-fourths of the US, at 12:25 AM in the East. Read more about the eclipse in my mooncast, which will be posted on my site by Thursday.

Saturday: You could wake up swearing you were on a midway with a funhouse and a spookhouse. Firm footing is yours in the waking world, though. Put yourself on the back for the baggage, skin and clutter you’ve shed. Proceed daringly and step out of your norm, even if it scares you. Remember that everyone is going through this. Everyone is raw and skittish and not used to proceeding as life is pushing them. Give people slack, and don’t take other people’s actions or reactions personally. Otherwise, shoving matches could take nasty turns.

Sunday: The overnight hours are rocky. The terrain is so different, inside and out. Inner children are flailing. Dreams vent fears and hesitations and anxieties that have been secretly building up and carefully kept at bay. Are recent developments too good to be true? Are you fooling yourself? Then why is your heart so happy, when the voices settle down? Questions like these occupy the void that fills the day, from 6:23 AM to 5:29 PM EDT. Change is intoxicating and unsettling, yet you are pushing for it anyway. Some of your existing obligations and arrangements no longer gibe with what you want and value -- and with what you said and heard Friday night. Dust is settling, even after the Moon clears the void and enters sensible Capricorn. The evening is testy. Proceed with your eyes and heart open.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Sagittarius Full Moon Taurus New Moon

Forecast for week of May 13 - 19, 2013

Sat, 11 May 2013 09:37:17 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

The wild ride continues. It’s bringing more revelations, discoveries, revisiting and rethinking the past, and watching foundations crack and reshape under and around us.

Yes, more of the same we’ve been experiencing, only even more of it. All of it is building up to monumental activity that is peaking next week.

The intensity ramp-up starts on Wednesday, when two moves occur that point to next week. One of them has high potential to add some ease to the ongoing upheaval; the other quickens the ongoing r/evolution.

Talk and movement both lighten and speed up when Mercury, ruler of gab, gadgets and getting around, moves into his airy base of Gemini. He is most nimble and comfortable here, where he can flit and flit and multi-task and play while he’s at it. Watch for the change in atmosphere: Talk becomes less ponderous, less weighted by practicalities, more free-flying.

The timing of his sign change is important for two reasons. Mercury makes this shift, as so many other planets have this year, during a void of course Moon, underscoring that the inner experience is more important than the outer. He’s also moving into Gemini a week before the last of the Gemini/Sagittarius eclipses we’ve been in since December 2010. With him in this sign, we have the opportunity to gather data about the eclipses -- in advance of the final one, and through the rest of the month.

Be alert for information about how your thoughts affect what happens in your life. That’s one of the Gemini/Sagittarius eclipse themes. (Read more here about them, and how to use them.) Also look at how your approach to communication, information and life itself has changed since December 2010. And if your thoughts go all over the map, well, they’re supposed to.

Wednesday’s second big move is Uranus entering the degree of his square to Pluto. These two titans are responsible for the relentless upheaval (and collective nervous breakdown) of the past year. The cosmic change agents are traveling through 2015 in an aspect that demands action, and next Monday is one of the two times this year their link will be absolutely exact.

The tensest part is between this Wednesday and Monday of next week. Some players and events may be newcomers, but the general issues are oldies. The shockwaves are targeting areas of your life that have already been worked over; we lived through two squares last June and September. Developments are inevitable in the dramas that have been playing out in those areas. Can’t identify them? Use this: What huge remodeling projects started then, intentionally or otherwise? Because Pluto is retrograde, this round of the square has an Empire Strikes Back streak, with the status quo trying to reclaim order and control.

Work the two shifts together. When a situation creaks or fractures or breaks open (some of this is positive, you know), let your mind rove. Explore ramifications, possibilities, alternatives.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! Look for it under Religion & Spirituality.

Monday: Big, ponderous developments, urges and longings are in the air and on your mind. Rumblings are palpable deep within, below your feet and in the words of companions and the media. You’re anxious to take action, but please, let your heart lead you. If you’re unsure or fall into over-thinking, ask for guidance. It’ll tell you if you’re romanticizing or misperceiving, or if someone is playing sleight of hand. And if your solar plexus goes off when you consider contacting a specific person or bringing up a particular topic, keep quiet. The off feeling is a signal that the time is not right. Bedside writing materials could prove handy.

Tuesday: Most of the day’s astro-activity occurs before dawn. The overnight hours have you processing the ongoing imperative to change. Some part of you is not liking what you’ve been seeing. It has you feeling overwhelmed and powerless, yet compelled to strike some kind of blow or break out. Note your early morning mental ramblings. They contain clues, as always, about what your psyche has been assimilating. If that opportunity passes you by, or if you can’t make sense of dream snippets, notice the actions to what you are naturally gravitating. They’re clues, too. The overnight process leads to action late afternoon and into the evening -- so much that winding down could be hard.

Wednesday: Overnight your psyche seesaws between what you want and what some outer force dictates. One side wins, eventually. Clues to what you decided are in your early morning mental meanderings. You stand every chance of feeling good about that choice as the Moon goes void of course for most of the day, from 8:15 AM to 6:39 PM EDT. Within the void, Mercury enters his home sign of Gemini and brings quickness to how our minds and bodies get around. A lot could be getting your attention. Although it won’t be exact till the 24th, Uranus has entered the degree of his square to Pluto. The cosmic change agents are ramping instability and the imperative to confront and evolve. Use this void to gather information -- about your reactions, about other people, about the structures and situations that are teetering, about the locations of the fracture lines you’ve been observing. Some of what you uncover will prove useful after the void ends.

Thursday: The inclination today is to push against walls, limits, responsibilities and expectations. That could include pushing for commitment or structure in a relationship, which is not likely to meet resistance. Opportunity opens and circumstances cooperate. We are all more ready emotionally for next big Uranus/Pluto push -- at least, as much of it as we can glimpse; surprises are, of course, still in store. Even so, your identity is not quite in alignment. There’s still catch up and adjusting to do..which may occupy you for a while longer.

Friday: That darned issue of personal change remains. (Actually, if you are facing only one such issue, you’re faring better than a lot of folks.) It’s unsettling and just will not go away. Your best response is to enlarge your sense of self. Push through the growing pains and into a larger, grander view of possibilities for who you are and can be. Put writing materials at your bedside, too.

Saturday: Dreams are a double feature of indie films, heavy on romance. They’re a sweet diversion, but they do raise questions: What is real? What is illusion? Most importantly, what -- or who -- dominates the dreams? Today brings an opportunity for an unexpected connection -- bumping into each other in a bookstore, say, or being online at the same unusual time. Avoid any temptation to ramrod this serendipity into a preconceived scenario. Say no to power games or manipulation. Observe them, yes, but do not engage. You have a choice in how you are going to get an itch scratched (and that itch could very well connect all these dots into a yummy connection that you greatly desire). This may play out in an unreal way, or with you in observer mode and keenly aware that the playing out is occurring, forcing a conversation or exchange of information (it’s time) and, counterintuitively, leading to stability. Whether a heavy-sparking connection is not where you end up, you will see the truth and speak it responsibly, after which life calms down. In fact, choosing responsibility serves you throughout the day and leads, counterintuitively again, to chasing a wild hare or going off on a lark. Being mature and responsible frees you up to be spontaneous and wild. It’ll make sense.

Sunday: Big day. Huge day. Overnight brings another round of processing and assimilating the ongoing upheaval, this time more comfortably and productively. As a result of where the process lands you, certain agreements and arrangements have to give. The day promises lots of talk, lots of hashing out, lots of seeing and discussing situations and people in the best possible light. (Many of these conversations will occur in your mind before you get out of bed.) Once you get going, it’s non-stop action. This is a day of implementing and following through. Slow and steady not only wins the race, but knocks off the to-do list. You have company, and how. We are all making like action figures into the night. Sensible folk would be winding down and at least thinking about bedtime, but we’re on a roll. One little task brings to mind another and another. Wiping out the sink leads to cleaning out the tub leads to doing laundry leads to making a snack and, oh why not, lunch for tomorrow. Resistance is futile.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Scorpio Full Moon Taurus New Moon

2013 Taurus New Moon Solar Eclipse

Thu, 2 May 2013 15:33:37 -0400

May 9-10, 2013
5:29 AM PDT / 8:29 PM EDT / 12:29 AM GMT
19 Taurus 31

By Kathy Biehl

Desires, resources and our comfort level with having them occupy our attention under this month’s Taurus New Moon. It’s a volatile, highly charged passage -- we are protective of our toys and turf, after all -- birthing monumental arrivals and departures, breakdowns, door-openings, manna from heaven (and from long, hard work), personal lines in the sand, and the occasional tantrum toddler-style.

Part of the intensity and mind-boggling nature of some recent developments is due to the fact that this New Moon is not a free-standing event. It’s in a cluster of terrain-altering activity, the second in the trio of the spring’s eclipses, which are inescapably escalating, intensifying and complicating life no matter which way you turn. This New Moon is a solar eclipse, which means it slams and locks doors while catapulting us long and far in a refocused direction.

Think of it as rebooting a computer. The darkened light momentarily blots out our usual experience and resets the focal issues (desires, resources, our level of contentment with the same) and aspects of our lives related to them. Because this one takes place in Taurus, physical and tangible factors are extremely important -- and triggering extremely emotional reactions. (Raise your hand if you’ve screamed at a piece of technology in the last week. Be honest.) How solid, reliable and present are our relationships, belongings, money in the bank, creature comforts, and the like. How much do we really possess them? How much do they really possess us? (All you people texting during meals with a flesh-and-blood companion -- yeah, I’m talking to you.)

We come into this solar eclipse armed with real-world knowledge. The Sun and the Moon have just passed over Mercury and Mars, attuning our minds and will (and maybe temper) to the current state of our physicality. Venus, the ruler of Taurus, has left her comfy home and moved into the communication zone of Gemini, a shift that stimulates thinking, conversing and exploring options. We know what we have, what we want and don’t want, what more we need (or think we do), and what is necessary to address all this.

Some of this knowledge has come through trial by ordeal. This eclipse has unleashed an epidemic of tools malfunctioning that require repair, updating, tweaking or replacing to get the intended job done. (This eclipse is near the Moon's South Node, which represents what we are moving away from -- hence the releasing and ending overtones of the times.) Glitches and breakdowns are happening that we can’t ignore or postpone. You’re in the middle of a task, required technology fails to perform, and you have to deal with it on the spot to finish the job. Makeshift fixes may work for the moment, but this crop of breakdowns is making it clear that you can not just make do; you must find a lasting solution.

No more making do applies to more than objects. This eclipse is stressing all the little shortfalls and irritations and not-quite fitting situations of your life -- anything and everything you put up with because that’s easier than confronting it, because you don’t have the time or money, because it seems so minor, because you didn’t previously consciously notice how much it bothered you. Isn’t your bother meter active now? What’s registering on it? Every time you encounter these annoyances, petty or small, even in your peripheral vision, they catch your attention. Especially if you consciously react to and resist them, they nibble at your time, your focus and your energy, all of which are resources. Reframe them as: an energy drain.

Let this eclipse usher a new phase of healthy intolerance for anything that wastes your resources. Start cataloging things you tolerate (the cabinet door that’s slightly off its hinges, worn-out letters on your keyboard, boxes that haven’t been unpacked for years, the “friend” who makes plans and rarely comes through) and do something about them. Fix or replace broken stuff. Hit the ejector button on users, drainers and unreliable or costly situations. (The genesis for this idea comes from business coach and my friend Barbara Nelson, who has, in unintentional but astrologically appropriate timing, been preaching it online in the last week.)

The idea of zero-tolerance leads to another evolutionary potential of the Taurus solar eclipse: You have the right to not merely desire, but to have desire fulfilled. You have the right to have what you already have. (Think about that: are you ambivalent or perhaps embarrassed by any of your gifts? Your belongings?) You are entitled to have what you want and to have what you have -- to receive it, to possess and to enjoy it.

This is not to say you should help yourself to anyone else’s stuff, to use Taurean George Carlin’s wonderful term for it. Or that you should let greed take over your life. What is timely, however, is coming to grips with parts of you that are at cross-currents with being here and having stuff. We’re on the earth plane. The material world is where spirit finds form, at least in our perception. The material world is where life happens. It’s where you are.

So put at the top of your no-tolerance list any remnant of religious, cultural, race or ethnic guilt or discomfort over (a) being in a physical body, (b) using that physical body and, most of all, (c) enjoying being in that physical body. Replace it with an entitlement gene. You know that is humanly possible; you’ve certainly known people with one. Implant one in yourself.

It will serve you as you proceed through this spring’s wondrous gauntlet of upheaval and change. Know what you value. Know what you have as resources (money, talents, creativity, tools, relationships). Allow yourself to use, to consume and to enjoy them, unapologetically.

Know what you need to function effectively. Upgrade your tools and your attitude about your worth and being paid. You are working hard lately -- the Moon and the Sun are both coming off a contact to taskmaster Saturn, and schedules and responsibilities are backbreaking as a result -- and you need to be paid properly for your efforts. Desire. Resources. Entitlement. Looking at the dramas with those concepts as framework will simplify much in the coming weeks.

It may also help to think back to late 1993 -- early 1994, when we last made a gear shift from Sagittarius/Gemini eclipses to the Scorpio/Taurus axis. This week’s eclipse occurs at the same place as a solar eclipse on May 10, 1994. think about how all these earthly themes played out then. Some may be coming back around again for rebooting.

For a longer discussion of the spring’s eclipses, please read the section headed “The Next Four Weeks” in my 2013 Scorpio Full Moon Lunar Eclipse forecast.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of May 6-12, 2013

Wed, 1 May 2013 19:10:53 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Calling all human sponges! Join me Sunday, May 12 at 9 PM EDT for a phone conference call with simple tools for disengaging and clearing your energy. Survival Skills for Empaths, $20; register here.

No matter how crazy events are these days, our focus comes back to basic, simple matters: My turf. My money. My toys. My stuff. My desires. My -- admit it -- appetites.

No one has the luxury of pondering lofty ideals. Who has the time? That’s so tight now that my friends and I have been joking about having to forego sleep to meet deadlines. So much boils down to time, money and resources -- how much we have, how much we can give, how much we can get. We’re deeply in a sensory experience of life, very definitely in the here and now.

And yet, with all we have, we want more. It’s as if we’ve all been implanted with an entitlement gene that’s pushing us unapologetically toward satisfaction, toward seconds, toward gratification, toward consumption so far beyond the immediate need that no doubt remains we’re full. Thanks for that goes to the Taurus emphasis in the sky (which is affecting desire, drive, mission, communication and general getting around).

Adding to that slow-moving, knock-wood influence is this week’s flurry of super-conjunctions involving those placements in Taurus. A super-conjunction occurs when bodies meet within a short period of time in two ways, by both zodiac degree (the way we usually think of it) and by declination (which is based on distance from the equator). Think of it as a double-strength expression of the bodies’ combined influence, underscoring it with “And we really mean it!”

This week’s succession of super-conjunctions starts with a huge dose of walking our talk in fundamental, practical ways (Mercury and Mars, Tuesday and Wednesday -- and don’t be surprised if normally tactically evasive folks are touching your arm or shoulder during conversations). Thursday is a groaning table of emotional assertiveness, brass tacks talk, and giving over to the impulses of the flesh (the Moon and Mars, the Moon and Mercury, the Moon and the Sun). Saturday, Mercury and the Sun bring our thoughts about ourselves to time present (“Do I really look like that? Really?”) and encourage us to get in our bodies.

We are not gravitating toward fleeting pleasures, though we may not be conscious of their lasting impact. What we savor now could be with us for (or at least, affect) months, if not years. That’s because all this wanting and pursuing and is answering the call of Thursday’s Taurus New Moon, which is a solar eclipse.

Even though new beginnings and phases are the hallmark of this supersized new moon, there are elements of purging and release. The temporary blocking of the light hits a symbolic restart button. In the process of the reboot, people and situations have a way of slipping out. Since Taurus is the playing field, the departures could have once been useful or costly. (Practical objects going lost is another manifestation.) Another reason for the ending vibe these days is this New Moon’s proximity to the South Node, which represents what we are moving away from. Possessions, values, attitudes about love and money -- all are being reset, and some are clearing out, leaving room to grow for the ones that stay and the ones to come. Read more about the eclipse in my mooncast.

As much as we have, claim, embrace and consume, by the weekend, we don’t merely want more. We want choices. We want to keep doors and options open. Venus, ruler of all we desire and value, is moving into the air sign of the twins, Gemini, on Thursday. She encourages a lively social atmosphere, flitting from shiny object to shiny object and keeping connections light and fun. While she prefers playing the field, the guests in her Taurus home argue for the reassurance of physical contact and proof that someone is solidly, physically present for you -- hand-holding, hugs and the entanglements of the heart that come from more. We’re in bodies, after all. Life is supposed to be physical.

For the longer term context, please read my article about the Scorpio lunar eclipse, which discuss what’s in effect for the next four weeks and beyond from the spring’s dynamic cluster of aspects.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! Look for it under Religion & Spirituality.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

Monday: We’re all itching and squirming with subterranean wants and impulses. Desire is unsettling, making you edgy, putting you on alert -- what if it were to materialize? Information arrives like the calvary in an mid-20th century Saturday morning movie. A message could show how different a situation is from what you’d thought/feared/projected. Evidence could arrive of how your thought processes have calmed and grown. A new and enticing doorway could open to an interchange about practicalities or otherwise making a vision real. Everyone is in the throes of processing the personal meaning of the relentless, ongoing upheaval and changes. Emotions are pivoting in an instant as lightning bolts pierce our comfort zones and open us (willingly or not) to alternatives. Basements are rumbling with excavation and remodeling that facilitate dropping a habit or putting other fundamental changes in place. Cast your lot with personal growth today, and look for tangible evidence of how far you’ve come lately. Put writing materials at the bedside to capture your psyche’s journey overnight. It’s an especially good time to ask for answers, too; just be willing to hear whatever may come.

Tuesday: The overnight hours deliver truth, clarity and functional understanding, all with a direct impact on the mundane workings of your life. The impact is simplifying and empowering, even if it extracts a price of letting go. No worries, as they say; a load is lifted somehow and casts the day with optimism and a sense of possibilities. The Moon goes void of course at 8:41 AM EDT, for the remainder of the day and till dawn tomorrow. This void hardly promises stillness, at least not on the inside. The two-day superconjunction is starting between Mercury (how we think, talk and get around) and Mars (how we make things happen). That new-found mental clarity is locking into your personal drive and agenda, as ideas find the energy to bring them into form. Incredible creative productivity is a possible result (Who’s a crafter? Scrapbooker?), and so is dreaming up simple, doable steps to make ideas real. Conversations and brainstorming are concrete and practical, too, inspiring the will to follow through. Put your body into it as well. Dance; sing; contemplate your yard or a nearby outdoor space that pleases you.

Wednesday: Dreams could be steamy. Could be frustrating. Could stir an appetite for temptations common sense would leave alone, or for objects of desire that are tantalizingly out of reach. The void ends at 6:10 AM EDT with the Moon entering Taurus and beginning her approach to tomorrow’s solar eclipse. The messenger and action gods are still making like a dynamic duo, so harness their cooperation. Put those ideas into tangible form. Write them down; key them into a device. Don’t force anything to follow your specific plans, though. Today has lovely prospects for serendipity and divine guidance, which could lead you to better ways and destinations than you were thinking. Expect them. Watch for them. Work with them! So what if a few obstacles or nay-sayers stand in your path. You’ve got guidance at your disposal. It can evaluate the blockage (which might benefit you) (just saying) and suggest alternate routes and work-arounds. Remember that link, too. It’s going to come in very handy tomorrow....

Thursday: This is the big day of the week. No counsel for you now of sitting back, going within, waiting, contemplating. Nope. Today is made for rock ‘em, sock ‘em action -- and it begins well before sun-up in the Western Hemisphere. Overnight we hit a new phase of comfort with the pervasive upheaval, the twists and turns, and the wondrous developments that have been falling out of the blue onto us. We’re sloughing off psychic and emotional dead skin, including attachments that don’t have a place in the new. And are we ever motivated. The Moon and Mars are the first of the day’s super-conjunctions, and this one spells assertive emotions. We are leading with our feelings, pushing them forward and sating them with creature comforts. Not to mention talking about them, with lots of different people, too. That’s a given thanks to Venus taking on Gemini’s gift of gab and the beginning of Moon’s two-day super-conjunction with Mercury. Into this determined, focused, self-aware and chatty atmosphere comes the Taurus New Moon solar eclipse. In a literal sense, it is the pause that refreshes. The Moon goes void of course at 8:28 PM EDT until late afternoon tomorrow; we have the aftermath of the exact eclipse to take in its energies. If you have wanted to leave behind a habit, situation, money pattern, relationship, attitude about your worth, drop it now. Make wishes under this New Moon -- no vague or metaphysical ones, but fundamental, life-enhancing, sensory, sensual ones. Make them real, and the Moon will do the same. Read more in my mooncast.

Friday: The Moon is void of course until 5:22 PM EDT, giving us the bulk of the day to be with the eclipse and the desires it is stirring. This is not a gentle, contemplative stretch like some voids; this one is edgy, electric, tingling with undercurrents and rumblings we may not want to acknowledge. Still, thoughts and whispers are not going quiet. The Moon is still in super-conjunction with Mercury, propelling us to think and chew and talk in and about the most concrete ways. We’re reaching conclusions and solutions, too, real ones, practical ones, physically doable ones.

Saturday: The overnight hours are outright weird. Dreams reflect all the little tendrils of uncertainties winding through the psyche. The daylight hours bring choices, choices, choices. Two guidelines will lead you to the more fruitful path: Remain responsible to yourself and proceed from a position of power -- not the slamming-a-fist-on-the-table type, but unshakable in your truth and knowledge of yourself. That should come naturally seeing as Mercury and the Sun are today’s dynamic duo. Wrap your brain around this concept: You are entitled to have what you want. Occupy that thought. Occupy yourself. Get into your body and your mind will follow.

Sunday: After opening the day to sunlight and enjoyment and the pleasures of life, the Moon goes void of course at 9:33 AM EDT until tomorrow. This void is, for a change, one for floating, contemplating, smelling the flowers, lingering over coffee, a meal, a bottle of wine. (Heck, make it champagne.) You’ve been through a doozy of a week or two. Celebrate what you’ve experienced, achieved and, most of all, learned about yourself. Companions are around who will love to chat this over with you. Look for a new level of ease in your conversations. Why not toast it, too?

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Scorpio Full Moon Taurus New Moon

Forecast for week of April 29 - May 5, 2013

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:12:26 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Spring is bringing a bumper crop of acute, relentless realizations, revelations and life-altering developments. As much as they give cause for contemplation, none of them is theoretical or hypothetical. Every aspect of life is pushing our attention to the physical, the concrete, the practical, the here and now. The theme of the week: making it real.

The sky now has an emphasis in Taurus, the first and most simply, unassumingly earth sign. Taurus values what it can possess, consume and experience through the physical senses and in the physical world. That is the governing framework now; that defines every conversation, in our heads and with others. No matter whether the subject is an ending, upheaval or welcome new development, the inquiry is: What does it mean in practical terms? For me? How does it affect my money/relationships/food supply/leisure time/stuff? How does this project/inspiration/connection/opportunity go from concept into being? The answers we reach will play into the decisions, developments and new directions shooting out from next week’s Taurus New Moon

On Wednesday, Mercury, ruler of how we communicate and get around, enters this realm and replaces the impulsiveness, risk-taking, swagger and aggression of Aries with the calm, slowed, chewing deliberateness of Taurus. The prevailing approach has gone from a two-fisted “I’ll show you” attitude to an energy-conserving “Show me.” Inquiries and conversations are turning to practicalities, nuts and bolts, how-tos and satisfaction you can hold or take to the bank.

Mercury is answering to Venus, goddess of our worldly valuables and mistress of this sign, whose concerns and preferences color the topics we’re drawn to discuss and ponder. With Mars and the Sun in her dominion, she’s influencing the activities that attract us now and holding sway over our agendas, our drive and the masculine as well. Desires are tangible, palpable, sensual and immediate, and we are motivated to make them happen.

This emphasis on one sign continues a trend we’ve had since February. We’ve experienced a concentration of bodies first in Pisces, then Aries, and now Taurus; later in May, the same is coming with Gemini. It’s as if we’re in training, being immersed one a mode of energetic expression and then moving on to the next.

The current course of study involves dealing with life on the earth plane, in the earth and now. As we proceed through the eclipse gauntlet, as inner and outer landscapes crack open, reshape and birth new landmasses, return to the worldly and the tangible. Bring information down into data you can grasp and work. Sink into your body and experiences of the senses. Breathe in the aromas of flowers and fresh herbs; go outside and sink your feet into the grass or dirt; hug, yes, a tree. And don’t forget to dance.

This week will have more rocking and rolling, more splitting and cracking, more revelations and sharp perceptions. Bouts of testing, frustration and hitting limits are likely as Mars opposes Saturn midweek. We are, however, standing ever more firmly in our personal truth and power, as will be shown by the Sun and Mars contacting the clarifying scythe of Pluto on Wednesday and Sunday.

As we see and accept truths about ourselves and others, we redefine ourselves and a variety of situations -- choosing our battles and walking away from some, shedding constructs that don’t fit our truth or, I’m increasingly observing, match our personal ethics, taking steps that enhance our worth and express our power in a healthy way, even if those steps privately scare the daylights out of us.

For the longer term context, please read my article about the Scorpio lunar eclipse, which discuss what’s in effect for the next four weeks and beyond from the spring’s dynamic cluster of aspects.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! Look for it under Religion & Spirituality.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

Monday: Prep tip for the day: periodically quiet and empty yourself and check in with your guidance. The drive to “do” builds with the day. You can accomplish a terrific amount in empirically verifiable ways and feel remarkably grounded and good about yourself in the process. Put writing materials by your bed; everyone’s processing overnight.

Tuesday: Dreams explore the events and realizations that have rocked our world recently. The journey lands you in your own private cave, where demons lurk and jewels reside. The jewels are your strengths and fiercest attributes. See if you don’t feel a powerful resolve and inner knowing as you start your day. Sort through dream fragments if you can’t perceive it. You’re adjusting to the twists and turns and reworking your definition of yourself to fit them -- and rolling with the punches so much more easily when new twists, breaks or eruptions hit. The afternoon is increasingly expansive, indulgent and social. What good is sitting alone in your room....

Wednesday: Even with as radically as life is shifting, certain developments aren’t happening quickly enough for you. Frustration and delays color the overnight hours; a lack of a critical resource (time, money) may be an issue. Mercury moves into Taurus today, in time for a May Day celebration in the garden. Priorities and self-awareness are becoming clearer and more narrowly, unapologetically defined. Remain firmly in yourself (let others tend to their own business) and you may glimpse a different view of certain important situations -- seeing past the smoke and mirrors, perhaps. The overnight frustrations carry on into the day. It’s hard to get motivated, to get moving, or to get anything much to happen. Walls and “Nos” keep popping up. Push off from them like a lap swimmer uses the edge of the pool. Maybe the point is to linger in the garden? Writing materials at the bedside will prove handy.

Thursday: You could figure out a lot overnight. Your psyche figures out a path to progress; your inner engine kicks in. New approaches dangle before you and disrupt sleep. (Those writing materials could capture a middle of the night Eureka moment.) You are ready and willing to push yourself. Dissatisfaction could be key but isn’t a given. Solid, stable, steady progress rolls out with the day. Focus on what’s in front of you moment by moment and you may experience time expanding vastly, as if each moment is endless -- not dauntingly, but awe-inspiringly so. Guidance is freely available and accurate to boot. Conversations go easily, too, perhaps unnervingly so; you might be in the right place at the right time (or led to the same) and just a bit freaked out by the serendipity. Pursue any topics and connections you’ve been considering, though, and be open to overtures coming at you. Social media will be buzzing well into the wee hours, so steer clear if you want or need to turn in early. The Moon goes void of course at 12:25 AM EDT.

Friday: The Moon is void of course until 2:26 PM EDT, which means: go with the flow until then, and do not push anything through, because it is likely to unravel or not amount to anything afterwards. Keep that in mind as you pass through the day’s edgy start. Yesterday’s communication flood has been dammed, for the moment. It will flow again. Don’t attach to discomfort or anxieties; they won’t be important soon. A gentle (for these days) afternoon flows into an evening and night with the potential for magic. Open your heart; lead with your guidance; allow yourself to express and receive love, compassion and kindness in their highest, most soulful forms. Even if you spend the evening sharing a bottle of wine with friends, it could be a sparkling, memorable moment outside of normal time.

Saturday: No rest today. Everybody is geared and girded for action. Follow your instincts rather than an intellectually constructed to-do list. That fuels you in a way that makes it possible to accomplish more with less effort and time. (Could be you’re learning to bend that, too.) Efficiency and precision lead to personal pats on the back and feeling very good about yourself in general. The evening is another one of mushrooming energy and interactions, much like Thursday. One leads to two leads to an entire package of cookies being eaten. Metaphorically, and possibly actually. The Moon goes void of course at 11:33 PM EDT until tomorrow evening.

Sunday: The Moon is void of course until 9:04 PM. Treat yourself to a holiday, or a day out of time. Recent doorways to communication are shut for the moment, but they have windows that allow you to look at the situation through the barrier. Focus on pleasant interactions and do not attach to undercurrents of irritation or anxiety. As with Friday’s, they might not amount to much later. Besides, their importance for the moment is the information they have about you, so if you choose to pay attention to them, follow them within. Your most profitable and lasting point of focus lies there. Mars is in an easy flow to the regenerative powers and primal impulses of Pluto -- a collaboration that facilitates breaking an addiction, staring down fears, remaking your psyche and boldly revamping structures.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Scorpio Full Moon Aries New Moon

2013 Scorpio Full Moon Lunar Eclipse

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:33:09 -0400

April 25, 2013
12:58 PM PDT / 3:58 PM EDT / 7:58 PM GMT
6 Taurus 45 / 6 Scorpio 45

By Kathy Biehl

This week’s Scorpio Full Moon opens a landscape-altering gauntlet of eclipses and revolutionary convulsions and contractions. It is the first of four monumental events that will reboot and reshape our circumstances, attitudes and perspective between now and the end of May.

The Next Four Weeks (and What the ?!? Happened the Week of April 15)

The spring’s eclipses are a major gear shift in our focus: from reconsidering our communication flow, our technology, what we believe about ourselves, our country, laws and foreigners, and how our thoughts and filters mold what we experience to revisitng and rethinking resources, money, possessions -- along with who owns what, how we share or combine resources and what we get back -- and death, taxes, lizard-brain cravings, terrors and impulses, and other primal matters we prefer to keep private.

We last went through this gear shift from late 1993 to early 1994, but without the intensity, confusion and volatility that are in play now.

Long-standing or long-simmering developments are igniting and blowing structures apart -- buildings, human lives, relationships, our sense of safety and privacy, and ways we have always gone about things (which has the most positive potential of this list).

This is one of those times that divides life into before and after, and people are extremely uncomfortable, in ways and for reasons we can't entirely put into words. We're seeing things we didn't before. Some of what we're seeing isn't as it seems. Misdirection, smoke screens, fear and paranoia are rampant. The same influences that have unleashed those guys are also opening each of us to our own power, our own truth and our own connection to [insert name for higher power of choice].

The four big astrological events are the Scorpio lunar eclipse on April 25, the Taurus solar eclipse on May 9, the next Uranus/Pluto square on May 21, and the Sagittarius lunar eclipse on May 24. They are operating as a cluster, one enormous complicated combination of launchings and endings and reshapings.

Their destabilizing, demanding pressure has been building and affecting us for weeks. It has been an undercurrent while a pile-up of planets in the sign of Aries, from the first day of spring through April 19, awakened and fueled raging life force, assertiveness, aggression, anger, radicalism and sparks of all kinds. The final aspect in this fiery lineup was a clarion call for this eclipse gauntlet. The last two bodies to clear out of the sign, the Sun and Mars (ruler of Aries and the guy who makes things happen), met on their way out by degree and by declination during the week of April 15.

Throughout our lifetimes, the Sun’s passage through the last degrees of Aries has coincided with eruptions and violence (the Texas City explosion, the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, not far from last week’s fertilizer plant explosion, the Oklahoma City bombing, the shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech.) This year, Mars traveled those degrees energized and radicalized by Uranus -- which we have not experienced in our lives -- so when he conjoined the Sun in Aries for the first time since the early 80s...well, the phrase “all hell broke loose” would not be off the mark.

And so the volatile gauntlet of the spring was christened -- not with a shattering bottle and splashing champagne, but with explosions that left carnage, confusion, speculation and freely roaming terrors in their wake.

Bottom line -- a natural point of focus for the Scorpio/Taurus eclipses -- the four big events of April and May are reshaping our worlds, radically, profoundly, permanently, inside and out.

The Influence of the Scorpio Lunar Eclipse

This Full Moon occurs in the sign of deepest, most fixed feelings, perceptions and bent for holding on. As we have been seeing, those qualities are hitting the max this time around. A lunar eclipse always supersizes the intensity and flow of emotions and culminations that come with a Full Moon and adds revelations of important factors that previously went unseen or unnoticed.

This one has special characteristics that are emphasizing its Scorpionic bent. The Sun in Taurus is next to Mars, warrior god and traditional ruler of Scorpio. His presence tightens our grip on what we possess (do you hear George Harrison singing “I Me Mine?”), while his ancient tie to Scorpio, and his position opposite the Moon, pull in inescapable connections and commitments to others.

The Moon in Scorpio is next to Saturn, enforcer of rules, structures, obligations and responsibility, who is in a symbiotic relationship with Pluto, the lord of death and regeneration and the ruler of Scorpio. (This relationship is called mutual reception; it comes from each being in the other’s sign, which brings both into the picture any time one of them is activated.)

The intensity is triple-strength. Reason is on break for the moment. Feelings are deep and enormous, roaring up from the depths of our beings. Stuff is surfacing that scares the daylights out of us. The bottom line, return on investment and cost-benefit analysis factor into every situation into which we have put our time, money, hearts or energy -- friendships, business arrangements, social systems. Shortfalls and imbalances are refusing to go quietly back under the carpet. Internal star chambers are holding session and convicting without notice. Guillotines are falling and severing friendships, relationships, connections cleanly but irreparably.

Not to mention what this is doing to desires. Who’s been eating more lately? Carb binging? Running after an object of desire? The Scorpio eclipse is whipping up compulsive behaviors -- partially to obliterate the nervous chatter in our minds, partially to ground and pull us back into our bodies.

Further complicating the mix is the open floodgate between the Moon (and Saturn) and the illusion, confusion, magic and wonder of Neptune. This planet’s realm can not be grasped with our hands (except to the extent it’s captured in a bottle, a joint, a pill or a needle.) It’s heightening craziness and misdirection, cloaking agendas, culprits and sources of power, and fueling the bogeymen that are epidemic.

There is also positive in Neptune’s role. Ally with this end and he graces our perceptions, emotions and actions with compassion and a higher understanding. We recognize that other people are in pain, are frightened, are lashing out and clutching because the metaphoric ground is collapsing under them. Instead of demonizing, we see ourselves in others, or at least see others as fellow humans, even if we are choosing to part company. Hard truths can be loving; severances are at least quick and clean, if not gentle.

The questions stirred by this Moon take on different colors depending on which end of the Neptune spectrum you’re occupying. What’s mine? What’s yours? What’s ours? What am I getting back? What are you taking from me? What’s the cost? What needs to change? To end?

Expect internal clarifying and new certainty, with people and situations leaving your life -- or being jettisoned by you -- as a result.

Whatever we decide now shapes the new phase in our personal resources, cash, values and bottom line coming with the Taurus New Moon solar eclipse on May 9.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of April 22-28, 2013

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:45:25 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Beginnings and endings. Arrivals and departures. Blossoming and uprooting. That’s the texture of this week and the four that follow.

We’re entering a landscape-altering gauntlet of eclipses and revolutionary convulsions and contractions. Landmasses are emerging or reshaping, while new growth is bursting forth from cracks and cultivated ground alike. Our worlds, and to a great extent our selves, are reformulating.

Poet John-Michael Albert’s life-affirming response to what went down in Boston last week.

Don’t walk out into this unprepared. Sink down your grounding cord and lock it in tightly. Keep your wits and towel about you, your expectations, knees and neck loose (who needs whiplash in the midst of all this?) and your eyes to the future. Look for reasons to smile, too. They are plenty, whatever else may be going on.

The beginnings taking shape have quite a long growth potential. Flames have ignited that will burn for the next two years. That’s the length of Mars’ new cycle that started last week when he joined with the Sun late Wednesday (early Thursday in the Eastern Hemisphere). Impulses, agendas and sheer life force will stabilize and develop to color and drive our lives over that time. They’re enjoying a prolonged send-off, since Mars and the Sun are still traveling together -- acting in tandem and boosting our ability to push ourselves forward --for nearly four more weeks.

Your emotions lately have given clues to what is emerging. Where have you felt the new phase, the new approach, the new resolve? Where have you felt like scorched earth? The blast of that conjunction was fierce, and it erupted like a flare from a gas well within anyone who has placements at the very late degrees of fire signs. (This includes you, Boomers from 1955-56.) The point of departure is wherever 28 Aries appears in your chart. To learn more about this cycle, read Mary Plumb’s article Meeting Mars: Inside and Out at The Mountain Astrologer blog. (If you’d like to explore its personal meaning, I am always available for a consultation.)

As these fires glow -- think of a spark traveling down a long, long fuse -- they have the protection of the current Taurus emphasis. It’s banking the fire and embers and, to mix metaphors wildly, the sprouting seeds. You’re building, or finding, practical, tangible structures, retaining walls and supports for your inspirations and budding visions.

The placements in Taurus (Venus, Mars and the Sun) also encourage looking for a patch of solid ground as we pass through this gauntlet of tumult. When circumstances shift, or emotions spike dangerously, or you start -- let’s be honest -- freaking out, sink into your body. Grab something tangible -- a pillow, a tree, a pet, a person. Eat something fresh. Go outside. Imagine the currents that are disrupting you running instead out of your hands and feet into the earth.

Our reactions and experiences are only going to intensify. This week brings the first of the spring’s three eclipses, the Full Moon lunar eclipse in Scorpio on Thursday. A lunar eclipse expands on the culminating nature of a Full Moon with huge doses of revelation. In Scorpio, which perceives and feels more deeply than any other sign, this one is emotional and revealing to the max.

The ahas going off promise to hit tender spots very close to home. (Haven’t you already been feeling the impacts?) Secrets and demons are coming out. Fear and paranoia are running amok. The Scorpio/Taurus axis lights up money, taxes, possessions, power, resources, sharing and what we get out of that. Life and death issues are in the mix, including coming from people elevating situations to that status. What’s mine? What’s yours? Is someone threatening to take mine? What am I getting back? Questions like these are in the air, bubbling up from the depths of otherwise rational people (and many who have been staring into the abyss for some time.)

You can’t argue with impulses this primal, cellular, terrified and, in some cases reptilian. Logic has nothing to do with them. Keep that in mind and endeavor (a) not to take personally or buy into any fury and lunacy you witness or intercept, (b) to view outbursts as the cries of frightened children, (c) to maintain a stance of compassion toward all, including yourself and (d) to separate and clear your energy periodically. To help with the last, listen if you haven’t yet to my free 60-minute talk Keeping Calm Amid Chaos http://omtimes.com/2013/04/keeping-calm-amid-chaos/ -- and watch my site for the next installments of Survival Strategies for Empaths.

I have more about the Scorpio lunar eclipse in my mooncast. Keep your grounding cord locked in place, and trust that information is coming to you that explains much. Space is being made for everything that’s blossoming.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! Look for it under Religion & Spirituality.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

Monday: The Moon is void of course from 2:04 AM EDT through 3:26 AM tomorrow. Take every under advisement. Half of the day’s aspects are before sunup, and they hardly bode well for restful sleep or cheeriness on rising. If you are vaguely out of sorts as the day begins, note what is running through your mind. Are you blaming anyone? Put out with a situation? Feeling impeded or alone? It will be more productive (and definitely more pleasant interpersonally) if you mull such questions over privately instead of dropping them in anyone’s lap. Look for key information before the work day ends on the East Coast. It’s coming from an unexpected source or direction, or in a way/form that upends plans and thinking. No matter how well armed you feel afterward, this evening is still not an optimal time for confrontations.

Tuesday: Today teems with evidence of growth and opportunities for choice and adjustment. Fresh air blows throw relationships. Social interactions reflect the new and improved you. Attitudes are more open about desires, values, money. A development is likely that falls under the heading “lucky break” -- except that it’s really a direct outgrowth of the repositioning you’ve done. Watch for the indicators. Proceeding from a place of responsibility to yourself will help you weather the bumps in the second half of the day. Attempts to wind down early will likely misfire. The late evening hours are a whirlwind of ideas and communication. Go with them.

Wednesday: The Moon is void of course from 8:13 AM until tomorrow morning, so this is another day for sitting back and watching the movie play. This show’s a double feature, actually, exploring octaves of love and desire. You could get extremely clear about what you truly want and find a path to it. Self-esteem and worth could be a significant factor. Guidance and inspiration are for the asking. Unlike yesterday’s lucky break that isn’t really one, today’s developments might be heaven sent. Don’t be surprised if you’re in the right place at the right time, in a scene fit for a charming French film.

Thursday: This is a day of heightened feelings and awareness, and planned, plotted, strategized action is not likely to be effective. Let emotions surface and pour out. Allow yourself to be shown and experience. God could well be working in mysterious ways; calm and certainty will arrive more quickly than you’ll expect. Read more about today’s Scorpio lunar eclipse in my mooncast. Writing materials at the bedside could prove to be handy.

Friday: What comes across as a dream funhouse mirror effect could be a weird, clarifying truth. Puzzle through those early-morning fragments; they could shed light on relationship blocks or dissatisfaction. The Moon goes void of course before the sun rises anywhere in the Western Hemisphere and is void for the rest of the day. Inside the void we face choices in outlook (the old glass half full/half empty saw), perspective and expression. The higher road is easy to locate and to take. Mars makes an opportunity link to gentle Neptune that facilitates compassionate, heart-driven, spiritually guided action.

Saturday: The Moon’s void ends first thing in the morning and the skies then leave us unattended for the next seven hours. Expand your horizon; extend your reach and your grasp. Go on an adventure, mentally or out in the world, (After midweek, and what came last, we are all ripe for a bit of fun.) Turn on that inner GPS, though; without it, the journey could become confusing midafternoon. Once again, choices await, in motivations and method of translating them to action. The bottom line is clear (your personal one, leastways). The ground is solid and stable beneath your feet (for the moment...leastways). That provides a sturdy platform for embracing the unexpected.

Sunday: Overnight psyches grapple with power issues, coming to terms with desires (accepting what’s immediately possible, perhaps, or accepting the possibility of receiving what you want) and making peace with rules, restrictions and responsibilities. The daylight hours seesaw from adjusting to and chafing at the presence and agendas of other humans (coffee could take quite a while to drag us back from the dreamworld) to being happy for the company, enjoying it and talking up a storm.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Scorpio Full Moon Aries New Moon

Forecast for week of April 15-21, 2013

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:54:26 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Gear shift! The sky’s emphasis is sliding from the impulsive instigating of Aries to the grounding and savoring of Taurus. The seeds that have been sprouting are blossoming into recognizable form. While ideas and projects and developments will continue to erupt, their impact will be more muffled and pace more manageable.

Three bodies bring the energy to ground in stair steps as they make the move from Aries to Taurus this week: Venus, the Sun and Mars. The first to relocate is Venus, ruler of creativity and all that we value, from relationships to possessions to money to concepts to ourselves. She is also the ruler of Taurus and at her most sensual and physically comfortable in the sign, which promises settling in and comfy-ness in our connections.

The tangible is of prime importance to Venus in Taurus -- the smell of flowers, steaming coffee and baked goods; the feel of soft natural fabrics; money in the bank; the reassurance of a physical touch instead of mere words, no matter how artful. She drops the self-sufficient warrior goddess mode of Aries and allows herself to be waited on, catered to and worshipped.

Her shift invites us to do the same: To settle into the moment, unhurried. To enjoy the physical pleasures of existence. To take ownership of our ideas, creations and projects and focus on the fruition of all our energetic seeds.

The earthy emphasis intensifies when the Sun enters Taurus on Friday, followed by Mars on Saturday. The masculine is following the feminine’s lead and supplying the drive and motivation to carry out her wishes. Mars isn’t as quick to act in this sign, but what he loses in daring and zeal he gains in manual dexterity and willingness to see something through. Our instincts are turning to how to concretize and implement our ideas, visions and projects -- in short, how to make them manifest.

Follow those impulses. Claim and embrace all that has been erupting within you. Write it down. Make it physical. Begin to nourish it.

And follow the Taurean impulses back to nature. Make a point to spend time outside. Take your shoes off and wiggle your toes in the dirt. Bring flowers into your home. Really look at the array of local produce in the market. Considering eating more of it, too.

Sound simple? Trite, even? Humor me. Do them anyway. For one thing, connecting with nature is a quick and no-cost way to keep from frying or toppling when the energies grow uncomfortable or overwhelming. Grab a tree or plant your feet in the grass and you can drain fire or anxiety or electricity until you feel able to cope again with what is coursing through you.

For another, these acts send conscious and subliminal reminders that you are here, now, in the physical world. The physical world is the plane on which our lives play out. This is the field in which our ideas are taking root, sprouting and blossoming. And we are physical beings, each of us.

As if to underscore that message, each move into Taurus this week occurs during cosmic down time. The Sun and Mars follow this year’s recurring pattern of sign changes occurring when the Moon is void of course, a diffuse atmosphere that suspends us in time and forces us to sit with ourselves. Venus’ move is not during a void, but instead during the wee hours Monday morning, when the Western Hemisphere is largely asleep.

The impact is the same. Life is not all-systems-go when these shifts in expression take place. As is increasingly the case, the shift in mode begins within -- the starting point of everything.

The fires aren’t going cold, by the way. They’ll be flaring throughout the spring for a number of reasons. One is the delayed detonation properties inherent in last week’s Aries New Moon, which sets the tone for the season. Others are embedded in the dynamic gauntlet we’re entering, with three eclipses and another exact the Uranus/Pluto square before the end of May.

Here’s how the shift to Taurus emphasis helps with all that. It has the effect of banking the fire - surrounding it with stones and earth to shield the fire from the wind and keep the embers glowing. As you slow, ponder, taste and experience, you will be protecting your fires, so that you can return to them and stoke them when the time is right.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! Look for it under Religion & Spirituality.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

Monday: The new earthy, sensual vibe starts the wee, with Venus returning home to Taurus well before dawn EDT. Her comfort translates into ours. It’s a day of feeling good about yourself and about simply being alive. Watch for the opportunity to take practical action toward a heart-based goal. The later part of the day is suited for the simply being alive part, since the Moon is void of course from 3:42 PM EDT until 10:50 PM. If you’re looking for insight, tonight is a fertile one for requesting guidance in a dream. (Specify that it come in imager that you understand and remember.)

Tuesday: The feeling of happy-making comfort continues through the pre-dawn hours. Within that safety blanket, dreams explore deep-rooted fears and conversation topics that are clamoring to be addressed. The journey ends in a lovely outpouring of compassion and guidance (for yourself, at minimum). Float on that throughout the morning. Confusion may mount, but take heart: The afternoon puts you through a gauntlet that helps you make sense of, ground and benefit from the ongoing rumblings of change. Tonight’s another productive one for requesting dream guidance.

Wednesday: Answers come overnight, whether you ask for them or not. You may wake up understanding a situation (and particularly other people’s behavior) as never before. Your trust in your own intuition or link to guidance could be greater as well. Hang on to that certainty. Motivations are cloudy as the day progresses; pushes for particular outcomes spin out into confusion or vanish in a poof. Hold tight. By evening, your hand is firmly on the steering wheel -- as your foot mashes down on the accelerator.

Thursday: The dreamworld sheds some of the happy-cozy atmosphere it’s enjoyed this week. Anxieties creep in -- about a relationship, about paying your bills, about the prospect of being denied what you want. Whatever they concern, they fuel a drive and dissatisfaction. Just be sure not to vent that at any particular person -- although the temptation to grandstand and go over the top, even, will grow all day long. Helpful guideline: Is it worth it? Fix your eye on the glamour -- as in, fanciful trappings passing for reality -- and you will recognize the real deal when it surfaces late evening. Could be true love; could be heaven-sent; will be heart-opening and nourishing. Do you have writing materials at your bedside?

Friday: Messages fly in the overnight hours. Don’t discount the possibility that you actually had a conversation. (Last week, after a late night phone call with a friend, our talk continued, on the phone, in my dream.) Dreamworld discontent builds incentive to try a different tact -- as simple as choosing to be happy instead of letting a perceived lack weigh you down. Remember that choice as you navigate the power issues that pepper the morning. Navigate them on the basis on what makes you feel good about yourself (no sacrificing dignity or integrity, okay?) and when you hit a crossroads, take the path that more expresses responsibility and commitment to yourself. When the Sun enters Taurus late in the afternoon/early in the evening, inclinations gravitate toward the practical, the constructive, and the here and now. Before the Sun completes that relocation, the Moon goes void of course at 5:07 PM EDT until late tomorrow. This is definitely an evening to contemplate and experience what is right in front of your face.

Saturday: Last night’s “be here now” vibe continues all day, since the Moon is void of course until 9:10 PM EDT. Despite the void, it’s not likely to be quiet. We’re compelled to live large and dramatically, as if everyone’s received a temporary entitlement gene implant. Frames of reference are tilting. Bolts of insight are flashing like lightning. Information is arriving out of left field that opens possibilities you hadn’t considered. The atmosphere turns squirmy after Mars moves into Taurus and heads for his comfy chair. Adjusting to the slower, more earthbound vibe may take into the evening. You’ll know when that happens; you’ll be all systems go. Apply some of that energy to putting writing materials at your bedside. The dreams to come will likely make the effort worthwhile.

Sunday: Dreams are more fantastical than is their wont. Tonight’s explore scenarios fit for indie films. The wild meanderings could well be processing your experience of recent developments and sorting through what of them is real and solid and what is illusion. Harsh truths surface with the dawn. They shape your path through the day, which is dominated by implementing the new In all its many forms and communicating in all ways.

SURVIVAL SKILLS FOR EMPATHS returns on Sunday, April 21 at 8 PM EDT. Read how you can join me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Libra Full Moon Aries New Moon

2013 Aries New Moon

Mon, 8 Apr 2013 18:29:06 -0400

April 10, 2013
2:36 AM PDT / 5:36 AM EDT / 9:36 AM GMT
20 Aries 40

By Kathy Biehl

Spring is always a time of new beginnings and growth. The first new moon of the season will prolong its vibe with a vengeance. Wednesday’s Aries New Moon captures the exciting initiating impulses that have been detonating and keeps them burning for the rest of the season.

The fiery energy has been ramping up since the middle of March, when the planetary emphasis began shifting from the gentle, all-encompassing, logic-scrambling, Kumbaya-singing of Pisces to the independent, trailblazing, shoot/leap-first-and-ask-questions-later bravado of Aries. Ideas, projects, situations and possibilities have been proliferating like popcorn (hence the video I shot for this week’s Astro-Insight forecast). Some are new. Some are nuggets that went quiet long ago and are now roaring back to life. All have a life force packed with steroids and exciting, innovative and far-reaching growth potential.

These are the seeds of a future unlike any we have experienced, and this New Moon catapults them -- and us -- into it. Every body that is currently in Aries has met with Uranus, the agent of radical, unpredictable change, and is still resounding with its perspective-tilting genius.

The innovation and electricity inherent in that not only color the New Moon, but get a boost from the fusing of heart and drive that happened with last weekend’s Venus/Mars conjunction. This conjunction, which fused desire and creativity to the drive to bring them into being, is core to this New Moon.. The conjunction of the Sun and the Moon is very close to Venus and Mars’ meeting place. Mars and then Venus are the last two contacts the Moon makes by declination before fusing with the Sun, so she brings their passionate, dynamic collaboration into her own new phase. (The Sun’s last major contact is a door-opening link to Jupiter, who contributes his golden touch and expansive bent to the growth potential.) She rolls their magic out into the future as well, since the two archetypal lovers are the first to greet the Moon when she leaves the Sun.

What does this mean for you? You are in an unparalleled time for launching anything. Thinking is not the route; instead, the way to go is responding to impulses that roar up from within (and flare up around you as well). If ever you were going to take risks or dare or try out something you might have previously considered crazy, do it now. This New Moon has a propulsion that could kick obstacles out of your way -- or set off a chain of dominos to a mind-blowing destination -- like you’ve never dreamed possible.

Not everything will take, of course, but you’ll be surprised how much will lead to something tangible. Even letting off steam --or more fiery impulses -- could prove beneficial. if you have a temper tantrum (seen any of those lately?) or feel the burn of ancient wrongs, you may well be adding fuel to your momentum.

So dare. Just do it. What’s beginning or developing now has properties that will fire like booster rockets time and again.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” -- Johann Wolfgang van Goethe

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of April 8-14, 2013

Sat, 6 Apr 2013 14:55:43 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Are you sensitive to your environment and other people? Join me Monday evening for Survival Skills for Empaths via Skpe, 9 PM EDT.

Life is erupting like popcorn right now. Kernels of creativity, passion and drive are exploding willy-nilly. Others are heating up and will burst when least expected in the coming weeks. The languor and confusion of late winter has given way to a pace so quickened that it’s borderline out-of-control.

We’re very much in initiating and new-growth mode, setting sparks, ideas and projects in motion that will only evolve and blossom. These metaphoric seeds have a primal drive to flourish and on an accelerated schedule to boot, as if they’ve been dosed with thermo-nuclear, radioactive strength, cosmic Miracle-Gro. Some of them have been building strength for months, a year, even years, which only adds to the pressure and excitement behind their emerging.

True, it’s not all new business. Some cleaning up of the old is still going on. The next six weeks will bring a flurry of closings, profound shifts of attitude and situations, permanent departures, abrupt endings and the like. They will not be the focus, though. Their purpose will be make room for the new growth.

The process is much like when a gardener removes debris and dead plants from a garden and thins out seedlings so that the new plants don’t have to compete for space and nutrients. Only, in our case, with a tad more emotion. Okay, maybe lots more emotion. Still, the point remains: the clearing is to further the new, not obsess over the old.

Besides, we don’t have much time for the past. We’re making like the White Rabbit and dashing about muttering, “I’m late. I’m late, for a very important date.”

All of these characteristics intensify this week. By the weekend, the sign of Aries will reach capacity, with all the inner planets, the Sun and Uranus crowding around (or in) the flames. The bonfire is roaring to its maximum height and shooting passions, tempers, enthusiasm and gumption up and off the charts. All kinds of matters, big and little alike, that have been percolating or stalling or lurking in who knows where are coming to life. It’s as if booster rockets are firing in quick succession and catapulting everything forward. (Yes, I know: how many metaphors can I cram in one forecast? Apparently one a paragraph, if not one a sentence.)

Wednesday’s Aries New Moon -- the first of the spring -- imprints this boisterous, life-enhancing energy onto the entire season. Last weekend’s fiery date between Venus and Mars fuels the mix. What ignited within you? It won’t go out quickly or easily. This New Moon occurs so close to the embers (in some cases, still-burning fires) that it will keep them glowing for the next three months. (Read more in my moon cast, which will be posted by Tuesday.)

Friday Pluto stations for his annual retrograde. As the agent of deep level, unavoidable change does an about face, he will be begin backing into his next clash with Uranus, the agent of sudden and unforeseeable change. The metaphoric roots and structures that Pluto loosens now will snap, break, collapse or fracture when the two change agents square off again at the end of May.

On Saturday, the ruler of communication and transportation, Mercury, emerges at last from all that water in Pisces and joins the gang in the fire of Aries. Brains will lunge back into gear. Words will come easily, exuberantly, quickly, impulsively. People will be running here and there at a moment’s notice. Prepare to think and live absolutely in the moment. And not be bored.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! Look for it under Religion & Spirituality.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

Monday: The Moon is void of course until 3-ish EDT. We’re not lunging into the week but building up strength and speed for take off. What happened to your inspiration, creativity, motivation and zest for life this past weekend? It’s hanging in the air. We’re all assimilating the weekend and burning it into our concept of ourselves. (Are you on fire with yourself? In love with yourself? That would be on target.) The heat increases mid afternoon, when the Moon enters Aries and begins the approach to Wednesday’s New Moon. Her first hours in the fire promise to be unsettling. You may well wonder if you are fooling yourself or if a personally meaningful development is as good as it feels. Time will tell.

Tuesday: It’s a day of more processing and assimilating. New perspectives and strokes of genius erupt and put you to the task of how you are going to give them concrete form and rework certain situations in your life to make room. Bask in yourself. Indulge in activities that make you feel good about being alive. Bask in your creativity, desires, beloved connections and, if you like, your precious belongings, too. Bask in the sensation of blood coursing through your veins -- and excitement crackling throughout your entire being. Your sense of self is lining up with the passion that recently ignited, and it is spurring you to action.

Wednesday: In the overnight hours, concepts jump up for attention that you haven’t openly faced -- and that push against some of the tidy rules of your life. Dream imagery may take weirder than typical forms as your psyche explores Monday’s question of “is this real or am I making it up?” Venus and Mars reaffirm their vows and underscore the passion that has awakened. Our bodies may well awaken, too, with the powerhouse New Moon at 5:36 AM EDT. (Read more about in my mooncast, which will be on the site by Tuesday.) Whether it rouses you out of bed or not, it zaps you with an energy that ramps up at least twice during the morning. You are alive, and how, completely on board with the desire and drive that have fused within you and without you. As per the usual pattern, just as this energy erupts into a blaze, an unseen hand hits the pause button. Warm yourself by the fire -- and maybe outline the zillions of projects that are erupting in you -- when the Moon goes void of course just after noon EDT for the next 11 hours.

Thursday: Today allows more time to play with the fire. Inspiration and guidance run high, so ask for it. You’re likely not inclined to kowtow to authority or limits. The force is with you, though, and change comes easily and organically. It’s a good time for closet cleaning, real and metaphoric.

Friday: In the soundtrack of your life, the music is taking on a somber note that signals mysterious, powerful, maybe even fated developments. From today through July Pluto will be retrograde, plowing deeper through/into psychological and structural foundations and destabilizing roots, pylons and support beams that will ultimately go. Change is in the air and on many a mind, but whether we’re ready and willing to talk about it is another matter. Folks are more prone to act (or demand their way) than speak reasonably. Eventually, we are all put to a choice of how to welcome toward’s lightning bolts, insights, disruptions and harbingers of change into our lives...because one way or another, they have arrived.

Saturday: Get ready to talk! After a happy, chatty morning, Mercury ends his two and a half month voyage through Pisces and enters the revitalizing fire of Aries. Minds and mouths are ablaze. Slowness, sogginess and confusion vanish, and conversations are now possible -- and wholeheartedly so -- that couldn’t get off the ground in recent works.

Sunday: The predawn hours have us weighing options and experiencing the paradox of structure and innovation. The subconscious choices that you are making for stability are creating the platform that allows you to experiment and break through previous limitations. After the sun rises, denying yourself is futile. Your imperative is to enjoy, to expand, to flourish. Romance could flourish as well. At a minimum, so will awareness of love, compassion and all that is good and kind in humanity (and yourself).

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Libra Full Moon Aries New Moon

Forecast for week of April 1-7, 2013

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 18:05:03 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

The awakening and enlivening process continues. We’ve got a major dose of get-up-and-go from the preponderance of bodies in initiating, fast-acting, combative and daring Aries. Another exciting flare-up in the Aries fire is in store this weekend. That builds all week long, amid opportunities for catching our breath and healing at a deep, deep level.

Fires of motivation are blazing under us and within us, and we periodically linger and ponder and acclimate and, in that active inaction transcend longstanding, paradoxical wounds of separation and engulfment. The combination brings balance, really: life force, rest and rejuvenation.

We’re getting clearer, more optimistic and more confident about ourselves -- and particularly about the new direction into which we’re heading. The cosmic red arrow that has been flashing and pointing since the winter solstice has become a firm, strong, reliable and friendly signal. We start the week with the Sun in an easy flow to the point of that arrow (a configuration called a finger of God), expansive Jupiter in the high-flying, multi-tasking sign of Gemini. The pair beckons us to a future that is brighter and more expansive than our previous concepts. Dream big, and then dream bigger.

The week’s undercurrent is a link between Pluto, lord of the subconscious, and wounded healer Chiron. The first body is primally scary and insistent, but equally, potently empowering. He’s the agent of unavoidable change, and is locked in a several year universal remodeling project with Uranus, the agent of unpredictable change. The second body (a dwarf planet to be exact) embodies the challenge to sink fully into physical existence.

As Pluto and Chiron reach out to each other, they offer balm for the cracks, fissures, splits and torn-up roots we have all been experiencing. The pair also opens the door to feeling less alone -- to feeling not at all alone, in fact, but part of a greater multitude. Notice how many people -- and specifically who -- have been in contact with you in the last week. Notice the quality of the connecting and reconnecting. (One example is a red tide of marriage equality images washing over Facebook last week, showing more and more and more people who stood in solidarity with each other.) Are you feeling more connected with yourself as well?

This soothing, therapeutic air could turn this week’s spate of void of course Moons into personal spa time. The Moon is void of course when she makes her final major aspect before leaving a sign. Because no planets are in the second half of any of the signs at the moment, the Moon has an uncommonly long journey out of each sign, which makes for frequent, long voids. During a void (think: devoid of major aspects), outward activity often amounts to little, or unravels later. The atmosphere is gentle, diffused, contemplative and generally supportive of not striving toward a goal or the future but instead, simply being.

This week, the long voids consume all of Monday and Wednesday and the second half of Friday. These stretches are suited to stoking and gazing into the fires and experience your own life force coursing through you.

And what is on our mind throughout the week? More appropriately, what is driving us? Desire. Desire and the will to go after it, no matter what. Desire and drive got amped up in last week’s Full Moon festivities. This week they will have their way. They will be satisfied.

That driving impulse comes from the week’s big event, a date between Venus and Mars, after midnight early Sunday morning in the East and late Saturday night elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere. This meeting flame-kisses both the spring season and the next two years, which is the length of the Mars cycle that has just begun.

This meeting is uniting the archetypal feminine and masculine and setting them on fire, within you as well as in the collective. Although there may be an aspect of the phoenix entering the fire and emerging reborn, the focus of this event is definitely the future. The burst is initiating, motivating and kick-starting. This clinch merges our hearts and our willpower, our desires and our drive to get them met, our value systems and our willingness to go to battle for them. We’re all impassioned to the max, bold, driven, hell-bent even on going after what we want.

Anything that starts now will have a progressive, new-paradigm edge, because both Venus and Mars have come through the freeing, perspective-tilting electricity of Uranus, which each of them met in late March. Relationships may erupt into life, or into new life, with parameters unlike your previous experience.

This energy is not merely about relationships, though, not by any means. It is about throwing yourself into life at full throttle.

Use the voids to quiet the voices in your head, still your being, ground, regroup, and listen to your heart. When the signal changes -- and these days, red means go! -- let your energy lead you. If you feel excited or energized, zoom ahead. If you find yourself thinking about something and running it by your friends and thinking about it some more, that’s a “no” or “not yet” signal. The same’s true if you are feeling neutral or resistant. Any reaction other than emotions rushing toward something means “no,” at least for now.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes!
Look for it under Religion & Spirituality

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

New blog entry: Why last week’s astrology means that gay marriage is inevitable.

Monday: The drive to get going ramps up in the dreamworld, which could shed significant light on what you are motivated to do. The Moon is void of course for effectively the entire day, from 1:01 AM EDT until tomorrow. The atmosphere inside the void is jovial and expansive. Look for opportunities to increase your confidence and personal wellbeing. Indulgence and gratification are prerogatives. Don’t feel guilty about exercising them.

Tuesday: The energies are invigorating and motivating. Guidance and inspiration are for the asking. Monkey wrenches abound, but serve to offer alternatives and open your thinking and schedule. (Doris Day is singing, “Que sera, sera....”) Check your grounding now and again, remind yourself of what’s truly important to you and what’s the small stuff, and when you hit a crossroads, choose the path that looks more expansive.

Wednesday: The dream world rattles your complacency or reticence about following the dictates of your heart and kicks desires and ambitions into higher gear. Perhaps a particular relationship is at issue? Clues are in whatever’s running through your mind early morning. You have all day to ponder. The Moon goes void of course at 6:36 AM EDT for the rest of the day. The skies leave us unattended until late evening as well...which makes this stretch especially well suited for clearing out static and connecting with yourself. Otherwise you might mistake late-night clouds of confusion for insight.

Thursday: The void ends at 4:42 AM, when the Moon enters the Uranian domain of Aquarius. We are being left to our own navigational systems, however, until early evening, when combativeness is likely in travel and communication. If you’ve been clearing out the mental clutter, you’ll recognize what’s going on and take the interchanges as rocket fuel for your own ambitions. Opportunities to clear out more clutter come with the darkening night sky. Grab the monkey wrench that flies toward you and rework your schedule, your plans, your thinking. You’re in a growth spurt (some might call it a learning experience) in intimacy and sharing.

Friday: Communication and travel issues are paramount and pervasive, because their ruler Mercury is highly active all day. Major strides are possible in lining up your thinking and your actions; what you say and what you do hit new levels of congruence. At the same time, one situation after another provides a long-distance perspective on how you’re presenting yourself, as well as on your relationships, your finances and your system of values. The morning’s vibe is happy and expansive, inspiring bridge-building and confident action. A kick-back air takes over when the Moon goes void of course at 1:22 PM EDT until 9 AM tomorrow. Keep your mind and expectations open this evening. Don’t let anxiety about the unknown -- especially someone else’s -- color your world.

Saturday: The day tingles with Venus and Mars gearing up for their big date shortly after midnight EDT tomorrow (9:58 PM PDT). Tantalizing dreams explore desires that are just barely out of reach and lead into this intensely me-first day. Desires stoke in an increasingly magical atmosphere, with a sense of destiny mingling with the heightening air of romance. Butterflies flutter in stomaches; desires palpably burn. Even if you’re alone, you’re on fire, as desire and will erupt into one huge, life-giving, life-enhancing conflagration.

Sunday: No matter what happened Saturday, today quickly demonstrates that you’re fine with it. You’re getting more nimble at fielding lightning bolts, schedule disruptions and perspective-altering twists and turns -- and at regaining firm footing after they strike. A lot of situations are poised to simplify, including your comfort level with them -- and with the passion that’s still blazing. Self-indulgence is at a high. Go for it: Allowing yourself to want leads to allowing yourself to go after leads to allowing yourself to have. Huge strides in personal growth (and relations) ensue. After which all involved sit back and talk about it, face to face or telepathically.

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Libra Full Moon Pisces New Moon

2013 Libra Full Moon

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:13:53 -0400

March 27, 2013
2:28 AM PDT / 5:28 AM EDT / 9:28 AM GMT
6 Aries 32 / 6 Libra 32

By Kathy Biehl

“Love is the infinite, placed within the reach of poodles.” -- Celine.

This month’s Libra Full Moon reminds me of the end of a spectacular fireworks show, when rockets shoot up faster and faster and erupt into overlapping sparkling patterns of stars and circles and swirls and wiggly bits that glisten and linger and slowly dissipate and fall.

The explosions create one continuously morphing image, taking shape so quickly and simultaneously that onlookers are transfixed, immersed (and overwhelmed) in the totality of the display and unable to focus, fixate or hang on to any one moment in it.

That’s the case with Wednesday’s Full Moon in Libra. Relationships, alliances are agreements are coming to the fore, but not in the lyrical, graceful, pretty wrapping that Libra prefers. The Full Moon pits the Moon in peace and harmony-loving Libra against a band of provocateurs striking matches (and more) in Aries -- while depth charges are blasting celestial titans into shifting their weight.

It’s a gloriously messy, exciting, volatile, game-changing extravaganza, forever altering the landscapes of our hearts, connections and world. Passion fuels all of it, with the Moon’s ruler Venus not merely in fiery, fearless Aries but holding hands with the Sun, change agent Uranus and her archetypal partner Mars. She’s so close to the Sun, in fact, that they are indistinguishable, a proximity called in combust.

In combust: Remember that concept. The label fits us all now.

We’re all on fire. We’re all hot heads, impulsive, daring in ways our brains have been braking. But no longer. We’re burning bridges and, in some cases, dynamiting them. We’re throwing memories, heartache and hesitations onto a bonfire -- and maybe ourselves, too -- and emerging with hearts purified and blazing with desire. We’re simultaneously nuking the past and zapping the future into being, in a baptism of orgiastic fire.

As unexpected as specific events will be -- the triggers could catch you completely unawares -- whatever blows up or open now has been long brewing. The line-up is pressuring points that have been tenderized since June, September and December of last year.

This Moon’s complex configuration is lobbing grenades and pouring flame accelerant into the ongoing Uranus/Pluto square, the conflict that is forcing so much restructuring in our lives. This week’s events will tie directly to their next clash, coming up later in May. The line-up is also firing up the cosmic red arrow (finger of God) that has been coming into sharper and more insistent focus since the winter solstice. It’s combining celestial players into two additional interlocking fingers as well. We’re being hammered, prodded, taunted, enraged, inflamed, engulfed and energized from all sides, in all ways.

There’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nothing to do but stand in the middle of the fireworks until your mission kicks in. You’ll know what it is -- maybe not until you’re well into it, but you’ll know.

One caution: This may not be comfortable. Strong emotions are coursing, and you may feel physically strange, uneasy, even at times like scorched earth. Take time periodically, at least each morning, to regroup and ground. If you’re inclined to ask that your actions be guided by a higher wisdom, that would be one prudent approach for navigating this initiation. Remind yourself not to take anyone’s behavior personally. Primal impulses are on the loose and otherwise sober-thinking, mature individuals will be throwing tantrums that would land a toddler in a time out.

Make use of all this fire. May it embolden you to burn away what no longer serves and to leap into situations that keep your flame blazing bright.

Read my short article on why this Full Moon configuration means gay marriage is inevitable.

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of Mar. 25-31, 2013

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:11:44 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” -- Goethe

One of the most exciting and transforming seasons of our lives has begun! The next few weeks promise to be energizing and, let’s be honest here, volatile in ways we’ve rarely experienced.

This week, big action ignites. The skies are firing up new identities, boldness and directions, not merely in our concepts of ourselves, but also in our hearts, relationships, desires and basic hunter instincts.

Been stuck? Quiet? Unfocused? Uncertain? Hesitant? Not any longer. Motivation, gumption and derring-do are going off like a string of firecrackers. We’re all in first-responder mode, jumping and pouncing fearlessly, recklessly, before the gun, even.

The detonations will be sudden and explosive, with a timing that defies advance notice. The areas going off, however, are not out of the blue. They have been rocking, rolling and showing signs of significant stress fractures (less dramatically: evolution) since last June.

This week, it’s as if someone is tossing sticks of dynamite into the fissures, or molten lava is erupting through them and reshaping the surrounding terrain, or life force is roaring out of our root chakras up our spines. Yep, spring is really here at last, and with a vengeance.

The energies build to intensity Wednesday, which really deserves the label hump day this time around. All the triggering influences -- and there’s a cluster of them -- will be at their peak. Some aren’t technically exact until Thursday, and when that happens it will bring relief that takes off some of the pressure.

Desires, relationships and me-first, “I want” issues are all over this cluster -- and the week’s developments. Wednesday’s Full Moon in Libra highlights, as always, how we’re balancing the competing needs of the self and the other (or a union). This year’s edition makes no pretense of the sweetness so often associated with Libra. Its powerhouse configuration says enough already and knocks dominos over, all across the playing field.

The Moon’s ruler Venus isn’t in playing coy or helpless, waiting for a big stwong man to do her bidding. She’s in Aries, at her most self-starting, aggressive and hunter-goddessy -- not to mention that both she and the Sun are on the brink of lighting firecrackers (or Molotov cocktails) with each other and with Uranus, a three-way that combusts on Thursday.

That’s not all the incentive, though. This Full Moon locks into the Uranus/Pluto square, the ongoing revolutionary dynamic that has been destabilizing and restructuring the real and metaphoric foundations of our existence. The configuration ups the pressure on Pluto, the agent of unavoidable and deep level change.

As the Johnny Mercer song says, “Something’s gotta give.” Cracks that have been forming since last June deepen. Desires that have been taking shape since then spring from the subconscious and into being.

Scared? Don’t be. Nervous? Well, anyone who’s sensitive to energy is. Thank goodness for the frequent and long void of course moons this week, times of enforced quiet or inactivity that will help us accustom to so much fire.

What’s occurring is primal. It’s spring, awakening. It’s you awakening into the next, exciting phase of your life. Read more in my mooncast.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes!
Look for it under Religion & Spirituality

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely available for four and a half years. Please support it by booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you!

Monday: The rock ‘em, sock ‘em vibe rolls in overnight. You’re making choices to increase your breathing and maneuvering room, and casting your lot with love and higher guidance. You wake up knowing what you want (likely different from what you consciously sought before last night) and also trusting yourself, and your guidance, to get it. Permission to have more, more, more is also in the air. So is, paradoxically, streamlining -- though the focus of that impulse is more likely your own foibles, with the result of firming up your own personal power. And just when you hit maximum strength, it’s time to kick back and simply sit with the new sensations -- all before a lot of us have reached for that first cup of coffee. The Moon goes void of course at 8:46 AM for the rest of the day and most of tomorrow, until 5:33 PM EDT Tuesday. Inside the void, realizations, information and messages fly that open minds, locks and situations and demonstrate just how much thinking has shifted. Crossroads pop up that require choices in approach -- as in, what’s the optimal (quickest, most likely) route to making plans concrete or getting the most bang for your buck. For now, action is most fruitfully directed inward.

Tuesday: The Moon is void of course until 5:33 PM EDT. Ambitions, plans and nerve are mushrooming. We’re building strength like a storm off the Gulf. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, make it bigger. And then bigger. Once the Moon clears the void, she hits the on ramp for tomorrow’s Libra Full Moon and emotional intensity mounts. The night air is rife with arguments, power ploys and just plain drama. You have choices. You can flick a domino over and set a chain in motion without getting into the scuffle yourself, you know. Might take a little guidance to know where to “ping.” You might know where to get same.

Wednesday: The Libra Full Moon takes place at 5:28 AM EDT. (Read about it in my mooncast.) A lot of people will be waking up at sixes and sevens -- vaguely out of sort and wondering how much of their woes are due to other people. Efforts may escalate to smooth ruffled feathers, but what everyone really wants -- let’s be honest here -- is their own way. That raw truth becomes starkly apparent mid-afternoon, and then the Moon goes void of course for the rest of the day and most of tomorrow (2:16 PM - 8:55 PM EDT Thursday). Keep your eyes open; lots can and will become clear during this void.

Thursday: The Moon is void of course till 8:55 PM EDT, appropriately for the solemn, contemplative role that Maundy Thursday plays in the Christian calendar. The rest of the day, however, is anything but somber. The day is a mix of stabilizing and fiery, fiery activating. On the stabilizing end: thoughts, ideas, plans, realizations, information, messages, many pertaining to or fleshing out the support end of the cosmic red arrow that’s been pointing the new way to each of us. Metaphoric pylons are sinking in, possibly in our thinking, possibly in actual relationship structures. Meanwhile, on the anything but stabilizing end, our desires and passions are merging with our identity. We’re on fire with enterprising, self-actualizing passions -- and bursting out of containers and shells that hold those in check. The excitement, energy and momentum build and build and build, like a container of Jiffy Pop going off over a stove top. This change doesn’t merely come from within; it erupts from within. The outer landscape -- and above all our connections -- will bear the kiss of this flame, and how.

Good Friday: The smoke from all those fires begins to dissipate in the dream world and leaves us awash with love. The overnight fills our hearts with utter bliss -- from a connection to a special person, to our inspiration, to source, to all of creation. The morning runs us through a gauntlet of adjustments and choices. Take care not to lash out at monkey wrenches and schedule disruptions; they free you even if you don’t immediately see how. You’re finding a new inner balance, and relationships are seesawing a bit as well. Bravado and bluster are everywhere. Minds are on overdrive; talk runs high; social media is on fire. Treat it as a fireworks display and you may detect a pattern, spy monumental information and hit on the optimal way to speak your truth and play the energies. True, pulling that off is a challenge, because your insides are ping-ponging from feeling stymied to clamoring for immediate gratification to winding up your chatterbox to pushing for action, any action. The Moon goes void of course at 4:26 PM EDT until late tomorrow evening. As the tumult dies down that cosmic red arrow is back, coming more and more sharply into viewing, flashing insistently toward a direction and destination that refuses to be ignored. Your soul is calling.

Saturday: The Moon is void of course until 11:14 PM EDT, but we’re hardly floating aimlessly or sitting around contemplating our navels today. Hearts, desires and passions are still spontaneously combusting. The difference from Thursday is that as our jets fire they’re scooting us into significant crossroads and choice points. We’re making adjustments and decisions that have long-term reaches, that challenge us to commit to our passions, our hearts, our recently revved up sense of self -- and that challenge us to immerse ourselves more deeply and meaningfully into intimate connections. Our choices leave us all a bit ropey. Tread lightly from lunchtime on. We’re all acclimating, adjusting and to some extent feeling scorch marks.

Sunday: It’s Easter in the western Christian calendar. The end of the overnight hours sees cravings and desires inflaming even more than they have already this week. Now they take on a raw, primal, insistent quality that should make for startling (and memorable) dreams. They’re potent enough to bleed into the waking world, which could well cause you to view someone in an unexpectedly desirable light. No harm; no worries. Hearts are open. Sociability is rampant. People are amenable to hanging out, to kicking traditions and plans over and just having fun (which bodes well for family gatherings). The auspices are beautiful for heart-felt, fun-loving and downright enjoyable interactions into the evening. As the witching hour approaches, though, the theme from Jaws starts rumbling. Hanging on is futile. So is controlling, forcing and, all together now, resistance.

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Libra Full Moon Pisces New Moon

Forecast for week of Mar. 18-24, 2013

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:16:28 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

My 2013 astro-outlook is now available on mp3. 90 minutes, $40.

Lock in your grounding cord and fasten your seat belt. Spring isn’t merely erupting this year. It’s exploding.

Everything’s heating up: the pace, enthusiasm, tempers, ambition, desires, agendas and breakthroughs. No more wallowing, swirling or drowning in water, clouds, fog and/or confusion. We’re climbing out and blasting off. Okay, so at times that’ll be more like being blasted out, by a depth charge that some hand, seen or unseen, has lobbed into the water. Either way, we’re moving,

Most of the pool party is clearing out of Pisces and warming themselves in the fires of Aries. The ruler of communication and transportation, Mercury, is still all wet but at least he’s ended his retrograde and will finally move noticeably forward by Thursday. These changes affect all of us. Our will, drive, gumption and hearts are all heading right for the flames -- and for the come-what-may, unlocking, radical embrace of Uranus. The first clinch comes Friday, and the anticipation will be building all week.

But first, a look at what’s taking us into that embrace. Last week action hero Mars led the way into his home, where he encourages impulsive, fearless-to-reckless leading the charge, leaping first and looking, maybe, long afterward. This week the Sun and Venus follows, on Tuesday and Thursday.

The Sun’s move into Aries is the spring equinox, when the wheel of the year turns to birth and growth, the annual return of life force surging through seedlings and our beings. It’s natural to go outside and feel the hint of warmth in the air, and shake off the dust and doldrums of winter (and, this year, the unprecedented waters of the past six weeks). The gear shift stokes our internal engines and orients us to new and exciting possibilities.

When Venus joins the fire Thursday, say goodbye to quiet, contemplative, dare I say boring stretches. She’s entering huntress mode in Aries, not willing to wait for anyone to do her bidding but boldly targeting and pouncing on her prey. She is not subtle, reticent, sweet, sympathetic or patient, but unapologetic about what she wants and going after it.

Hmmm....Mars is in action mode....Venus is in action mode....are you getting a picture yet? The fact that the love goddess and her consort are both in the most primal expression of fire -- and both heading for Uranus -- spells an end to inaction, particularly where relationships are involved.

Desire trumps fear (or logic) and crazy action ensues. Moths flock to flames. The gun-shy step into the fray. Anything can happen, at any moment -- especially once Mars meets up with Uranus.

That happens on Friday, in a super-conjunction, with the two hot heads lining up by declination and zodiacal degree. Let me get the one warning out of the way: Mars + Uranus can bring accidents. Take special care while driving or in motion. Watch where you’re going. Watch your temper. Don’t project worries onto that day. Ask instead for protection and guidance.

That duo can blast you out of all kinds of stuck places. The pair can motivate you and everyone around you to get moving quickly -- so quickly that deep into the change you and the others look around, recognize where you are and what’s happened and marvel together. (This will be particularly true in relationships.)

Don’t be scared. Don’t worry. There’s no point in worry -- or time for it. You’ve been waiting for this. It’s exciting. It’s life-affirming and enhancing. And it’s fun. Face the direction of your dreams. Your rockets are firing, and you’re blasting off.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture!

Monday: The overnight hours bring an adjustment in comfort level. Huge shifts are underway, and compartments in your psyche are moving around to accommodate them. That willingness and flexibility aren’t true, alas for certain factions in the waking world. Confrontations are by no means a given today. Still, wariness is in the air....

Tuesday: Caution and distance give way to clashes at last (which could be internal) as the day starts. A confrontation with love goddess Venus pushes the Moon off into a void that lasts for the bulk of the day, from 8:18 AM - 2:56 PM EDT. Remember that words will hang in the air, and regulate yourself accordingly. That will take consciousness and deliberateness. This void is not soft and dreamy but edgy to the point of discomfort. People will be fearing change, fearing disruption, aching for it or chomping at the bit. It will be easy to interpret developments and concepts as threats. They are to the status quo, that is true. Wait till after the void, if possible, to pursue air-clearing research and conversations. Talk will flow with less possibility for incident. Besides, your thinking may be different by then. Asking for information in dreams is particularly worthwhile tonight. Remember to state the intention that answers come in images you understand and that you remember the dreams.

Wednesday: The dreamworld delivers a slew of “I get it!” moments, followed by the gumption to do something about “it,” whatever that may be. Follow-through will not take long. We’re shot into the day around 7 AM EDT when the Sun enters Aries and the Moon makes an action-demanding link to volatile Uranus. Frustrated desires -- or the anticipation that we might not get what we want -- drives the day and inspires going all the harder and more determinedly after them. Stabilizing comes as the sense of catapulting slows and we enter, yes, another void of course Moon. This one’s super-sized again, from 2:02 PM EDT today until early in the morning Friday -- the day after tomorrow. As with last week, the skies are revving us up and then suspending us in the energy of readiness but not yet opening the gates to a full forward assault.

Thursday: The Moon is void of course all day, and this is when Venus enter Aries. Think of today as a tantric exercise. Fires and desires are being stoked. Life force, kundalini and passions are gaining strength. It’s rocket fuel, all of it. Enjoy the burn.

Friday: The void ends during the overnight hours, at 2:50 AM. The Moon and Venus kiss and make up, our hearts decide it’s really okay to want what we want, and have what we want (there’s a difference; think about it). Ground yourself the moment your feet hit the floor, because likely the thought will not occur to you again. As for the day -- all bets are off, except that the stress point has a connection to June and September of last year. Action and passions are exploding. Locks and limitations are blowing up or being kicked down or open. Some of the frenzied action may simply be because we can, finally, move. With that in mind, if you have an agenda or action item you have been wanting to push forward, today would certainly support your efforts -- though there’s no telling how much more could happen. This is one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for moments. Also one of those times when a puff of breath could escalate into a gale-force wind (or struck match flash into a full-blown fire, or set off dynamite). With this kind of energetic caffeine, who needs coffee? Some people aren’t going to be happy with what you do, and you won’t care. Walls are tumbling down. And then, true to this week’s pattern, the Moon goes void of course for another day and a half, from 11:28 PM EDT until noonish Sunday.

Saturday: The Moon is void of course all day. We have all of Saturday to experience the energetic aftermath of all that happened yesterday -- and the fires that are still raging within and around us. So much is vibrating uneasily -- relationships, our view of ourselves, the fabric of our lives, actually -- but we can’t shut off the transmissions. We’re all getting used to a lot. What’s more, it’s during this enforced time of active inaction -- much like Thursday -- that the cosmic red arrow (remember that?) comes into new-found clarity. It’s been pointing in a direction more and more firmly since the winter solstice. Today a crossroads firms up, involving bringing a grander, more expansive vision into concrete firm. You may have an actual choice in destination -- will it be this direction or that direction? -- and definitely have one regarding how you think about it. Dream big, then bigger, then bigger still. And watch the stepping stones fall into place.

Sunday: The overnight is antsy and not particularly restful. Still, by sunrise in the eastern US we’re hitting a new level of spiritual understanding, awareness, compassion, love, warm fuzzies and guidance (which for some, alas, will translate into new levels of confusion, self-deception, escapism and/or substance abuse). The Moon leaves her void at 11 AM EDT, yet the day remains soft, contemplative, otherworldly, qualities that are more than welcome after such a boisterous week. Consider the higher meaning of everything that has happened. Marvel at the synchronicities and magic. Express gratitude, too. And rest. More’s on the way.

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Virgo Full Moon Pisces New Moon

2013 Pisces New Moon

Fri, 8 Mar 2013 13:04:42 -0500

March11, 2013
3:52 PM PDT / 12:52 PM EDT / 7:52 PM GMT
21 Pisces 24

By Kathy Biehl

My 2013 astro-outlook is now available on mp3. 90 minutes, $40.

This month’s New Moon immerses us all in the boundary-dissolving, reality-blurring waters of of Pisces. Sure, we’ve been in and on the waters, but the full-body baptism comes now. The New Moon takes all that gentle, confusing, emotional-laden, extra-sensory energy of the past few weeks, dunks us completely in it and splashes it across the next month.

We are human sponges in a divine soup of magic, healing, insanity, love, compassion and emotions and vibrations from all over creation. No way our rational minds can navigate this passage. Guidance is critical to discern what’s what: what is ours and what is someone else’s, what is a blessing, a lie, shucksterism, craziness, ravings from the bottle, or guidance from the depths of our beings or angelic heights.

There are seven bodies in Pisces right now and all of them are connected, as if they were holding hands in a chain. They are infusing the waters with magic, mystery and all forms of escapism, from the unhinged and unsavory to the most artistic and spiritual; communication and transportation issues; the possibility of healing and resolution; the merging of our emotional and logical sides; and our will, drive and actions.

The last of these bodies, Mars, is in the final degree of Pisces, which is the zodiacal point of ultimate sorrow and sacrifice. (The first Bush-era war -- Afghanistan, I believe -- began with this degree on the chart ascendant, a marker for a conflict with losses and little resolution.) There may well be an element of putting the individual aside for the greater good. Leaps of faith, or acts based on faith, will also be in high supply.

Mars’ placement also adds some firepower potential to this line-up. For one reason, he is the ultimate god of fire, so his presence (a) in Pisces and (b) in the highest degree of that sign heat the waters to a rolling boil. For another, he is close enough to Uranus in Aries that he is energetically reaching across the border between signs and pulling into the Pisces blend all that volatile, genius, impulsive, unpredictable, fearless, reckless Uranian energy. So, yes, we’re in a water atmosphere, but it’s shot through with electricity, lightning, energy and unquenchable fire. No sweet tropical lagoon, this environment. It is more like the cauldron of creation.

Anything can happen in the next month. Anything. No matter how stuck you have felt, no matter how often you have experienced life as floating aimlessly or circling on the top of the water, everything is heating up.

Trust your gut. Trust your instincts. Trust your feelings. They are more accurate -- and will, to be honest, make more sense -- than a lot of the empirical evidence that’s on the way. Developments are coming that are directly related to the ongoing rumblings, fractures and reshaping of our internal and external structures (which got depth charges last June and September, and are due for another detonation in May). Information is flowing in and action is amping up related to the cosmic red arrow that’s been pointing in an increasingly specific direction. That arrow is also an increasingly firm, reliable and sturdy foundation, while somehow bringing balm to ancient injuries.

The landscape remains chaotic, but you are getting the hang of where to plant your feet -- or, better, how to ride the currents. Your hunch is sharpening about where you’re heading, even though you still can’t see how the dots are going to connect to get you there. Your sense is good of what you truly want and who’s coming along with you, and you’re letting what no longer fits wash away. Strap yourself in: The adventure of a lifetime is beginning.

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of Mar. 11-17, 2013

Fri, 8 Mar 2013 11:55:22 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

My 2013 astro-outlook is now available on mp3. 90 minutes, $40.

I hope you’ve been taking advantage of and enjoying floating in the water, because that gentle pace is not long for this world. Boy, howdy, is movement on the way.

But first, where are you now? Your current coordinates, inside and out, are key to the next moon phase. Monday’s New Moon in Pisces takes all that gentle, confusing, emotional-laden, extra-sensory energy of the past few weeks and splashes it across the next month.

The spray is infused with desires and our willingness and ability to go after them. Leading the way: inner guidance, divine intervention and mind-blowing synchronicities. That’s right; more magic and mystery are in store for us. (My Words With Friends game has been generating cosmic commentary; what’s been happening with you?) Read more in my mooncast.

And then, blam! We move from floating to hopping on a jet ski and zooming across the water when action god Mars moves into his fiery home sign of Aries on Tuesday. Say goodbye to wallowing, circling, sleepwalking and staring off into the clouds. Mars is in his element in Aries - impulsive, impatient, assertive, antagonistic, fearless, independent and leaping before looking or aiming. After idling in the water for weeks, he’s raring to go -- and could go way overboard when the ability to move kicks in.

Tuesday could be quite volatile, explosive and exciting, with the Moon also entering “where’s the fire?” Aries and quickly meeting up with Mars and Uranus. Some people will be toddlers in tantrums, others making like Capt. Kirk, while most of us are simply pouncing on an opening we’ve been anticipating for some time. Mind the direction of your thoughts, emotions and intentions at the beginning of the week. You’ll be charging ahead without double-checking them, so make sure you’re happy with their orientation before the games begin.

As much as you may feel you have to go after everything at once, you don’t -- and can’t. You can tackle one moment, one lily pad, one battle, one stage at a time. Mars remains in Aries through April 20, and skirmishes, thrusts, passions and forays will be ongoing through then.

After igniting us, the skies give us a few days to accustom to the blaze. The suspended-in-time sensation returns with the void of course Moon that consumes all of Wednesday and most of Thursday, and with a complete absence of celestial activity on Friday afternoon and evening. Stoke your internal fire. Let it build. Daydream about where you’d like it to take you. Ask for guidance on expending it, too.

Enjoy it, because life starts hopping again on Sunday. Mercury stations direct, ending the retrograde motion he’s been in since Feb. 23. He won’t be making forward progress for a few days, but we won’t care. It won’t be a quiet day, and not just because of St. Paddy’s inspiring all manner of carrying on. Thoughts and communications will be energized, profound and unstoppable, no holding back. No telling what you’ll hear, or what’ll fly out of your mouth.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture!

Monday: The gentle-to-confusing fog that has been swirling around you is transforming into a guiding force. Sound odd? It’s crystallizing, actually, not in a way that impedes your perception and ability to move but in one that somehow supports both. The day’s focus is on what matters to you -- friends, loved ones, that one special person, pleasant socializing, being valued and validated (which could include money matters). The masculine and feminine are working together, giving you the drive to go after your desires and encouraging both sides of each relationship equation to work in harmony. A lot of folks are speaking their hearts. You might as well jump into that game. The Moon goes void of course with the New Moon at 3:51 PM EDT, until first thing in the morning tomorrow. This isn’t a void for quiet contemplation, though. If you’re alone, your mind is highly active (and likely you’re inclined to get in touch with others). If you’re in company, the chatter level is high and happy. (Read more in my mooncast.)

Tuesday: A key turns in a lock in your psyche while you are sleeping. You wake up ready, and how, for the day’s excitement. Your engine is racing before your feet hit the ground, because warrior god Mars has entered his high-energy home of Aries. Every fiber of your being is answering a call to action, and you’re just getting started. Take a deep breath. The void ends at 7:18 AM EDT when the Moon enters Aries. The pace quickens and events pop like flash bulbs (who remembers those?) as she rushes from Mars to Uranus. Barriers, schmarriers; breakthroughs are going to happen today even if you have to kick walls out to do it. Drama? Grandiose? Fun? You bet. The Moon goes void of course just before midnight, until mid-afternoon Thursday.

Wednesday: It’s an edgy day. Just as the starting bell goes off, everyone’s told wait and to cool their heels a bit. We’re all a bit like caged animals today, antsy, chomping at the bit and feeling that unnerving anxiety-to-dread that comes from sensing (knowing?) that huge changes are imminent. As always, the more you can follow these unsettling impulses into yourself instead of unloading on the people around you, the more fruitful the void will be.

Thursday: The Moon is void of course until 3:09 PM EDT. Until then you can get a long-distance view of agitants and irritants and factors from which you’d love to unhook. The post-void hours encourage you to sink your feet into the ground -- and then stretch your being as high as you can. You exist on the bridge between physicality and spirit. You are the bridge. Open yourself to transcendence before bedtime. You’ll get remarkable dreams at minimum and possibly valuable guidance too. Put writing materials by your bed.

Friday: Dreams are full of messages, stir desires you haven’t wanted to admit to, and show you better and more effective ways of breaking down your own inhibitions. If you wake up feeling as if you were talking to a certain someone overnight...you probably were. During the day, you get a good, hard look at the base that’s stabilizing in the cosmic red arrow that’s been screaming for attention since December. Put more simply: glimpse the path to the future that’s firming up, and watch a few layers fall from you and your environs to ease your journey. There is nothing in the sky after lunchtime to distract you from this process. The rest of the day is about you and the foundation, platform, stepping stones -- pick the structural metaphor that appeals to you -- that’s leading to your future.

Saturday: Dreams stir antagonism and frustration and prime you to chafe at commitments, restrictions and other people’s expectations for you. What are you irritated about as you start your day That’s a clue. Wriggle out of perceived chains (which may involve wriggling out of the perception -- got it?) and relationship harmony should proceed unruffled. The Moon goes void of course at 7:11 PM EDT until the wee hours of tomorrow. Tonight the planet of action is showing how much he learned from his time in the Pisces waters. Your agenda or your approach show the influence of something greater than self-promotion -- artistry, gentleness, compassion, love, higher guidance, perhaps a recognition of the interconnectedness of all life and/or the presence of a higher power than mortal will. The men around you could well be expressing this vibe, too.

Sunday: It’s St Patrick’s Day, and the skies are about as rowdy as many places will be down here on earth. Mercury is stationing direct, but that’s not the only cause of thousands cheering. A pent-up pressure is aching to burst out in our minds and conversations. People will be erupting with talk as if they’ve been on a protracted vow of silence and are making up for lost time. Answers will be demanded; messages will tap on your should and insist on you giving or receiving them. No sweet nothings today nor taking “no” for an answer; the communication flurry is assertive, impulsive, aggressive, determined and enthusiastic. The hub-bub unleashes a monkey wrench or three and ultimately settles into good-time vibes. If you’re going up to the bar, bring me a Black and Tan, would you?

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Virgo Full Moon Pisces New Moon

Forecast for week of Mar. 4 - 10, 2013

Sun, 3 Mar 2013 09:53:56 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

My 2013 astro-outlook is now available on mp3. 90 minutes, $40.

The foggy, watery atmosphere is with us still. The difference this week: Our marching orders are coming into focus, and so are the past two months. We have one more week of lolling and floating and dog paddling before the revving up the jet ski and zooming across the water.

Focus amid the fog? Yes, it’s paradoxical, but watch for it. It’s coming in several forms, rolling out in an intertwined and organic sequence:

(1) Clarity about yourself and your own mind, likely to bubble up as you start Monday and again on Friday.

(2) Alignment of your thoughts and drive, aka walking your talk, shown by what you gravitate toward on Monday.

(3) Sharpened, primal, magnetic desire (is that a Bat signal in the sky?), along with with (a) a matter of great personal value taking real, tangible form, (b) coming into consciousness about this development and (c) knowing and possibly speaking your heart, midweek.

(4) A heightened drive to push against of off from obstacles, push for stability and yet allow the deep level restructuring that is occurring outside our conscious efforts, all of which both parallel and lead to...

(5) The cosmic red arrow that has been flashing since December finally making sense.

The last action item underlies the week, and may unspool beyond that artificial time frame. It’s coming from an aspect tightening back up that was exact around Christmas and has been reverberating since then. It involves a direct link-up between Saturn, the ruler of structure, and Pluto, the lord of metamorphosis (aka restructuring), which have been traveling in a loose aspect called a Finger of God, pointing right at expansive Jupiter in the communication sign of Gemini. It’s the direction of your future; it’s the foundation of your future; and you’re becoming aware that it is also exactly where you want to go and be.

This week’s tightening up brings a revised structure into being that has a direct connection to December. Something you had an inkling of in December suddenly becomes crystal clear and and real, and a radically different yet supportive platform takes shape. The structure may be conceptual, involving your thinking or beliefs. The structure may be coming into its new form because of a change in thinking or beliefs.

The mind is involved, but it’s not steering this event. It is acting as transmitter and receiver, and a lot of the transmissions are unspoken, telepathic and psychic, or coming through music, movie and TV dialogue and casual conversation. The Finger of God is unleashing a flurry of messages and communications and just plain knowings. Jupiter, at the end of the flashing arrow, is under the rulership of Mercury, which is both in Pisces and retrograde. This combination is stirring behind the scenes, indirect, dream-driven or dream-like information. It’s also moving us around in the water in ways we may not suspect -- wrong turns that land us in absolutely the right place, missteps that throw us into the path (or arms) of exactly whom we need to see, technology break downs that prompt new ways of connecting or throw us into information that we needed.

No way human intelligence can game the magic that’s unfolding. Hand over the controls. Follow your hunches, intuition, dreams, gut, inner voice, higher guidance. When in doubt, ask to be guided into the direction and activities that are most beneficial. If something appears to go flooey, ask how it benefits you. Ask for clarity about the cosmic red light. Ask to see clearly where it is pointing. Ask to see what is right under your nose (the answer has been there, likely; you just haven’t been able or yet willing to recognize it.)

This is by no means the end of the story. It’s not the beginning, either; that has already taken place. It is a major plot point, revealing the foundation of your foundation, and your heart has been building it.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture!

Monday: The shift in tone starts before the sun comes up on the East Coast. The predawn hours are energizing and emotionally activating. What are you drawn to as your start your day? As always, that’s a clue. You’ve hit a new certainty in knowing your mind. At the same time, your heart knows what it wants (whether your mind is with the program yet -- give it time), and immediate gratification won’t be soon enough. The personal meaning of the finger of God is starting to dawn, and emotionally processing that is underway today. Expect scads of pondering, projecting, talking, messages and more talking. Everyone’s in the grips of a compulsion to share.

Tuesday: The day’s only major aspect is a clash that could both kick you off and motivate you to action. Alas, that aspect also kicks off a Moon void that lasts for most of the day, from 10:29 AM to 7:15 PM EST. You may be stewing in your juices with no effective outlet. Watch the story unfold. Watch the movie play. Watch the dots that are popping up and beginning to connect.

Wednesday: Floods of insight, understanding and inspiration are on tap as the Moon makes a cooperative aspect to the Pisces pool party. The day bubbles with meaningful and satisfying messages, realizations and contacts. What you most desire and value is swirling through the water and breaking through the surface. A platform is taking shape for it. Your heart is putting down anchor. Words flow easily. Take a deep breath and speak up, and let someone else do the same. Then bask.

Thursday: The communication flow is turning serious (but not necessarily somber), practical and stabilizing. Your mind is settling down. Outer circumstances are following suit. The base of the cosmic arrow is coming into focus and down to earth. Allowing is a challenge; rise to it. Try to force things and you’ll get discomfort and likely a stern reminder that your conscious will is not in charge. Lock onto a higher will and the flow will please you. Allowing comes more naturally as the hours wind down. Take your hands off the controls and see where the currents take you. The Moon is void of course late in the day, from 4:16 PM to 10:03 PM EST. The stillness creates a supportive environment for watching the cosmic red arrow come into focus. This is a fruitful evening for programming your dreams. Ask for information about an issue and request that it come in imagery you understand and remember. Whether you do that, it would be fruitful to put writing materials by your bed.

Friday: The base of the cosmic red arrow tightens up, grounds and stabilizes during the overnight hours. Your self-awareness and understanding hit a new level, too, and you know your own mind well. What’s running through it when you wake up? What feels more clear, certain, reliable? Open to possibilities and insights. Let your heart expand; taste the sheer joy of being alive and share that experience in meaningful, loving connections. We’re gathering energetic provisions up for the super-sized void of course Moon that launches during the cocktail hour (5:09 PM EST) and consumes all of Saturday. Unwelcome practicalities set it off. Take them under consideration but don’t stress over sorting them out just yet.

Saturday: The dream world treats you to a double or triple feature with fantastical, romantic and transcendent streaks. An otherworldly atmosphere continues throughout the day, with the Moon void of course until 1:20 AM EST tomorrow. Pinch-me-I’m-dreaming moments are possible (how many of those have you experienced or observed in the last two weeks?). Less comfortable ones are as well. The floating, formless atmosphere has undercurrents of nervousness, anxiety impatience and dread. Despite the apparent stillness, information is flying, through our minds, out of our mouths and across our paths. You could pick up important data about that cosmic red arrow and enjoy rewarding conversations and connections. Set your clocks ahead before you go to sleep!

Sunday: Daylight Savings Time starts today: adjust your clocks! The void ends at 2:20 AM EST, but the dreamy atmosphere continues. ESP, telepathy and guidance are flowing. Ask for answers and insight; ask to be led to the most beneficial activities. You’ve gained enough clarity about the direction and purpose of the cosmic red arrow to be emotionally processing its meaning and ramifications. The background music is reassuring. Your emotional muscles are stretching and flexing. Your heart is finding a secure place to drop anchor, and that’s sinking down.

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Virgo Full Moon Aquarius New Moon

2013 Virgo Full Moon

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:58:53 -0500

February 25, 2013
12:26 PM PST / 3:26 PM EST / 8:26 PM GMT
7 Virgo 24 / 7 Pisces 24

By Kathy Biehl

This month’s Full Moon is in Virgo, the sign with the greatest bent for discernment and healthy boundaries. While Full Moons run to the emotional, this month’s has an analytical bent that is bound to counterbalance so much energy in free-flowing water just now.

In the chart for this event, the Moon is all by herself on one side of the sky, with all the other bodies forming a wide semicircle opposite her. It looks as if she were the handle on a bucket (which is, in fact, the label for this planetary arrangement). Fittingly, she has properties that may help us get a handle on everything else that’s going on.

The Virgo Moon encourages examining with a critical eye -- looking at circumstances and situations with a knack for finding fault, some would say, but also with the view of bettering and perfecting them. The keen powers of perception and analysis she offers are somewhat blunted this time around, due to the fact that her ruler Mercury is retrograde, not to mention under spell of mystical Neptune. She is providing distance from the fog, confusion, romanticism and pain currently swirling in the waters around Neptune -- but her vantage point might not entirely be objective. Some of the reactions she’s encouraging are along the lines of a fussbudget, or even outright pissy.

So: concepts, messages, desires, motivations and wounds with highly emotional, sensitive and psychic overtones are running through an intellectual filter. Several results are likely.

One is that this is not going to be a quiet time. The Sun and the Moon are pressuring Jupiter in a dynamic, action-demanding configuration called a t-square. Jupiter increases any action he’s near, and the sign he is in, Gemini, is also ruled by that retrograde Mercury. Minds are in overdrive, and so are mouths; we’ll be gathering info, chewing, talking, chewing some more, picking things apart, talking, gathering more info, chewing some more...

Another is that the flurry of talk and mental activity will dislodge important and revealing bits of information -- most importantly, about how you feel. And that will, if you look at it, let you know how much you are soaking up and hanging on to from other people and outside energies right now. With so many bodies in Pisces, the vast sea that connects all of life, we are all in sponge mode now. The challenge is distinguishing your energy/issues/challenges from those of the other people in the water -- recognizing what is yours and what is theirs, recognizing when you are succumbing to energy from an outside source, and periodically cleaning your own part of the pool.

Feeling bad now is actually positive, because that points to an overloaded sponge. If you feel judgmental (or judged) or critical (or criticized) or find yourself perseverating on flaws or negatives, look at your boundaries. Are they being crashed/ignored/washed away? Are you drowning in issues that belong to someone else? To explore these questions, listen to my free talk Navigating the Shift With Ease, which teaches simple tools for disengaging and reclaiming your energy.

Yet one more probable by-product of this Full Moon: all that talking and gathering and chewing may lead to rising above and gaining understanding of the confusion, weird synchronicities, heart openings and ancient pain that you have been experiencing lately. Ask to be shown the bigger picture (Jupiter’s got a bead on that). Ask to be shown what’s important. Ask to be shown what is real and what is fantasy.

The net effect has the potential to be grounding, clearing and therapeutic. If you spin into questions, consider these: Am I nit-picking, or is this truly important? What is my reaction saying about the state of my emotions? Am I not being fed? Are other people overly affecting me? How could I improve this situation? How could I improve my experience of this situation?

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of Feb. 25 - March 3, 2013

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:27:26 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

My 2013 astro-outlook is now available on mp3. 90 minutes, $40.

The weather outlook remains peculiar and outside our ordinary range of experience. The vague, weird, foggy, sometimes confusing, sometimes magical atmosphere of the past few weeks isn’t backing off. In fact, it may be actually feel more diffuse and hard to grasp or steer.

Venus, the planet that rules what we most value (relationships, money, talents, possessions) is joining five other bodies in the universal pool of Pisces (the Sun, Mercury, Mars, Neptune and Chiron). Venus is said to be exalted in this sign, which heightens artistry, softens hearts and encourages seeing the best in others -- even when evidence suggests otherwise. Remember that as this shift plunges the archetype of the feminine (and of our heart) into a melting pot with the archetypes of the masculine (and of our drive), the trickster, the illusionist and the wounded healer.

Desires are entering the weird mix, and the addition has the potential to be both love-enhancing and painful. Let’s get the painful talk out of the way: Ancient heart wounds and deep-seated terrors are going into a bath, full of salts and tears and other substances. They promise a healing process, which might sting or worse, but the immersion could also, ultimately, lead to comfort and even resolution. Men are probably involved, or at minimum your masculine side. Stick with it and relief will be waiting on the other side. Or climb out of the bath, always an option; but it will be better for you in the long run to stay and soak.

On the more pleasant end, loving and creative vibes are in for a boost, too, especially when the two planets of love meet on Thursday and Friday. Moments are probable of all-encompassing connection with each other, nature, the divine and/or the vast mysteries of creation. Life could take on a chick-flick quality at times; other times might tempt you to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming.

In the middle ground, issues could pop up relating to sacrifice, taking a fall for others, carrying other people’s burdens/problems/you name it (what once went by the label co-dependency) and being an energetic sponge. With all of us in the water together, metaphorically, we are all susceptible to soaking up each other’s experiences, thoughts, emotions and energy.

Help for that is available from Monday’s Full Moon in Virgo, the sign with the greatest bent for discernment and healthy boundaries. While Full Moons run to the emotional, this one has an analytical bent that is bound to counterbalance so much energy in free-flowing water just now. If you feel judgmental (or judged) or critical (or criticized) or find yourself perseverating on flaws or negatives, look at your boundaries. Are they being crashed/ignored/washed away? Are you drowning in issues that belong to someone else? Listen to my talk with simple tools for disengaging and reclaiming your energy (it’s free), and read more in my Mooncast on this site.

Don’t fear any of this. The weird environment is becoming more familiar. We’ve been in it long enough that we’re starting to find ways to coexist with it more comfortably.

A few pointers: Don’t push; float. Park your rational mind at the door; it’s best for driving and traveling these days and otherwise being second in command. Ask for guidance; go with your hunches. Remember that Mercury is retrograde and take extra care with travel, negotiations and other important communications. For more, get a refresher from my forecasts for the week of Feb. 18 and Feb. 11.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture!

Monday: Check your glass today: is it half full or empty? Chipped? Made of lead? Do you even have one? It’s going to be easy to look at life in terms of what’s missing, broken or unsatisfying -- and to go overboard. When the lenses soften (yours and everyone’s around you), that’s a signal that Venus has sailed her love boat into Pisces. Mental chewing eases; what’s truly important comes into focus; healthy boundaries ensue. More in my Mooncast. This would be a fruitful night to put writing materials by your bedside.

Tuesday: Mercury meets Mars overnight: Thoughts go from considerations to what you know you have to do and you wake up with the pedal at the metal. Write down dream fragments to make sense of this, or simply pay attention to the excitement stirring in you when you waken. Since we’re all suspended in water, though, moving ahead on takes special navigational approaches. Use that excitement to build up steam instead of blasting forward. For one reason, new information is likely in the morning that provides a long-distance perspective or invites taking your time. For another, the Moon is going void of course at 1:13 PM for the rest of the day, until 8:02 AM EST tomorrow. Sit with your thoughts, revved up as they may be.

Wednesday: Since the Moon is void of course until 8:02 AM EST, the day may feel like it has a delayed start. The path is one of course corrections that take into account other people (lead from the heart, with compassion!), till a late-afternoon bolt that leaves us chomping at the bit and either chafing at -- or yearning for -- a change of pace.

Thursday: The Moon is void of course all day long, from 3:37 AM EST till after noon tomorrow. The overnight hours take you on an exploration of your relationship to power -- your own (are you shrinking in some way?) and what you cede or ascribe to other people or forces outside you. They linger in the psyche as gentleness envelops the day. The two rulers of love, worldly and higher, are meeting and blurring our lens on so-called reality. Lovely moments and interactions are probable. Art and beauty are everywhere (though some may be painted cardboard masquerading as the same). Diet soft drinks could serve as love potions. Look into your beloved’s eyes and you will spy a soul, if not the divine. The occasional twinges you feel may come from Cupid’s arrow, but may just as likely signal the stirring of heart wounds. The cosmic point is not inflaming them, but bringing them to the surface for dressing and healing. Forgiveness is on tap. Serve it all around, and drink deeply of it yourself. Put writing materials at your bedside.

Friday: Happy March! (Do you start a month with “rabbit, rabbit?”) The Moon is void of course till 12:34 PM EST. Yesterday gave the dream world a lot to deal with, and the lingering sweetness takes on a strange taste in the process. Relationships go through fun house mirrors that display codependencies where you probably didn’t suspect they existed. The process of writing down your dream fragments may cause them to crystallize into sense. Even if you don’t take notes or ponder your dreams much, clarity will likely descend -- if not about the nighttime activity, at least about yourself at this point. Renewed focus comes with the clarity, which should make for a different experience today of the sweet, soft love vibes that are still in the air. Odds are great your heart will know what is real and what is fantasy. The vibes support locking in a connection, or turning one into an acknowledged, reliable relationship, or taking an existing link into more serious, committed territory. Are your writing materials still by your bed?

Saturday: As with yesterday, the dream world reverberates with recent energies and developments. You want the new; you don’t want the new; you’re irritated; you’re anxious; oh what the heck you do want it, all of it, whatever “it” is to you and then .... day breaks, emotional clarity dawns and everything that has been roiling within you stabilizes. Take notes to explicate the process; the act of writing may cause the dots to connect in your head as you do. Hand on to that sure sense of yourself when the monkey wrench flies in mid-day. Plans may upend; thinking may flip; some unexpected factor may fall into the picture that changes much. Whatever form it takes, don’t hold back talking it out and through.

Sunday: The Moon is void of course from 4:20 AM until 4:12 PM EST. The overnight hours are not conducive to deep, restorative sleep. Vague discomfort is stirring, then releasing emotions that motivate. Notice your feelings when your day starts. Their buildup may encourage going overboard before the morning gets too far underway. Stay in your power; do not give it away or lord it over anyone. (Tricky balance to walk.) Although the day has a heightened atmosphere of floating, it is also highly charged and full of epiphanies, logjams breaking and movement erupting in situations that are dear (emotionally or financially). The outbreaks are like lightning cutting through a cloudy sky and striking water. They either come from outside you and rock your world or erupt inside you, but they are not developments that you can consciously and deliberately set in motion. When the fog increases come evening, you may have trouble seeing your hands in front of you -- or even recognizing them as hands, or yours. Stay in your power (a theme of the day, it seems) and proceed by inner GPS.

Want a road map for 2013? Get my 2013 astro-overview mp3 and/or book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Virgo Full Moon Aquarius New Moon

Forecast for week of Feb. 18-24, 2013

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:51:43 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

Join me at 8 PM EST on Thurs., Feb. 21 for my annual call about the astrology of the year. It’s by Skype this year to make it easier for non-US readers to attend. Details and registration info here.

How are you liking the water? Figured out how to move through, with, in or on it? Used to the temperature yet?

Make peace with it, if you haven’t. Decide to have fun with it, too, because the water level is only going up. Another body is moving into water signs this week, for a total of six, two of which are going retrograde. All that water, mist and fog are affecting how we get around, our ability (and desire) to get anything done, how and what we perceive and communicate, and our awareness of pain, our pasts and each other.

Everything has the shimmer and morphing form of water in motion. Calendar entries are more like suggestions than commitments. How much rescheduling have you been doing? I’ve been finding the day’s schedule reshapes itself as the hours pass. Ancient flotsam and jetsam are coming to the surface and bobbing alongside us as we pursue our current lives -- chronic physical problems, long-standing wounds, men who were once important to us. Music has played a huge role for some people, nostalgia for others.

This misty, free-floating atmosphere requires special navigational gear: fog lights; an inner GPS, higher guidance; the heart leading the mind. It also requires letting go of the clock, expectations regarding timing and your personal estimation of what’s most important. Go with the flow is the mantra of the moment, and it’ll be useful for longer than you are going to want.

Saturn is beginning a four and a half month retrograde on Monday. This week, as he stations, we may feel suspended in time; when the slowest influence in the sky effectively stops, the pace grinds to a halt. Once he begins his apparent backward motion, life will continue to feel as if we’re dragging something behind us in the water, but events won’t have the dropped-in-molasses air they do this week. (Can you say: snowstorm?)

His retrograde allows us to revisit and go deeper into issues of what and how we invest and share with others (trust, intimacy, sex, time, money) and what we get in return. All those newly forged connections are entering deeper waters, challenging us to new, rarer levels of sharing, and possibly putting us face to face with some personal demons.

In the meantime, we get a double-dose of braking action now, because Mercury is also stationing retrograde on Saturday. He’s moving backward (or so it will seem) through the middle of March. The Mercury retrograde cautions go double and then some when the trickster god of communication and transportation is retrograde in the all-connecting, nonrational waters of Pisces. Thoughts, words and moving objects are probably not as they seem. You may be confused, other people may be confused, and someone could be lying.

Double and triple check fine print; put off signing contracts (unless you want to renegotiate later), making major purchases and launching new projects. Don’t assume you understand the words in or intent behind any important communication; the two sides could interpret the terms differently. (I once signed a book contract under a retrograde and watched it get terminated under a later retrograde; we never agreed on what the book was supposed to be about.)

On the positive end, Mercury retrograde is an excellent time for researching, for investigating and for finishing up old business. This retrograde has a direct feed to a cosmic crystal ball. Ask for guidance and answers; work with your dreams; listen to your intuition and your heart.

Several other factors heighten the week’s slowed, dreamlike atmosphere and encourage floating in it. The Sun is moving into Pisces on Monday and gliding toward a super-conjunction with Neptune that spans Tuesday through Thursday. Their link baffles “reality” in gauze or cracker smoke or fairy dust; it encourages escapism, sentimentality and viewing everything (people included) in the best possible light, no matter how damning the evidence. Use this channel to calibrate your guidance. Allow love to flow through you. Taking in a movie or music would also harness the vibe. Looney alert: keep in mind that some people are going to be coming unmoored from rationality.

As if to underscore the importance of going with the flow, long void of course moons will undo anything we shove forward. Watch for them Tuesday afternoon and all day Friday till nearly quitting time.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture!

Monday: Turn that inner GPS on! Time feels like it’s slowing, but life is still continuing. Twists and turns abound (maybe playing out in stop-action animation), but not unpleasantly; moods are high. It’s a federal holiday in the US; if you feel entitled to kick back, have a long lunch or go to a movie, the skies say, “Why not?”

Tuesday: Watch for a nagging, vaguely irritating sensation. You may equate with with a tiny pebble in your sock, but think of it as sand in an oyster, which causes the bivalve to secrete a substance that eventually creates a pearl. An irritation in your heart is pushing you to action -- subtly but insistently. Go with your guidance (not knee-jerk reactions). Proceed from a position of love, kindness and forgiveness (directed, for starters, at yourself) and the day will go swimmingly. Relationships included. The Moon goes void of course at 1:48 PM until 5:45 AM EST tomorrow.

Wednesday: Warm-hearted vibes continue. We may be sailing through fog without clear sight of the path or our surroundings, but at least good moods prevail. They encourage seeing the best in yourself and in others. If you’re a creative type, the channel is open to inspiration. Rough patches shake up what you thought you wanted to do today. Go with the flow...and put writing materials by your bed. The dreamworld will be phenomenally active, so don’t hesitate to ask for answers to questions. To do this: ask for a dream about a specific topic, and be sure to require: (1) that it come in symbolism you understand and (2) that you remember it.

Thursday: Dreams are off-the-charts fantastical, dramatic, cinematic. If you wake up wondering if you were visited by an angel or by someone who’s deceased, well...you might be right. Same thing if you feel like you encountered the meaning of life, or the meaning/calling/mission of your life. Whatever your overnight journey-cum-message, your psyche makes sense of it before your feet hit the floor. (Whether your mind gets the memo is another matter). Keep in mind that you are not the only person with this experiencing. Everyone’s walking around with newly implanted and not entirely conscious walking orders. This condition affects what’s going in and out of minds and mouths, which explains the frantic nature of communications midday. Frenzy gives way to deliberate, caring action, followed by sweet emotional exchanges. The Moon goes void of course at 9:08 PM EST until 5:12 PM tomorrow.

Friday: The Moon is void of course until 5:12 PM, yet this void is not likely to be placid. Mercury has effectively halted and so much is hanging in the air -- information, packages, plans, messages. The two planets of desire and money, Venus and Pluto, are slightly out of sync, just enough to create an itch that won’t go away. If you’ve been stonewalling a relationship or financial matter, good luck avoiding it, at least internally. Make a point to sidestep drama tonight.

Saturday: Mercury stations retrograde overnight. That stillness comes with a paradoxical explosion of energies that kick our minds and engines on at a time we’d rather be sleeping in. The playful, happy start has a few hours before fizzing. Make the most of the morning. The afternoon and evening won’t feel as inviting. If you hit a wall, or interpersonal ice, retreat into yourself. Put writing materials at the bedside.

Sunday: Dreams are fantastical again, exploring motives and desires, how you’re moving ahead on both, and male/female issues. The day is one long stretch of small stuff (as in: “Don’t sweat the --.”) People are out of sorts. You probably are, too. Pick your battles. A huge burst of energy is scheduled to detonate as midnight nears. That’ll break you out of the doldrums and set off impassioned, inspired self-expression. (If you’re sleeping when this erupts, creative solutions should be flying through your mind tomorrow morning.)

Want a road map for 2013? Book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Leo Full Moon Aquarius New Moon

Forecast for week of Feb. 11-17, 2013

Sat, 9 Feb 2013 16:24:01 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

Join me on Thurs., Feb. 21 for my annual call about the astrology of the year. Info and registration info here.

Last week’s extraordinary atmosphere is with us still. It’s a weird, not entirely graspable mix of energies: misty, watery, foggy, weepy, dreamlike and sleep-inducing, not so much derailing plans as dissolving them. It’s inspiring, too, occasionally outright blissful, while also dredging up ancient pain and wounds from the core of our beings.

Forceful, straightforward motion is not the way through -- have you noticed? These energies require floating, trusting, going on guidance, sitting quietly and emptying our minds and ourselves. Release your grip on schedules and expectations. We are riding the currents; we have to ride them. Speed depends on so many factors outside the control (or understanding) of your conscious mind. The best you can do is position yourself well, steer when possible and go along for the ride.

We’re experiencing this particular blend for the first time in our lives. It’s the result of an unprecedented (for us) coming together in Pisces, the sign of the interconnectedness of all being. Pisces is the hardest energy to grasp (think of what happens when you grab a handful of water), and right now it’s hosting heavily masculine archetypes, the rulers of our minds (Mercury) and our drive (Mars). We have never lived with them together in Pisces at the same time as its ruler Neptune (which entered his home in February 2012 for the first time since the mid-1800s).

Our minds’ and wills’ usual modes of operation falter in these waters, especially with Neptune directing his cosmic fog machine into their line of travel. Little happens linearly here. Instead, knowing and hunches are heightened; dreams and songs carry messages; wrong turns deposit us to places we needed to be; magic works; and inaction is often the most appropriate course.

It’s a big pot of paradox. As other-worldly and unhinged from ordinary reality as this combination is, it is making us keenly aware of our physicality, and how much that can hurt. Mercury and Mars are traveling with Chiron, embodiment of abiding, incurable wounds as well as mastering physical existence despite them. Longstanding health issues are stirring; soul-level emotional wounds are being exposed and aggravated. All hold the potential for transcendence and a level of healing beyond what we have previously experienced.

Forgiveness is a huge element in this. The most important focus for forgiveness is, of course, yourself -- in this life, in all times in this life, in all lives and levels. Let yourself off the hook for the choices you’ve made, for the hurts you’ve inflicted on yourself and others, for the situations and hurts and insults that you have tolerated, for -- basically -- being human. To paraphrase Fleetwood Mac, stop dragging your heart around. Do that and the next organic step is extending the same courtesies to others.

Maybe the underlying issues remain, but our internal relationship to them is undergoing therapy, soothing and calming. Outer behaviors are shifting, especially involving men who have deep wounds or who inflicted deep wounds (often one and the same). I’ve heard about some parent/adult child turnarounds lately that amount to miracles -- some on the level of previously so far out of your concept of reality that you never wished for it, much less considered that it could ever be possible.

Don’t discount what you’re seeing. Don’t underestimate what is possible. We are currently floating in the sea of limitless possibility. Really. Jupiter, who ups any action he’s involved with, is escalating all the action in Pisces right now. (Go back to the first paragraph and put “more” or “extreme” in front of every adjective, and that’s his contribution.)

Jupiter has the cooperation of Uranus, the awakener, pattern breaker and lobber of lightning bolts. Electrical flashes are striking and illuminating the water. Anything can happen. Anything. So why not go for broke?

This is the time for excessive, wacky, insane dreams, the ones that have been building in your soul, the ones that are so precious that you haven’t dared ask for them because hearing “no” would hurt too much. Dare. Voice them to yourself. Reach for them. Ask your guides or angels or God for them. If they’re ever going to break through, it’s now. Or maybe this summer: energetically we’re in a warm-up for the flow that will carry us all along when a grand trine connects all the water signs beginning at the end of June. Don’t wait till then, though. Use your guidance. Trust. Ask. Begin the process now.

One caveat: More than ever, it is critical to monitor and maintain your boundaries. We are all sponges, soaking up each other’s energy as well as whatever’s bubbling in the complicated stew of the collective unconscious. It is appallingly easy to be influenced by other people’s wounds, pains, dramas, beliefs, insanities, issues, fears, anxieties -- get the picture? Emptying yourself periodically is essential. I give several simple techniques for doing this in my one-hour talk Navigating the Shift With Ease. If you haven’t listened to it yet, download it for free here.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture!

Monday: The predawn hours are restless, stirring awareness of separations and chafing obligations, fanning desires for unfettered movement and immediate gratification, and pushing accelerators to the floorboard. The morning is equally active in its own way. Not only is the compulsion to share epidemic, but the topics coming up are monumental, deep, even scary. Everyone feels so grown up and relieved, and then -- we get plenty of time to take everything in. Just when the hubbub settles, the Moon launches a super-sized void, from 12:04 PM EST until 8:53 PM tomorrow. Despite the formless, contemplation-inducing atmosphere of the void, relationship growth is possible-to-probable within it. So is the itch to shake things up....whatever “things” might mean to you. Put writing materials at your bedside, and ask for answers to burning questions to come to you in dreams.

Tuesday: The Moon is void of course until 8:53 PM EST. Yesterday’s bold disclosures set off dominoes that fall into a discernible pattern overnight. (Hence the importance of writing materials, to capture snippets and connect them.) Mars is joining with Chiron, simultaneously poking at wounds and spreading balm on them. (Men’s behavior should be interesting to an extreme today.) Understanding and certainty grow with the day. Those characteristics steer and color your thoughts and conversations, which flow with responsibility and spot-on perception, as if you are wearing X-Ray goggles.

Wednesday: The freedom of movement offered today makes it easy to run wildly just because you can. Self-indulgence is on overdrive, too; why, aren’t rewards in order for having sat so still and behaved so maturely the past two days? Those subterranean rumblings you’re sensing are signs of processing and restructuring occurring deep within you.

Thursday: Happy Valentine’s Day! For a pleasant change of pace, the day actually has a lovely hearts-and-flowers atmosphere fit for the holiday. The predawn hours open us to good vibes, sweet thoughts and objects of affection -- and send off some sparks, too. Sparking is likely throughout the day as well, of the slightly frustrated, redirected desire type that drives screwball comedies. It’s a day when people feel obligated to color within lines that someone else has drawn but yearn to scribble wildly and freely. Odds are great you’ll be happy with yourself by mid-evening, if not also with someone else.

Friday: Lovely vibes continue. It’s a day for romance, poetry, music, movies, and the like -- but we’re not likely to float in gentle reverie. A Mars/Pluto link opens the door to action that is bolder than bold. Hesitation vanishes; people -- men? -- make a move, prompted by an alarm clock going off in their cells. Or soul. Align yourself with love. Some people won’t.

Saturday: Now we’re getting somewhere. Today is both high growth and high energy, making it unlikely we’ll loll about drinking coffee and reading quietly. The skies are putting distance between us and factors that constrain or hold us back, while also providing perspective on relationship issues. Take a good look: it’ll fuel heart-felt, persistent, effective and grounding action -- much like putting down an anchor. Reach out to the people who cross your mind. You’re in compatible modes. Connections are easy to make. Some even feel mandated, as if hands are shoving you into them.

Sunday: Today’s action is mostly internal. The skies are quieter than they’ve been all week. You may feel at odds with yourself and wonder if you’ve been making something up. Reality checks are advisable, as incompatible as that word is with the state of the skies. Sitting still brings answers. Allowing yourself to float brings answers. Just be.

Want a road map for 2013? Book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Leo Full Moon Aquarius New Moon

2013 Aquarius New Moon

Mon, 4 Feb 2013 19:44:45 -0500

February 9-10, 2013
11:21 PM PST / 2:21 AM EST / 7:21 AM GMT
21 Aquarius 43

By Kathy Biehl

The Aquarius New Moon signals that each of us has a unique mission to fulfill. No matter how floating and slow and otherworldly this week has been, we’re not meandering aimlessly across the sea of life. Each of us is the captain of his own ship, and the helm is ours to claim.

We’ve got both encouragement and impetus to get cracking. This Moon is in a harmonious link with the ruler of Aquarius, Uranus, agent of epiphany, awakening and volatile, unforeseeable change. Because of the nature of both the sign and that planet, this link beams in a message from the future. Who would you like to be months, even years from now? Exciting, isn’t it? Dare to be that person now. Act impulsively, courageously and true to your core being.

Come on; it’ll be fun. You know that, too, on some level. The New Moon is in an easy flow to expansive Jupiter, making visions bigger and more outlandish. (Are you feeling a connection to October? How about early last June?) If that doesn’t egg you on into taking a chance, at least point your spyglass in a direction that appeals to you. Like it or not, the journey is continuing. It may as well head in a direction you want.

Staying put isn’t an option, really. For one reason, the water isn’t going to stand still but will only get more active (and how). For another, the skies are pushing us all forward. With the New Moon in an action-demanding aspect with the Nodes of the Moon, it’s as if the hand of fate is pressuring you out of stuck places and into motion, in a very definite direction. You have a role to play in the greater scheme, and a new phase begins now.

For another reason, this New Moon is also squaring the the degree of the solar eclipse that took place in Scorpio last November. A rebooting that began then in issues of trust, intimacy, sharing, sex and other people’s resources. How have those changed for you since then? How are you handling them differently? We’re at a power-up moment that’s propelling us further along the new trajectory.

These issues are loaded under ordinary circumstances and feel particularly high-stakes right now. Venus, who rules what we value and desire, is moving into a harsh contact with Saturn, ruler of structures, rules, limits and obligations. The clash says we can’t have what we want, or presents obstacles to getting it, or requires commitment and responsible action as part of the package.

Although many people will experience this aspect as not getting something, it doesn’t have to be unpleasant or unwelcome. The pressure could easily push fence-sitters into serious connections. With Venus in a tight, maturing link to the other planet of desire, Pluto, some people will realize that what they’ve been looking for is right in front of them. If you find yourself in this position, take a deep breath and act boldly. The payoff is worth it; connections that sync up now have considerable staying power.

An important phase is here. This isn’t a garden variety New Moon (as if any is that these days!), setting a simple 28-day phase in motion. This month’s launches the Chinese New Year, the year of the water snake, appropriate for the elemental emphasis that’s coming to the fore from the standpoint of western astrology.

Energies are rolling out now that will continue for months. While you can still get above all the water that’s flooding in, take advantage of the inherent detachment of the Aquarius Moon. Enjoy the elevated perspective it offers. Look far ahead, and expand your periphery, too. Compare your course with possible destinations and consider where to turn the wheel. Who do you want to go with you? What alliances do you want to forge? What risks are you willing to take?

Now is the time to think. Soon, something quite other than your rational mind will be in control. Orient yourself accordingly.

Need a road map for the year? Book a session with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of Feb. 4-10, 2013

Sat, 2 Feb 2013 13:40:39 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

I've extended the special rates for astrology and Tarot consultations through Feb. 10. Purchase a consultation (or several!) now and you can book at any time this calendar year. After Feb. 10 my rates are going back to $200/hour and $150/45 min.

Tie down your grounding cords. Make sure your inner GPS is on. Both are critical aids for this week’s sea change in energy.

We’ve been aware of the ground shifting beneath our feet (and within our psyches); we’ve been heeding a cosmic red arrow and enjoying a bird’s-eye view of where (we think) it’s pointing. Whatever the specifics of your situation are, wherever your attention has been for the past month, it’s about to become diffuse.

The non-physical aspects of existence are getting a celestial boost in a taste of what’s to come. They’re increasingly dominating the show this month, which is itself a warm-up act for the energetic flow (aka grand trine in water) that awaits this summer.

This is not the greatest influence for pulling together tax data, unless you’d like to test-drive bookkeeping by spirit guide. Compassion, kindness, inspired action, and non-verbal communication, on the other hand, fit the vibe nicely So do escapism, martyrdom, confusion, deliberate deception (media spin in overdrive), and retreat to a bottle of wine. Some things are not as they seem. Strangely, though, some are exactly what you sense (not think); this week abounds with magic and romance that are absolutely real. Hence the usefulness of the grounding cord and inner GPS.

Two back-to-back events in Pisces are behind this shift. Mars, the planet of action, makes a super-conjunction to Neptune and his cosmic fog machine (by degree on Monday and by declination on Tuesday). This encourages non-action, illusory action and outright deceitful action; it also sabotages, blunts or subverts shows of assertion and aggression.

Like a pebble dropping into a pond, watch how one act has far-reaching consequences, rippling out to touch, affect and move widening circles of people. This aspect also embodies the butterfly effect, which connects the flapping of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the planet to a tsunami on the other. We feel what others are going through, consciously or not, as events tie together people regardless of geographic distance.

The highest potential of this meeting is gentleness, love and spiritual guidance leading us and guiding our behavior. Harness it; hand the reigns over to something greater than your conscious will and offer yourself as a force of good. Ask to be led to the most beneficial course or direction. The path and probably the destination won’t match your expectations, but I bet you’ll laugh at how perfectly they answer your request.

The soft, indirect, transcendent vibe moves to our mental processes when Mercury, the ruler of gab, gadgets and how we get around, plops into Pisces on Tuesday. He’s in that sign until the middle of April -- a long time, yes, because he’s turning retrograde near the end of this month. His protracted Pisces bath brings the same softening, indirectness and spiritually guided potential to communication and travel that we are experiencing with our drive and actions.

An upsurge follows in telepathy, empathy and “knowing.” Hunches are strong. Someone crosses your mind and a text or call comes seconds afterward. Messages crop up in song lyrics, casual conversation, dialogue, street signs. Information and answers come in dreams (so program them with questions). Looks say more than words express. Conversations take on tenderness, too, laying sweet groundwork for Valentine’s Day next week.

This influence could (okay: will) make travel a bit weird. Roads you’ve driven for years suddenly look unfamiliar. Signs and detours don’t make sense. Wrong turns take you past places you realize you need to visit. People on the road or in public transit act like they’ve lost their senses. Or passengers have a group-mind reaction or a bonding event like breaking out in song together.

These characteristics are all-consuming this week. Like Mars, Mercury also has two-day meeting with Neptune (by degree on Wednesday and by declination on Thursday.) The masculine archetypes of our will and our mind are bathing in the ocean that contains all of existence. We’ll all grok the interconnectedness of all life, whether through nuanced, loving connections or events that drive the point home.

Rational minds aren’t in charge. Don’t fight it; embrace it. The water’s not subsiding for weeks and will be surging again this summer. Ride it. Go with the flow.

And don’t worry about going under. Sunday’s New Moon in Aquarius revives everyone’s ability to get intellectual distance. Think of it as climbing to the top of a mast with a spyglass. For more, read my New Moon report, which will be posted on the site by Saturday.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture!

Monday: A short void of course Moon (7:32 AM - 10:46 AM EST) gives the week an appropriately gentle launch. The captain of this voyage is Neptune, dreamweaver, illusionist, font of higher love and bringer of transcendence. Doors open to wonderful connections, relationship developments and financial improvement; all you have to do is walk through (but you do have to step into them). Welcome changes in plans or perspectives. They’re beneficial and only add to the building expansiveness. Platitudes for the day: Pay it forward. A little goes a long way. Love is all you need. See the God in everyone (and everything). Lord, let me be an instrument of your peace.

Tuesday: Overnight your brain makes sense of yesterday. No matter how formless or confusing or even weird it was, you’re weaving the developments into
your view of reality and finding a way to make them concrete and grounding, somehow. It’s a vague and misty process, which you likely can’t put into words but simply feel when you awaken. Like a background program running on a computer, you’re still grappling with that dang cosmic red arrow that’s been flashing since the holidays. You hit a noticeable level of assimilation today; you’re more matter-of-fact and sure-footed about the direction you’re heading. That surety provides a grounding cord as Mercury slides into Pisces and unhinges modes of communication and transportation from the material plane. Love and desire are definitely in the air; the question is: what are you really craving, the desire or the connection? Ponder the difference. That’s an appropriate use of the later hours; the Moon begins a long void at 3:43 PM EST and will not remerge till after noon tomorrow.

Wednesday: Keep going with the flow. The Moon is void of course until 12:53 PM EST. Mars is still hanging out with Neptune, and Mercury is joining the party. Poetry and romance are in the air. Words of affection abound. Relationship breakthroughs are likely. Take the high road and magic is probable -- even if it’s weeping at the beauty of a sunset. Which, if you think about it, doesn’t really warrant the qualifier “even.” Tonight is a superior night for programming your dreams, so ask for one that answers a question or explores a specified relationship. Be sure to state that the information will come in language you understand and that you will remember the dream(s).

Thursday: CORRECTION: The Moon goes void of course at 7:45 AM until mid-afternoon tomorrow. Yesterday’s luscious heart-expanding vibes continue in the overnight hours. Love bugs are buzzing all over the dreamworld. They are at a minimum spurring love of the self, which is the first ingredient for truly loving another. You may feel like you’ve had a dreamworld encounter with a special person, and who’s to say whether you have or haven’t? The difference in you attitude toward that connection is genuine. (The Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You” is on many an internal radio playlist.) Telepathy is running high; think a message and someone very well might pick it up. Despite the otherworldly flow, we aren’t doomed to float off into la-la land. We do have a shot at proceeding stably, thanks to the day’s only major aspect, cooperation between the Moon and ground-loving Saturn. Let yourself float come evening.

Friday: The Moon is void of course until 2:18 PM EST, yet the atmosphere will still feel floaty and formless once she clears it. Mercury and Mars meet in a super-conjunction (by degree and by declination). It’s a day for walking your talk, channeling your actions, downloading artistic inspiration, exposing your soul and expressing love in thought, word and deed. You may surprise yourself. Others will certainly surprise you, at least in terms of what they now feel comfortable sharing. Put writing materials at your bedside.

Saturday: Dreams are filled with flashing lightbulbs, warm vibes and satisfying heart links. Once again, you may awaken with the feeling that you linked up with someone special overnight, and the wonderful energetic residue is all that matters. Write down dream fragments; they will make sense later, if they don’t at first. It’s such a lovely atmosphere; too bad that other influences are interfering with lingering in it. Minds are racing before you wipe the sleep from your eyes; make the effort to monitor what wants to come out of your mouth as well. A nervous, impelling energy ramps up way too early for comfort. Breathe. Let go. You’ll have the hang of flowing by late morning. Stay with it.

Sunday: Rambunctiousness pervades the overnight hours. The Aquarius New Moon happens during them (2:20 AM EST), sandwiched between aspects that are anything but restful. The Moon is void of course from 2:20 AM to 4:21 PM EST, and the noteworthy activity during the void involves Mars (your drive) and then Venus (what you hold dear). On one level, you are fed up with this going with the flow business. The impetus is kicking in to make a certain something happen, come hell or high water. Channel that as positively as you can when you gain consciousness. Desires, obsessions, and all kinds of money issues color the day. Note how differently that are presenting themselves -- and you are reacting -- in comparison to your previous norm. Note, too, the incredible progress this difference is bringing. The floating air doesn’t dissipate when the Moon clears the void. She ends the week entering Pisces and having her own meeting with Neptune. Just be.

Want a road map for 2013? Book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Leo Full Moon Aquarius New Moon

Forecast for week of Jan. 28 - Feb. 3, 2013

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:33:57 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

Face the direction you’d like to go. You’ve still got time for a detached, long-distance view before emotions take over later in February.

Enjoy the vantage point and gaze as far off as you feel inspired. Circumstances will pull your vision close in as needed this week, when the Sun sets off the cosmic red arrow that’s been flashing for the past month.

It’s been expanding your frame of reference, crashing your outmoded technology (raise your hands) and yet stabilizing your balance and footing amid the ongoing change. Clarity is coming about what all this means for you on a very personal level. Watch for moments of awareness of how you have evolved and how you are living more consciously and in sync with your power.

Limits on your power will become clear as well and add to the process of stabilizing, though in a form you may not recognize as such. Or welcome. The form may be a criticism, brake, delay, obstacle or wall that blocks or impedes or limits you (or just plain makes you feel small). No matter how frustrating it feels at the moment, the pause is likely exactly what you need -- to breathe, to allow developments to solidify, to feel the ground grow firm beneath your feet. Think of it as looking both ways before crossing the street. So your stride breaks for a moment. Your journey will go on.

A stalled part of it is on the verge of reviving. Jupiter is stationing direct this week and ending the retrograde he’s been in since the beginning of October. Information will gradually begin to flow and options open up affecting matters that have been simmering or slowed since then.

Friday brings an energetic gear shift that foreshadows much of February. Cosmic lovers Mars and Venus, rulers of the masculine and feminine and of our drive and our heart, are both switching signs, during a void of course moon. New energy and modes of expression are coming into our motivations, actions and relationships, and the first place they’re changing is inside you.

Mars in Pisces is the scout planet for the pile-up that will occur in that sign later in February. His move promises an upsurge in emotionally driven behavior, in compassion, in kindness, in gentleness and .... in backhandedness. Straightforward action is going off the books for a bit. Instead, we’ll be indirect and touched by everyone else’s activity. Think of what happens in the ocean, or in a pool. Activity in one area sooner or later affects other areas. Gentle movement ripples out in all directions, while sudden or violent motion is hard to direct and can come back at you.

Venus, in contrast, is moving from cold and calculating Capricorn to detached and intellectual Aquarius. We’ll be less concerned with the bottom-line and long-term security and more inclined to lighten up, make like millennials and hang out in packs. Socializing will come more easily and freely, because every contact will no longer resound with potential ramifications and commitment.

Almost as soon as they change signs, Venus and Mars calibrate, and our hearts and will come into an updated alignment that fits the direction we’re facing. Artistic inspiration and compassion come into the mix as well, as the planets of worldly and higher love, Venus and Neptune, undergo their own alignment.

Sit in the gentle vibes that ensue. They will inspire action next week and grace relationship shifts and breakthroughs to come. Your task for now is a paradox, but one you have the power to reconcile. Take an elevated view of your path and the future to which it appears to be heading -- and immerse yourself in an ocean of unconditional love.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.!

Monday: The day has the feel of an itch between your shoulder blades that you can’t quite reach. Hang back in the afternoon, when the Moon is void of course from noon to 6:28 PM EST. In fact, hang loose throughout the day, because once she clears the void and enters Virgo, that sign’s analytical abilities quickly get jammed by a harsh contact to Neptune and his cosmic fog machine. Take everything under advisement. No need for quick or sudden action.

Tuesday: At some point today you will take action that feels organic and natural, and yet demonstrates how far you have come. Make a point to think back to November, to September, to June, to last spring and before, and remember how you once navigated life and behaved. No longer. Your behavior is now more congruent with your inner truth and expression of your self (as opposed to the people you’ve posed as to get by in the world).

Wednesday: Think things have felt slow lately? That’s nothing compared to today. Don’t push; don’t rush.Take everything under advisement. The stillness has no ill affects on interactions, fortunately. Pleasant company is easy to find. If progress hits a wall, just hang out together. Put writing materials by your bedside.

Thursday: Your mind is working through agitation and excitement overnight. New ideas fighting their way to consciousness? Thoughts of breaking out or away or free? As always, your early morning mental ramblings contain clues of the dreamworld process. Unlike yesterday, action and movement are likely today, deliberate, controlled and sustained. Erratic impulses don’t lend themselves to follow-through, and ones you see flying off other people simply give you pause. No matter. Moods are high; hearts are open; baggage is dropping. Do something self-indulgent.

Friday: The dreamworld mutates from calm and confidence to a restless that leaves you feeling as if you’ve been running. Distraction and vagueness are epidemic throughout the waking hours. They crest into an excessive sociability, as if we’re overcompensating, and deliver fodder for thought and conversation as the Moon goes void of course at 8:03 PM EST until 7:02 AM EST tomorrow. Inside the void, Mars and Venus make their moves into Pisces and Aquarius and our attitudes shift about what we want and how we’re going about getting it. Unconventional approaches, situations and connections are the evening’s theme.

Saturday: Overnight you’re getting on board with deliberate, controlled, sustained, mature and responsible action. Issues of trust, intimacy and daring to share are involved. The daytime vibe is motivated, high-energy, inspired and possibly romantic, triggering movement on the relationship and money fronts. When choices arise, take the path that allows you to be yourself (rather than a path of reaction or rebellion) and increases your sense of well-being. Tricky topics come up throughout the day. Power game lurk behind some of them; all challenge you to hang on to what is most important to you and drop the trivial.

Sunday: The overnight hours move you into a new and deeper level of comfort with yourself, your truth and your power. Settle into it for the day, which is a time for just floating and being if there ever were one. The Moon is void of course from 8:57 AM EST until mid-morning tomorrow, and the two planets of love connect within the void. Approach everyone (and everything, for that matter) as an embodiment of the divine. Open yourself to guidance, compassion and inspiration, and the day will be more magical than you can imagine in advance.

Want a road map for 2013? Book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Leo Full Moon Capricorn New Moon

2013 Leo Full Moon

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:34:59 -0500

January 26-27, 2013
8:39 PM PST / 11:39 PM EST / 4:39 AM GMT
7 Leo 24 / 7 Aquarius 24

By Kathy Biehl

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” -- Oscar Wilde

This weekend’s Leo Full Moon spotlights how well we’re shining -- and who is paying attention. As we take center stage this time, though, it’s with intense awareness of what’s going on in the wings, not to mention the shadows, closets, basement and other darkened places.

Circumstances have been nudging (in some cases, shoving) you to be wildly, vibrantly unique yourself. Consciously or not, you’ve been lifting brakes that have held your true nature in check. Maybe you’ve been acting with less concern about propriety, or about what other people might think. Maybe other people’s reactions haven’t entered the equation and you’ve simply been allowing yourself freer expression.

Go for broke now. This weekend’s Moon has a strong element of pulling out the stops. With Uranus and Mars hosting the party, daring, surprising, unconventional, and even shocking behavior is called for. Here’s how they’re in charge: The Leo Moon is disposited by the Sun. Since the Sun’s in Aquarius, he’s ruled by Uranus. Since Uranus is in Aries, he’s ruled by Mars, who is in Aquarius and therefore under the command of ... Uranus.

Neither Uranus (the cosmic rebel and awakener) nor Mars (god of action) is quiet on his own. When they’re in cahoots like this, it’s as if the cosmos is triple dog daring us.

This challenge will summon inner children, performers and drama queens alike. Some people are going to be playful and have a blast; others are going to act out and demand attention.

As the melee plays out, three key factors are worth noting. One is the maturity level of behavior (and please draw a difference between childlike and childish). One is the concern or lack thereof for other people’s reactions. And one is the extent, quality and source of the reaction.

Engage in behavior for your personal expression and enjoyment and, paradoxically, you will draw an appreciative audience. The size isn’t important; the point is that people “get” you. Notice exactly what that is, too. Pay attention to who is cheering you on and who’s joining in.

Also pay attention to what’s going on throughout your social circles. Who’s having fun, and who’s just being infantile? Hissy fits, petulance, demands for attention and blowing situations way out of proportion are all signals that you may want to redefine some of your alliances.

Just for grins, compare this month with January of 2008, when a lunar eclipse happened within a degree of this month’s Full Moon. How has your expression of yourself changed since then? How has your role changed in group contexts? Aren’t you measurably more comfortable with being yourself -- and around people who applaud you for that?

There’s another, darker side to what’s happening. The Sun and the Moon are each bearing down on Saturn, in a dynamic configuration called a t-square. This pressure is what’s directing attention to the shadows, closets, basements and other darkened places. What is going on back there, and how healthy is it for you?

A wealth of questions arise from this. How committed are you and your social groups to each other? Is your community supportive? What return are you getting on your investment of time and energy? What’s the level of trust and intimacy? Has anyone betrayed you or broken trust? Are you betraying yourself or your system of values?

With the people who truly get you, this is a time of deepening and stabilizing the connections. As for the others, a cutting back is in order. Some people might leave (in which case bless them). You might leave the group, a likely outcome if it does not fit in with your refocused vision for your life. You might relegate these people to the far reaches of your personal universe. You might cease contact, or you might overtly end the friendship(s).

The point of all of this is your ability to dance and shine unimpeded. You are in the spotlight, not just during this Full Moon, but for the entirety of your life. You are securing a safe and supportive stage for you to play on. The condition of the wings, backstage areas and dressing rooms are important, too, and so is the makeup and identity of the audience. They’re waiting for you to come out now. Take a bow.

Need a road map for the year? Book a session with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of January 21-27, 2013

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:01:11 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

Get out your comfy shoes! This is a week of messages and trips, full of road signs that redirect us to exactly where we meant to be heading.

Mercury is contacting both of the cosmic change agents, as well as the Finger of God aspect that has been pointing the way since the winter solstice. You may be right about where you think you’re going, but this week will rearrange your thinking as to how -- and likely upgrade your plans as well.

The cosmic trickster is opening the door to out of the blue, spur-of-the-moment disruptions in thinking and schedules. He’s pumping your perspective with optimism, ushering in greater visions for the future (including higher quality technology) and taking you further than you previously envisioned (and probably quite literally).

Don’t be afraid you might fly too high or far afield. True, you will quickly hit limits, courtesy of the dictates of so-called reality. They may push you off the high wire or zip line, but they also provide a safety net, not to mention a reminder of where the walls are. Whatever you think, learn or explore ultimately leads back to your sure footing and your process of stabilizing in the midst of massive inner and outer restructuring.

One component of the stability comes from a few things finally making sense. Some of the messages and seeming side trips date back awhile, to September, or June, or even late last spring. See? You weren’t crazy. Those rumblings you sensed really were happening. Information early in the week confirms them, and also explains why confirmation didn’t come sooner.

The week culminates in the Leo Full Moon (Friday in the Western Hemisphere, Saturday in the Eastern), which always spotlights how well we shine within a group context. It’s time for inner children and drama queens to come out and play. Ignore them at your peril; their behavior could be more unpredictable and attention-getting than the norm for this Moon. For more, read my mooncast.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: The day starts with a greater sense of purpose, or understanding of purpose, and of being in the divine flow. Align your will with the greater one, ask to be guided to the directions and activities that are most beneficial, and ride the energy. Once you clear a foggy patch, it’s a day for self-confidence and acceptance, flowing communication, breakthroughs and golden good vibes.

Tuesday: Messages and conversations are all over the map today. Think; research; ask; read; listen; share. As we’re receiving and transmitting, we’re processing how we feel about the cosmic red arrow that is still flashing and pointing to us to our future. Certain developments feel too good to be true; it remains to be seen whether they are solidly as projected, or whether they will scale back. (Asking for guidance never hurts.) I am hosting Best of the Best on CBS NewSkyRadio from 8-9 PM EST - just me, no guests, talking about astrology and taking questions from listeners. Call (248) 545-SOUL (7685) or instant message via the Instant Feedback box located on the PsychicOnAir.com home page.

Wednesday: Keep a hang-loose attitude today, no matter how packed your schedule is (or how much importance you attach to any particular calendar item). It may well have the appearance of busy-ness, because the Moon gets nicely revved up by active Mars before going void of course from 6:43 AM - 10:01 PM EST. Unlike with many voids, contemplation and quiet are in short supply. The urge is strong to go out, connect, and enjoy life. (And the problem with that is what, exactly?)

Thursday: Mental clarity and focus rule the day. They bring a simplicity of purpose: When you grasp what’s important, who has time or interest for everything that isn’t? Be open to inspiration, wacky ideas and impulses that upend your plans. On a deeper level, you’re in another bout of grappling with the relentless vibe of change. Your inner toddler isn’t entirely happy with where today is pushing you. Stand quietly (if possible) and the big picture will come into view. Writing materials at your bedside will turn out to be handy; got any?

Friday: Your mental computer is whirring away throughout the night and spits out a remarkable analysis and status report. Note how you feel when you awaken. You’ve hit a new level of clarity (noting the theme, are you?) about your motivations, your priorities and your concepts of security. A no-nonsense, unapologetic power is coming through (to you and from you) loud and clear. When you bump into a wall, or a “no,” or some other authoritative pronouncement, observe your reaction. It’s not what your instinct would have been even a few weeks ago. (Go back two sentences and reread.) The reaction you’re getting is different, too. No ruler is coming down on your wrist. Likely no one is even putting up an argument. Instead, you’re getting an up-tick in confidence and self-satisfaction. Baggage has indeed gone by the wayside.

Saturday: Today has the greatest potential of the week for edginess. Relationship impulses and developments have an ungrounded air bordering on the intoxicated. Some people are going to push too much and too hard. Modulate your desires; who is in control here, anyway? Opportunities for release and fun increase as the Leo Full Moon builds. Your best bet is to not take much of anything seriously, least of all yourself. Read more in my mooncast.

Sunday: Something isn’t sitting right. Are you perhaps feeling ignored or under appreciated? A lot of people are going to start the day out of sort, and many won’t be aware of what’s behind the grumpies. Consider keeping quiet and observing, especially midday, when conversations are at loggerheads. Talk is happier and more comfortable late in evening. Words you want to say or hear may just spill out then, whether you intend or schedule that consciously or not.

Given that my forecasts are so on target (so say all of you) -- think of what you’d get from a private reading. Hmmm....why not book one with me and find out

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Leo Full Moon Capricorn New Moon

Forecast for week of January 14-20, 2013

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:52:23 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

What do you want? Really want? Seriously now: in the privacy of your mind and heart, when you think no one can see, what is it you want, crave, long to possess with every fiber of your being?

That’s the focus of the week, desire: raw, insistent, compelling, magnetic, terrifying, life-changing and yet organic, natural, calming and, ultimately, stabilizing. It’s not a maybe-someday contemplation topic, but a force that is demanding demonstrable, tangible reliable developments.

Your heart’s journey has taken on a distinctively here-and-now quality since Venus entered Capricorn (and all its respect for formalities and long-term security) last Tuesday. The planet of relationships, money and creativity has entered the battle of the cosmic change agents, the multi-year process that is destabilizing and remaking the very foundations of our existence.

This week’s leg of the journey begins with us all still tingling from the shake-ups and blowing the carbon out that happened over the weekend, when Venus roughed it up with Uranus, bringer of unpredictable, sudden and liberating change. Lightning flashed; viewpoints flipped; a rash of breaking up/out/through/loose ensued.

Before she hits the other end of the change imperative, we get therapy. A lovely healing, calming, forgiving dose comes on Tuesday, when she links to Chiron, the wounded healer, who calls for fulling embracing the physicality of being human, pain and all. Ease up on yourself and on others. Look for points of connection instead of flaws or injuries or differences.

Desire is still steering, though. That hits critical mass on Wednesday (or should I say: Wantday), with the Sun and Jupiter inflating everyone’s sense of entitlement and Venus taking a closed-doors meeting with Pluto, agent of unavoidable, life-altering, terrifying and thrilling change. Their conjunction is tempering, streamlining, purifying and cathartic, simultaneously life-enhancing and lethal. Our hearts are undergoing a tectonic plate shift, and our inner and outer terrain will not be the same.

On a symbolic level, the feminine is on a rampage, and she will fight the order that has deigned to hold her back, which promises news of women’s rights, health care, rape outrage and more. On a mundane level, this conjunction could see the departure from power -- or life -- of prominent women who have wielded extraordinary power or awakened extraordinary fear.

As with a geological lurch, the new structures (and the departures) are not springing out of thin air, but responding to pressures that have been building for a long, long time. We’ve been sensing them -- in dreams, in recurring urges, in weird noises from the basement that disturb the night, in the “Jaws” theme playing in the background. They’re taking form; they’re taking hold. Some aren’t pretty; some aren’t acceptable in public; some are outright forbidden. Conscious thought plays a role later (Friday, actually); for now we’re answering a call that has nothing whatsoever to do with logic or reason.

The outer world is changing shape to match our desires, values and priorities, which have been overhauled and how in the past three or four years. We’re admitting that we want, crave, need, absolutely have to have, no more denying -- and therefore we’re allowing in -- situations, connections, upgrades in love and money, empowering tools and objects and other life-path paving stones. We’re also admitting -- or being shown, or being ripped away from -- what we don’t want, don’t need, can’t make work, or now recognize as stifling, diseased, broken, pathological, deadly, dying and dead.

As enormous and messy as this is, it’s a welcome chaos. We can live with it; we can work with it; we can even enjoy it. Besides, the rubble doesn’t pose much interference, because stabilizing is inherent to this massive reconstruction.

Circumstances quickly offer a way to firm the newly settling foundations, with Venus sextiling order-loving Saturn Thursday. A new level of self-knowledge and certainty arrives Friday, when Mercury meets up with the Sun at the pinnacle of Capricorn. The next day, the pair leave the mundane for the intellectual, future-oriented air of Aquarius and begin their own approach to Uranus. This week’s focus, commitments and deaths point us in a direction to which we’ll soon be leaping.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: It’s a busy, chatty, sociable day. Play with the expansive vibe: when you think of an idea or a plan, make it bigger. With each connection that occurs, be more kind and giving than your initial inclination (which should be generous to begin with). Welcome developments flag you onto the ramp toward Wednesday’s big heart event.

Tuesday: The impetus to share and mingle continues; the atmosphere is loving and compassionate. So much makes sense, especially about ancient wounds. Overtures mend fences without words. Grips are loosening on baggage, and it’s slipping away without drawing notice -- though an electrical jolt make knock some unexpectedly loose at either end of the day.

Wednesday: Pressure’s building, but the day begins with us content to wait and see what develops. Hanging loose advisable during the morning, when the Moon is void of course from 4:33 AM to 11:08 AM EST. When you feel the energy ignite, that’s the signal that she’s moved into Aries and impulse control has gone out the window. From then on, the theme is “I WANT,” cost and danger be damned. Conscious effort may be necessary to stay aware of your surroundings and potential ramifications. Opening yourself to a potent desire will lead to sudden leaps and lines of thinking that go roughly, “If one is good, 10 should be great!” Lucky us; we’re in a big bouncy cosmos with cushioned hard surfaces (for now). Have fun.

Thursday: “Uh oh” thoughts overnight incline us, on awakening, to responsible, mature behavior and decisions. The big bouncy cosmos really was safe. Goodbyes are easy, because everyone’s so focused on what’s staying and growing. Giving and keeping words are in the air; there’s a general encouragement of commitment, settling down and getting comfortable (together). And then the energy ignites again. No quiet or boring night, this. It will be worth putting writing materials at your bed.

Friday: Overnight, the processor that is your mind churns and whirrs and bam! Everything makes sense. You grasp how everything that has happened this week and last fits into your life. You see how you got from last summer to this point. You glimpse where the path is heading, and you get who and where you are right now. If realizations like these aren’t on your mind when you awaken, scribble down whatever is. Clarity may come later, after the morning fog lifts. Other people may take issue with your views. Differences of opinion are likely early evening. When you catch yourself digging in and taking issue, bingo! There’s your clarity.

Saturday: Fresh air! The atmosphere is lightening, as if someone is flipping a switch. (Mercury and the Sun are, by leaving earthbound Capricorn for Aquarius.) Every conversation isn’t fraught with consequences and long-term projections and those pulsating desires. It’s easier to be philosophical and detached. From up here, those big changes aren’t so scary. Yeah, there may still be some details to sort out, but with the lights on and the fears under control, the cutting out and cleaning up parts make you want to do more.

Sunday: Tonight’s dream outlook is sweet indeed, with drop-ins possible by a very special visitor. Waking reality won’t match this lovely world, unfortunately. The shortfalls prompt some outbursts of frustration and worse, and all bets are off in the afternoon, when schedules turn into one big game of fruit basket upset. Don’t attach. The Moon is void of course from 11:17 AM till 9:06 AM EST tomorrow. The turbulence will pass.

Given that my forecasts are so on target (so say all of you) -- think of what you’d get from a private reading. Hmmm....why not book one with me and find out

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Cancer Full Moon Capricorn New Moon

2013 Capricorn New Moon

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:24:10 -0500

January 11, 2013
11:44 AM PST / 2:44 PM EST / 7:44 PM GMT
21 Capricorn 45

It’s time to make things real. Spiritual connections, goals and desires are coming down to earth. Deep-rooted clearings and transformations are coming to the surface. And all are taking physical form in the here and now.

Developments have a long tail indeed. The Capricorn area of your chart has been under renovation for five years, since Pluto entered that sign at the end of January 2008. In the past year, one section of that has been worked over by the cosmic equivalent of depth charges and meat tenderizers. A significant chapter begins now; significant birthings and comings-into-being begin now.

Structure, form and formalizing are watchwords for this process. The Moon is ruled by Saturn, keeper of order and rulers, and minder of long-term ramifications. He’s in a cooperative aspect to the trio of planets joining the Sun and the Moon in Capricorn: Venus, ruler of love, money and creativity; Pluto, lord of death and regeneration; and Mercury ruler of communication and transportation.

Trivial this is not! This line-up calls for raw honesty, especially with the self, for connecting and committing to situations of profound and lasting value, and for cutting loose from the diversionary, the diseased, the outmoded. Intense and deep conversations are probable; so are intense and deep connections. (Champagne in the fridge, anyone?)

It is definitely a time to dump baggage. Purging is a terrific way to embrace these energies. Clean your closets. Give away usable items you don’t want to someone they’d benefit. (Big Brothers/Big Sisters, women’s shelters, and Freecycle come to mind.) Purge like mad. Make a point to look in dark, hidden places (basements, under sinks, storage units, the backs of closets). You’re clearing ground for emerging growth. Get the ickies out of the way!

This Moon phase is firmly connected to relationships and money. Venus and Pluto are the rulers of desire (conscious vs. cellular) and of money (ordinary amounts vs. enormous wealth). The conscious, worldly end of those two spectrums gets an otherworldly boost the day before the New Moon, when Venus makes a door-opening aspect to Neptune, ruler of dreams, transcendence and outright escapism.

Magical, heaven-sent opportunities present themselves; romance, universal love and, I’m going to use that word again, magic color our world. This stance of heart-softening pervades the New Moon and the month growing out from it.

So does the anticipation of two less gentle, more insistent, more exciting events: Venus’ clash with awakening Uranus this weekend, and her private meeting next week with transformative Pluto. Her travels imbue our hearts and values with higher love and guidance, knock situations into movement and impel intense explorations of intimacy and awareness of the power and extent of our desires. Fears and compulsions are part of the mix, too, but the desire end has a magnetism that will pull us in regardless.

The bottom line (always a factor with Capricorn): What we’re drawn to now has lasting impact, if not lasting form. Developments are profound, tangible, real-world, the physical manifestation of rumblings that have been sounding since last summer. Choices and commitments we make now are no rabbit holes or momentary diversions. At a minimum, they are monumental stepping stones to the future and security we are building. Many are far more than that; many will be with us for the long haul.

Launch the new year with insight!. Book a session with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Forecast for week of January 7-13, 2013

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 12:30:43 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

And we’re off!

This is the point in a journey when you check the gas gauge, look at the time and compare the road signs to the map to make certain you’re on target. Maybe you’ll change the route for a quicker or more entertaining one; maybe you’ll switch to a more cost-effective mode of travel. Maybe you’ll let a passenger out, or invite one in. The one certainty is that you will not trundle along unthinkingly or, more accurately, unfeelingly. Your heart is steering the trip, and it’s issuing requirements.

This stage of the journey shows the effects of Venus and Mars, rulers of all we value and the way we go after it, making significant contacts to the influences that are fomenting and stabilizing evolution. The forward-ho! rush we’ve been on since New Year’s Eve hits a wall Monday, when Saturn says “no” to Mars. The development is a metaphoric wall from which you can push off, fueled by the irritation, frustration and probable pissed-offness that erupts in you.

The heart focus comes in when Venus moves into Capricorn on Tuesday. The love goddess is at her most calculating and practical in this sign, where she waves off sentiment and sweet nothings for sure things and the bottom line. “Santa Baby” captures her druthers: tangible, bankable displays of affection, real estate, stock, long-term commitment with a pre-nup and an investment account. (“Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” is another theme song for her.)

For the rest of the month, we’ll all be casting a cool, realistic eye at our relationships, bank accounts, goals and evolutionary path -- but with a remarkable twist. The first glances will be through a soft, even loving lens. Amazingly, Venus is making her move at 11:11 EST -- passing through a doorway coded for relationship, and for twin flames at that.

No matter what time zone you’re in, her first major aspect activates a yearning for bringing soul unions into physical being. When Venus sextiles Neptune on Thursday, their contact beckons us onto a bridge between earthly and higher love. She (and by extension some of us) will succumb to sweet magic and the wonder of spirit made manifest. Make the effort to view everything in the best possible light. You’ll feel good, others will feel good and likely some other good will come of it, too. At a minimum, you’re watering soil and priming it with the nutrient of love.

Friday’s Capricorn New Moon boosts the emphasis on the earth plane -- experience, value, ramifications, long term security, what’s happening and growing in the here and now on terra firma. Niceties and fluff are not in anyone’s sights; instead we’re hyperaware of substance and the material. This Moon may awaken the resolutions and goal-setting that are generally in the air at New Year’s, but which have been strangely lacking this time. For more on the New Moon, read my forecast, which should be posted on the site by Thursday.

The first order of business under the New Moon is running the ongoing r/evolution by our hearts. On Friday, Venus takes the Neptunian feel-good injection with her as she sets off the awakening, volatile end of the Uranus/Pluto square that is reshaping our world inside and out. How do you feel about the destabilizing and restructuring you’ve been experiencing since last June? How are your long-term goals and security structures faring? What’s up for more change?

These are not theoretical inquiries. Something’s got to give. Something’s been stirring in your heart and breaks loose today in a flash. Venus and Uranus are demanding action, and an epidemic of sudden moves is the result.

Your view of an object of desire could shatter or, at the other extreme a lightning bolt could awaken you the fact that the answer to your prayers is standing right next to you. Your desire -- or your value system -- or both -- could cause you to take impulsive daring action, or make a break for freedom from a situation that has no future. The immediate action may be swift and without warning. The situation is likely not to be out of the blue, however, but probably has a connection to rumblings as far back as late spring or early summer.

So: lots of shake-ups, lots of excitement. They all lead the way to Venus’ meeting next week with Pluto, the unavoidable and regenerative end of the ongoing change imperative. This first phase is akin to a wrecking ball slamming into a building. Next week, an implosion will finish off the demolition. What’s being cleared are outmoded structures, faltering foundations, limitations and restrictions. In other words, don’t panic.

We’ll have lots of time to acclimate. This week sees the return of day-eating void-of-course Moons -- technically the time between the Moon’s last major aspect in a sign and entering the next sign, and energetically those formless, floating stretches when no one answers the phone or email and nothing seems to come to fruition, no matter how much you push. This week it’s almost easier to say when the Moon isn’t void than when it is. The voids are:

6:32 AM EST Monday through 3:29 AM Tuesday
9:29 PM EST Tuesday through 3:55 AM Thursday (ALL DAY WEDNESDAY)
2:44 PM EST Friday through 4:02 AM Saturday
3:37 AM EST Sunday into Monday

Use these stretches to contemplate, to watch what floats by and not attach, and to take actions that by their nature you will do again anyway. Clean, organize, cook, do laundry, balance your checkbook, and allow yourself -- and the rest of the world -- to be. Simply be.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: The Moon goes void of course at 6:52 AM EST until predawn tomorrow. This void vibrates with personal contentment and satisfaction. Stay in those good vibes when your agenda hits a glitch, a wall or a firm “no.” So it’s irksome. So you’re not pleased. Don’t waste time and energy on blaming anyone. Use the wall as a launching pad, not something to kick or contest. Move on to Plan B, or C, or however many iterations you need. Forget your usual bag of tricks, too. The more unusual your tactic, the more beneficial it will prove.

Tuesday: Yesterday was free-form, deep and maybe a little maddeningly. Today throws us happily back into all-systems-go mode. The Moon leaves the void at 3:29 AM EST and enters go-get-’em Sagittarius. The last round of dreams stirs intense attractions and surrounds them in soft, fluffy clouds of idealism and romance. The combination promises to affect your vision of others early on in the day. Let plans go topsy-turvy. The daylight belongs to pursuing whims and having fun (you are hereby granted permission, okay?), with a comforting stability returning in the evening. The Moon goes void of course at 9:29 PM. The expansive vibe carries over into a flurry of texting and social media activity. They’ll have a jolly, joking vibe until Venus makes her late-night entrance into Capricorn. If you’re on a device, note who sticks around when the game gets real.

Wednesday: The Moon is void of course all day. Hearts and minds are all over the place. Let them wander freely without attaching to any single stopping point. Give yourself permission to explore. Late-night impulses and connections are revealing indeed. No pushing, no shoving, no grabbing, please.

Thursday: After midnight (EST) Venus and Neptune offer a moment of heaven on earth -- through inspirational dreams, spiritual guidance, immersion in love, compassion and interconnectedness, and perhaps awareness of a blissful, loving connection to a flesh and body person. (Watch Venus’ upcoming journey for more on that last one.) The lovely, soft, magical glow continues after the void ends at 3:55 AM and the Moon moves into down-to-earth Capricorn. She makes easy contacts to Venus and Neptune and brings the beauty of their overnight dance into the light of day. Communication might go overboard in the sweet nothings department. Enjoy the love, but don’t make any irreversible commitments based on anything you’re told or hear today. Continue embracing unexpected insights and developments. Home in on your heart’s deepest desires. A way to reconcile and harmonize all of these is at hand.

Friday: The day begins with mental and emotional alignment: clarity and understanding of your emotions, as well as emotional investment in your agenda and goals. Get down to the work is the vibe of the day, leading appropriately into the Capricorn New Moon at 2:44 PM EST. (Read about it in my mooncast, which will be posted on the site by Thursday.) The first hours of this solid, mundane and goal-focused phase has us all aflutter. What more can I do? What more can I build? We’re anxious to speed the process, but you know by now: you can’t. One reason is that we’re dealing with Saturn-ruled Capricorn energy, which takes its time. The other is that the Moon is void of course, starting at 2:44 PM EST, until 4:02 AM tomorrow. Step by step, inch by inch, row by row.

Saturday: The Moon is void of course until 4:02 AM, when she enters the home base of Uranus, who’s up for major action today. What transpires is highly personal, liberating and likely disruptive. Venus clashes with him late tonight, and the impact produces sudden left turns, changes of heart and amazing creations erupting out of thin air. The only aspect that’s out of the blue is the timing or manner, however. Today’s quick change has been building for months. It’s exciting. It’s making the most unlikely people giddy. It has long-term ramifications, too. Humpty-Dumpty comes to mind. So doese the solemnity of wedding vows.

Sunday: The Moon goes void of at 3:37 AM EST until early Monday. Let the dust settle from yesterday’s developments. We’re in a channel of calibrating our hearts and relationships to a new way of living. We’re bringing them into alignment with the upheaval, restructuring and evolution of the fundamentals in our lives. Yesterday delivered the first phase of this process. The second, more intense one comes on Wednesday, when Venus merges with Pluto. Sit with yourself today. Other people don’t hold answers or comfort just now. Everyone’s in personal and internal assimilating and realignment mode. Interactions have moments of supportive flow mid afternoon and evening, but don’t push your luck, or misplace your focus. The important activity is internal. You’re preparing ground.

Wonder what’s in store for you in 2013? Book a reading with me.

© Kathy Biehl 2013. 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.

Podcast for the week Cancer Full Moon Sagittarius New Moon

Forecast for Dec. 30, 2012 - Jan. 6, 2013

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:25:06 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

My Holiday Shop is open till midnight Dec. 31, with great deals on readings and gift certificates!

2012 goes out with a bang that propels us though the first week of 2013.

Though it has a component of the unforeseeable, the last aspect of the year is completely in keeping with the evolutionary impulses that have rocked and reshaped our world. It invites and actually motivates us to get on board with them and run headlong into the bold new direction they have been pushing us.

It’s time for consciously breaking with old paradigms and patterns, taking daring, unconventional, individualistic tacts and pouncing on opportunities to live more freely and in keeping with your true self. The chance to do this may present itself well before the first hors d’oeuvres tray is passed around Monday.

Even if it doesn’t, the drive to pull it off will be escalating all the same. It’s the rocket fuel that shoots us into New Year’s. Serve Hoppin’ John or plain ol’ black-eyed peas if you like, but throw in a side of spinach, too, as sympathetic magic to invoke Popeye’s super power.

The drive scurries us along till Friday, when it kicks into high gear, possibly a higher one than you normally use. Developments zoom over the weekend; if this doesn’t translate into actual outer events and messages, it will certainly affect your thoughts and motivations. You’re setting the tone for the year. Within this first week it will be clear how different, bold and daring your approach -- and your experience -- are going to be.

Bravado and gumption abound, so help yourself and have fun. Shoot high and reach for outrageously; both’ll be easy. The vibe encourages small efforts to blossom into bigger projects than intended, or produce far more than expected.

Your ability to turn thoughts into action is hitting a new level of effectiveness, too. For one thing, you are not at cross-purposes with or sabotaging yourself (always a plus). For another, you’re witnessing a surge of what’s called manifesting. Take care with the words and phrases that loiter in your mind; they’re creating your mental filter and also inviting in concrete expression of them. Play this week with the concept that everything you’re thinking, saying and projecting is setting up the year.

Dream big; dream bigger; dream outrageously, even, and especially, if you think something is ridiculously out of the question. (No involving other people’s names; that’ll put the kibosh on your intentions but good.) Try this Abraham-Hicks technique: saying “Wouldn’t it be fun if” and following it with all manner of wild and happy-making wishes. Whether they come about isn’t the point. Stretching your concept of what’s possible is, and that is a gloriously appropriate exercise for launching this year.

Even so, your dreams and druthers aren’t apt to be trivial. Communication and thoughts are zeroing in on what’s most important to you. It’s clear what needs to be left behind, or has already departed. Information comes that supports the stabilizing that’s been going on since last week. (A refresher on that is in last week’s forecast.) By the end of the weekend, you have broader targets, a clearer view of where you are and a revised and strengthened will to continue on that evolutionary path.

Here’s the underlying astrology:

Messenger god Mercury moves into Capricorn on Monday. This not only moves thinking, information and communication into the realm of the concrete and practical, but it also sends our communication and transportation systems down a gauntlet of major contacts to the cosmic change agents Uranus and Pluto. We’re in for mental fine-tuning, breakdown of worn out technology and vehicles (sorry), and lots of information about ongoing imperative for evolutionary change.

The aspect that propels us from one year to the next is a cooperative link between Mars, planet of action, and Uranus, the awakener, the rebel, the proponent of alternate viewpoints and lobber of lightning bolts, bricks and Molotov cocktails. These two are in each other’s houses, or in mutual reception, which ramps up the call to rebellion that they embody.

Their link sets off the long-standing, evolution-demanding clash that Uranus is having with Pluto, the other cosmic change agent (of the unavoidable and life,-death-and rebirth variety). The aspect also opens a release valve for the pressure that bore down on Uranus during last Friday’s Full Moon. We won’t be resisting change; we’ll be lunging for it the instant the starting gun goes off, Monday.

That impulse swells and swells when Mars hits Jupiter (theme song: “More, More, More”) on Wednesday. Thursday, monkey wrenches, lightning bolts and startling news rain down when Mercury slams into Uranus and changes in plans and thinking ensue.

On Sunday, he and Mercury do-so-si with each other and Pluto. Mercury also has a spin with Saturn, whom Mars is preparing to confront at the beginning of next week. Some of the day’s news may be sobering. Some may dispatch parts of your life to the past or drive home how much you have changed. Some may challenge you to put on your big-girl/big-boy pants on; some may make you actually want to do that.

No matter what the content, messages and realizations have the potential for grounding and stabilizing you and your sense of safety and security, and for inspiring responsibility and commitment. Not coincidentally, Sunday is the holy day known as Epiphany (Twelfth Night). Welcome it in.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for nearly five years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: The predawn hours have the effect of a spoon stirring clockwise and back in the soup that is our psyches. The swirling will take its time coming to rest; the process allows glimpses of ingredients that have been stewing out of sight. The every-which-way mental vibe starts to calm when Mercury enters Capricorn (9:03 AM EST). Thoughts are turning to ramifications, practicalities and what some people call “reality,” and inclining us to ponder what we are going to do about [fill in the blank]. Subliminal radios are broadcasting “Auld Lang Syne,” the song we’ve long associated with tonight. Vague anxiety propels many an interaction, as if we don’t know when we’ll see each other again. Let the edginess awaken you into appreciation of the companionship and affection around you. A party atmosphere kicks in early, as the Moon goes void of course at the cocktail hour (4:53 PM EST). Do something different than your norm to mark this New Year’s Eve. The urge’ll start rumbling as the void begins, and find an enticing and unexpected doorway when Mars reaches out to Uranus around 9:30 PM. You have permission to leave a lot behind in 2012. To pull that off, don’t focus on what you’re jettisoning. Instead, keep your eye on what you’re approaching. Moving toward carries far more power than moving away from. Go for it!

Tuesday: Happy New Year! It feels different on impact. The shift into 2013 sets off a deep level signal that something important and powerful has left our lives -- quickly followed by awareness of a wise, loving guiding presence. It’s the theme of the year: You are not alone. We are not alone. Ease into the morning, the month and the year. The Moon is void of course until 12:26 PM. Her first new sign of the year is Virgo, which slips us into the mode of cleaning up clutter and making resolutions. Holiday nostalgia and sweetness are dissipating; we’re coming to ground and taking in the reality (that word again) of current conditions. It’s not a solitary or quiet process. Talk out what you’re thinking, especially when you come to choice points. Old rules don’t apply unless you reinsert them.

Wednesday: It’s a day of processing. Let your heart travel where it will and simply note the impressions, reactions and emotions that come up. Don’t attach; let them surface and move on. This practice will get you through the year. Mars and Pluto are meeting by declination and putting profound power issues into play. Questions abound of mortal will vs. divine. Are you proceeding from a base of power and truth? Handling the steering wheel to fear? Engaging with other people’s power plays? (In which case you the answer to question #2 is yes, even if you consciously said no.) Whose life is it, anyway? Exactly.

Thursday: We have another long day for contemplating the new year, new ways of relating and how we feel about it all. The Moon is void of course from 7:16 AM to 8:12 PM EST. Both ends of the void have a definition relationship vibe, with the Moon kicking off from heart and relationship ruler Venus and later leaving the void for her home base of Libra. Inside the void, thoughts and messages bring startling news, twists and turns and open us to other possibilities. Don’t fear them. Let the fresh air in. The post-void hours demonstrate how well situations -- and you -- actually are.

Friday: We’re still processing. (Okay, so we’re always processing.) Dreams give you distance and perspective on the direction you’ve been taking since New Year’s Eve. Note whatever is turning over in your mind as you start the day; it’s a clue (or four). It’s revving up your engines. Today makes up in spades for the quiet of the past three days. It’s a day of high gear, high productivity, high spirits, high energy, high optimism. We’re all on fire. Let it rip! So what if you sense the disapproval of convention, some authority figure, a stern voice inside you. Bounce off it and fly all the higher.

Saturday: Dreams are particularly fantastical, taking illusions to illogical extremes, setting off little doubts and insecurities but also giving guidance and options. You’re making a choice, whether awake or not. Wherever your thoughts have been, you’re going to get more. If you’ve been maintaing a positive and expansive mindset, your mind will blossom into broader horizons and possibilities. The theme of the daylight hours is bridge-building. Socializing has an undercurrent of acceptance, unconditional love and stability. Bask in it.

Sunday: Epiphany has arrived, in the Christian calendar as well as in the skies. The word’s origin is “vision of God,” while the feast day honors the Magi’s arrival at the stable and acknowledging Jesus’s divinity. Appropriately, this year the day is filled with contact with something more potent than mortal will. It’s not entirely comfortable. Evidence of the higher realms can make a person woozy. If you question your sanity, put that in a box and keep going. By the end of today’s gauntlet, you can be more at ease with everything -- more trusting in yourself, more aligned with your heart and people who are dear, more stable, mature and matter-of-fact in your thoughts and words, and more congruent with both your personal power and connection to the divine. Honesty with yourself leads to honesty with others, and negotiating Important, stable, reliable connections. It’s not an obvious day for engagements, but I won’t be surprised if there’s an epidemic of commitments.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Cancer Full Moon Sagittarius New Moon

December 2012 Cancer Full Moon

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:37:24 -0500

December 28, 2012
2:23 AM PST / 5:23 AM EST / 10:23 AM GMT
7 Cancer 6 / 7 Capricorn 6

By Kathy Biehl

My Holiday Shop is open through New Year’s Eve, with great deals on readings and gift certificates!

This month’s Cancer Full Moon has a vibe fit for the end of the year. In fact, it’s already putting us through a New Year’s Eve process ahead of schedule: encouraging looking back while inciting impulses to move ahead. It’s overflowing with nostalgia, memories and uncorked emotions, yet propelling us into different and more personally fitting traditions, bonds, tribal groups and forms of nurturance.

Hasn’t this holiday season already departed from your norm? It’s been fraught with organic endings, departures, regenerations and magnetic, promising new connections. Family and social configurations have changed. A lot of people have been physically absent who have generally shared this time with us; a lot of people and pets have died who have been in our lives for years, or who were tremendously important years ago. It’s as if we’ve been singing “Auld Lang Syne” to situations and memories as well as to the acquaintances that song’s lyrics address.

It hasn’t all been sad or painful, of course. Even the losses have occasioned joy, laughter and deep appreciation. The departures have brought us back into contact with cherished parts of our pasts, with cherished people, some of whom are still very much alive, and, more importantly, with parts of ourselves that have been lolling about in other sectors of the time/space continuum. (A couple of deaths have had me spending so much time in the 1990s lately that I’ve been likening my process to a weird kind of soul retrieval.) And the element of loss aside, for some people this time has brought an energetic and emotional presence and a simplification that’s made this the most enjoyable holiday ever.

The bottom line is: you have a sharpened recognition of what you value, what you had, what you have now and what you want to coax into more.

Pluto, the destroyer, the refiner, and the bringer of unavoidable change, is palpably at work. He’s not only standing with the Sun in this Full Moon, but is also the first body that the Sun will contact after leaving the event. That happens Sunday, and will drive home the Full Moon’s personal meaning and regenerative impact. Before then, though, a profound restructuring imperative and emotional healing are kicking in.

The restructuring imperative comes from the ongoing clash between Pluto and the other cosmic change agent, Uranus. This week’s Full Moon brings to the surface developments that have been rumbling about since June (when the pair first squared off) and building power since September (when they clashed again). The Full Moon locks into their argument and creates a dynamic configuration called a t-square, which is shunting pressure right into Uranus, the awakener, the rebel, the thrower of lightning bolts and bricks. The most subtle guy in the sky, he is not.

The pressure on him is more than a call to action. It is a push on a lever, a match on a fuse, a contraction with the power to force a new creation or construct out of the birth canal and into the stark air of this reality.

It’s truly astonishing, life-changing and unavoidable. That power, and that force, are insistent, and will not be denied. Mars, the planet of shove, is double-teaming with Uranus to get this baby into the light of day. Not only is he moving into a harmonious link with Uranus, but he is also in mutual reception with the older god. Each is in the other’s sign, which makes each resonate with the power and influence of the other. Their teamwork heightens impulsiveness, risk-taking, and unemotional, unconventional moves. Don’t fight them (though it’s unlikely you’ll want to); they can carry you far, much like one of Popeye’s cans of spinach.

There’s a huge healing potential as well. The emotional flow is easy, unrestrained and therapeutic, thanks to the water grand trine linking the Moon, Saturn and Chiron. Let tears fall, whether of sorrow or joy. They are washing and preparing space in your heart for a new, perhaps rawer emotional expression and new, perhaps more meaningful forms of comfort and sustenance. No more accepting crumbs, or processed foods when you thrive on natural, or rice cakes when you really crave red velvet. You are moving beyond longstanding emotional wounds and grievances and moving into an unprecedented capacity for love -- beginning, all together now, with yourself.

It’s all part of your ongoing evolution. It’s all part of heeding the flashing red cosmic arrow that came into focus around the Solstice and began to stabilize on Wednesday. Emotions are good; they’re healthy; they’re navigational tools as well, showing who and what feel good and right and who and what feels unsafe or harmful. And letting them gush and ebb and flow is part of finding stability.

The grounding point for the emotional flow is the Sun in Capricorn, aided by Pluto, who is in cahoots with Saturn: Concrete structures and tangible goals, revamped to reflect current conditions (most of all, in you). Commitment. Responsible, mature decisions. Saying goodbye for good; allowing the new or revised in with open eyes and respect. It’s a serious time, with serious consequences and long-term ramifications.

Most importantly, the push and the arrow and the round-robin flow are all collaborators in your growth and expansion. (Jupiter’s in the game, too, inviting you to make bigger, grander and more optimistic choices.) The line-up at this most emotional, most sentimental and most heart-felt Moon is a giant cosmic conspiracy to point, push and carry you into your future, on terms more favorable and personally nurturing than you have previously allowed yourself to live.

That bodes well for the new year, doesn’t 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.

Forecast for week of Dec. 24-30, 2012

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 11:45:31 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

My Holiday Shop is open one more week, with great deals on readings and gift certificates!

Ready for some stabilizing? Don’t all shout at once; there’s plenty to go around. Stabilizing is what the skies are offering this week. Not finality and not stability, exactly, but a process of stabilizing -- in terms of your own footing and the ground you tread. You’re birthing your new self, a fitting development for this week’s holiday.

The process is a definite continuation of what we have been experiencing in two time frames: short term, in the shifts of last week (owie-zowie, right?) and long term, in the rumblings that have been rocking our worlds since last June.

What’s happened in the short term has done nothing short of ripping our hearts open. We’ve been tenderized from every angle, happy and not -- from unexpected losses, from reconnecting with people and memories that reminded us how profoundly important they once were, from attempting to go about normal life without being overwhelmed by the sadness, longing and wistfulness that’s filling the air.

In a sense, we have come through end times. As last week’s finger of God swung into place, each of us experienced an inner restructuring that has left us permanently changed. It yanked treasures into consciousness from the depths of our pasts and beings, reacquainted us with their value, dropped some into our laps for continuing enjoyment and bricked others behind walls that will never come down.

No matter what external events you experienced, the real and lasting impact was internal. What you have been through cannot be undone. You can never go back to the way you viewed and approached life before. It’s akin to a loss of innocence -- in fact, that is a component of what is going on for everyone -- a quick and irreversible slide, plummet, catapult, shift, pick your term of transport, into a perspective that forever bears the mark of what you’ve just experienced.

The finger of God swung into action Thursday (Jupiter made an adjustment aspect to Pluto) and Saturday (when Jupiter did the same with Saturn), bringing into focus the cosmic red arrow that I have been writing about. It has mandated changing your thinking, clearing out your filter, and updating your entire approach to life.

The swinging stops this week, on Wednesday, when the two ends of that configuration firm up their teamwork. Saturn and Pluto are making an exact sextile, which invites rebuilding structures from the ground up (actually, even from the basement), in a huge, grand, expansive way. Claim the experiences you have undergone. Claim the impact they have had on your heart, your mind, your outlook. Claim the new views they have birthed in you, and allow them to settle into your reality.

This dovetails completely with the long term process that’s simultaneously coming to a head. This week revisits the evolutionary mandate from Uranus and Pluto, the cosmic change agents, who are disrupting our comfort zones, undermining rotting or unsupportable structures and inciting us to rebel against our status quo. Their work becomes outright personal now. (I can hear Rocket J. Squirrel: a-GAIN?)

An impulse for -- or toward -- liberation erupts on the 26th, when the Sun pushes against Uranus, and action-oriented Mars moves into Uranus’ sign of Aquarius. The two moves set off the energetic contractions that are pushing you out of the rebirth canal. Those recently honed new ways of thinking are requiring breaking out of some old conditions. They’ve been undergoing destabilization long enough that some will topple without enormous effort, and their tumbling leads right into Friday’s Full Moon in Cancer.

That event activates the degree of the first clash between Uranus and Pluto in June. Rumblings were set off then, rumblings that became more insistent during the pair’s second clash in September. The Full Moon sheds light on what’s become of the rumblings, how they are breaking through the surface and taking or affecting physical form, and -- most importantly -- how we feel about all that.

Since Cancer is the Moon’s home base, this Full Moon is the most watery, the most emotional, the most intricately tied to questions of nurturing, the most likely to send us running to jelly doughnuts and blankies and other pacifiers. This one is a degree away from the lunar eclipse that ended December 2009. That eclipse had a comforting retrospective feel, which you may find yourself revisiting now. You can experience nurturing in time present from love you have exchanged and received in the past, which sounds to me a lot like nostalgic holiday memories.

This Moon is a definite pivot point. While you are looking longingly and even lovingly at the past, you are also catapulting into a radically new future, one that’s directly emerging from developments in June and September. By Sunday, step more deeply into the change imperative with the stabilizing assistance of Saturn and Pluto. This pair brings you the ultimate gift: rebirth, renewal and regeneration of nobody but you.

It’s the most natural thing in the world to get unabashedly, unapologetically on board with the new approach to life. Accept it, embrace it, take it seriously and commit to it and glorioski -- outer circumstances fall into place around it.

For more about the Full Moon, read my mooncast, which will be posted by Thursday.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for four and a half years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: Christmas Eve is quiet astrologically. The main influence (and it’s not major; none of the day’s are) encourages our hearts to stretch and expand and grow and glow. It’s okay to want. More importantly, it’s okay to actually get what you want.

Tuesday: Merry Christmas! But hardly a quiet one. For some of you, last night kept going into today’s early hours (last minute wrapping, perhaps?); for others, energy and excitement found a way of ramping up despite your being asleep. Lack of sufficient rest adds to the morning’s gentle air, which is suited for nostalgia and sentimentality and refusing to look at cold hard facts. (It is a holiday, after all.) Prospects are terrific for interpersonal harmony and for feeling internally balanced and well disposed toward humanity yourself. Let your heart be warm and open and, as the song says, light. Drink deeply of the milk of human kindness; in fact, allow yourself to overindulge. You’ll move all the more lovingly when the breakout imperative erupts in you. Think of it as contractions pushing you down a rebirth canal. The imperative could be as simple as a flip in attitude or a key turning in a lock within you; it could be as dramatic as risking behavior more daring than ever before. It will be fun to catalog the array of ways this plays out. Each in our own way, we’re all on board with Uranian impulses now, with Mars moving into Aquarius and propelling us into new terrain. As disruptive as this epidemic promises to be, it does not spell social disaster. We are pulling it off with love, first and foremost for ourselves.

Wednesday: The cosmic red arrow stops flashing today. It’s still pointing to a new direction, but it’s no longer blaring to get your attention. You have already been heeding it. Your filters have been cleaned; your frame of reference is settling into a new form. You are well into the rebirth canal. Today offers a stage of profound stabilizing, leaving you comfortable with the process, even feeling a bit in control of it -- and confident that you can handle whatever conditions you will land in on the other side.

Thursday: You have permission to kick back today (it is, after all, the lull between Christmas and New Year’s). The Moon is void of course from 1:52 AM - 3:08 PM EST, after facing down Mercury. During the overnight, psyches start turning over recent messages, information and developments, which rattle the walls of our comfort zones as the day goes on. Once the Moon clears the void, she enters her home base of Cancer (ground zero for sentimentality, tradition and sweet treats) and begins the approach to tomorrow’s Full Moon. Staying on the holiday bandwagon is easy (any favorite movie you haven’t seen yet?), and so is running here and there to catch up with pals. Look for activities that clear out the cobwebs and build connections; they’re right on target for the energies. That’s also the case if you’re more sentimental or emotive than usual. We’re all feeling the build up to tomorrow’s Cancer Full Moon. Writing materials at your bedside could be useful.

Friday: The Full Moon peaks before dawn (5:23 EST) and unleashes instinctive, impulsive change. (Read about it in my mooncast, which will be posted by Thursday.) Note how differently you feel when you wake up. Chains have broken loose, and your internal definition of security is forever changed as a result. (The outer circumstances that reflect that definition will be shifting, too, and possibly already are.) The aftermath is calm and stabilizing (that word again), if perhaps with sober and solemn overtones. This is serious business, and it requires a mature, responsible and committed approach. Fortunately, the personal benefits are both clear to see and appealing. So is the advisability of taking your time. The Moon goes void of course from 9:44 AM EST until the wee hours Sunday (that means it’s void all day tomorrow). Something unprecedented and magnificent has been rumbling since June, and now it has burst through to physical form. Think of yourself as a butterfly that has just emerged from the chrysalis. Let your wings dry. Observe your environment with new eyes. Get your bearings. Proceed gently. Explore.

Saturday: The Moon is void of course all day. Treat the day as a free turn in a game. Allow yourself to go with the flow, wherever it leads. Your wings are not merely drying, but strengthening, giving you the confidence and certainty within yourself to experience abundant fun and adventure. It’s the last weekend of the year. Are the tasks on your to-do list all that critical now? Not really. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy your companions. Theme song for the day: Pasttime with Good Company, by -- I’m not making this up -- Henry VIII.

Sunday: The void that ate two days ends at 2:47 AM EST, with the Moon moving into Leo and igniting inner fires, inner children and inner impulses to go for the new. She’s moving into a grand trine in fire with Uranus and Mars, which promises an energetic and enthusiastic start to 2013. But stick with today: Your wings have dried. You are a new being, unlike what you have been before, yet, paradoxically, more truly expressing the soul that has always been within. Consciously embrace your new form of existence, your refocused set of definitions, and your new ground rules. A new doorway or platform or set of circumstances beckons today. When it does, step through consciously, secure in yourself and your new form. It’s where you want to be. So there are a few details to sort out, a few loose threads to snip, a few risks remaining. You can deal with many of them today, just by being you. The New You.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Cancer Full Moon Sagittarius New Moon

Forecast for week of Dec. 17-23, 2012

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 20:18:07 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

Please visit my Holiday Shop for gifts of insight (and great prices on gift certificates)!

At last, the much ballyhooed solstice of 2012 is upon us. Chatter and speculation and anxiety have been building so much that normally sane people are asking questions about it. Is the world really about to end?

The world is not ending.

Burn that into your brain.

The world is not ending.

Oh, we’re in a time of transition; that’s for sure. We are definitely in the midst of a phenomenal shift. But nothing in the skies on 12/21/12 portends anything the slightest bit cataclysmic -- or even all that noticeable. In a way, it’s a joke, so much energy being projected onto this Friday.

We’ve already entered the portal. Yup. It’s already happened: two years ago, in 2010, which had a winter solstice with rock-em-sock-em, life-changing aspects. And if you’re reading this now, you survived it.

Significant activity is occurring now -- as the news has been all too dramatically bearing out -- but not specifically on the solstice. Request #1 for the week: Please do not feed the fear about this date.

The significance, and the intensity comes from the flashing red arrow aspect that is still in effect that colored last week and Thursday’s Sagittarius New Moon. It is a configuration called the Finger of God, which has structure-loving Saturn and restructure-mandating Pluto in cahoots and pointing at bigger-is-better Jupiter. No, not the middle finger of God, much as some of what’s been going on feels like that. It’s a firm, decisive and unmistakable signal of massive and fundamental endings and transformations in how we approach life.

Faulty mental constructs can no longer be held together with chewing gum and twine so we can go on limping along. The pressure is intense -- and peaking now -- to change perceptions, beliefs, laws, concepts, paradigms and consciousness. The argument over gun regulation is just one part of this, on a collective level. (For a perceptive analysis of the issues up for national reconsideration, and the corporate forces fighting to keep their profits entrenched despite the pain spiraling out from Hurricane Sandy and the massacre in Sandy Hook, read December’s Darkness at StarlightNews.com.) Each of us has a mandate or three in our personal spheres as well.

Technology is collapsing under the strain, as in the most demonic of Mercury retrogrades. (Mercury is involved, no surprise; he’s in mutual reception with Jupiter -- each in a sign the other rules -- which adds a communication, technology and transportation aspect to the evolutionary pressure.) Emotional patterns and baggage are also being ripped open and apart.

You know what’s calling for a new approach in your own life. And you know that this time, the cosmic alarm clock has no snooze button. Stay in bed and pull the covers over your head and see how little good that does. The alarm is blaring. The impulse to do something different is burning within you, too.

That’s the change potential of this solstice. The world isn’t ending. The world as we knew it has already ended, and that’s what we’re seeing now, collectively and personally.

Request #2 for the week: Periodically retreat and empty yourself. We’re all in mental and emotional overdrive and being bombarded by each other’s processes as well as the news and reactions to it. Quieting, calming and emptying is imperative. I teach several simple tools for this in the 60-minute mp3 “Navigating the Shift with Ease,” which I produced for Shay Parker’s Embrace the Shift Telesummit. You can purchase the mp3 (it’s $30) by registering here; or contact me directly.

If you’re calm and energetically reset, you’ll have plenty of bandwidth for Request #3 of the week, which is: Be kind. Be kind to everyone, to yourself, and to your body. Please respect the physical and emotional wear and tear that everyone is experiencing. Factor that into your expectations of behavior, including what you are capable of pulling off as you enter the on-ramp to Christmas.

Which leads to Request #4: Remember that it’s the holiday season. Yes, pain and loss abound, some of it heart-breaking. Still, look for lights and sparkle and reasons to smile. They do exist. They are everywhere, on the streets, in conversations, in TV shows, in songs, within your closest connections, particularly the ones that are upending your baggage and insisting that you clear it out to make way for deeper and more satisfying exchanges. Open your heart. Let your inner child out. Smile. Laugh. Play.

Why not write a letter to Santa, too? He’s got a lot in common with Jupiter, you know -- hearty laugh, optimistic spirit, world-class generous streak. Confide your desires to him. Whatever you think you might want, supersize it. Never hurts to ask!

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! You can also get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for four and a half years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: Whoa. Mercury is the planet of the day, and how. Minds race; messages fly; chatter is loud, spirited, and all around. Everyone is multi-tasking to an extreme and running all over creation to boot. Yet it’s not a free-for all; amid the tumult you can detect a calm, a peace, a focus. The vibe softens in the afternoon, when the Moon is void of course from 1:12 - 7:48 PM EST. Let your love light shine in the evening.

Tuesday: Not a day for feeling stuck or laying back. A pervasive edginess encourages action for its own sake, and once you head out on a path it’ll be easy to talk yourself into doing more and more and more. Headbutting is likely. Take care.

Wednesday: Today belongs to Venus, which puts the focus on the state of our relationships, wallets and value systems. Desires are fervent, and so is the impulse to connect. Doorways and bridges abound. Embrace the unexpected, changes in plans, twists and turns. You could end up exactly where your heart wants to be.

Thursday: Yesterday’s journey *did* land you in a happy place, didn’t it? Shaking things up is suiting you. It’s also easing the process of elimination and refocusing. You’ve already heeded the cosmic arrow. Your frame of reference is showing its mark, and your mind and agendas are both falling in line with the new direction.

Friday: Happy solstice! The Sun enters Capricorn at 6:12 AM EST, so many of us will enter the new season as our feet hit the floor. The day has three aspects total, and only one of them major, a helpful link between the Moon and Mercury. Minds and mouths are active. The air is slightly romanticized, slightly fuzzy, slightly otherworldly, with a bit of the queasy excitement a preschooler can experience anticipating Santa. See? Nothing world-ending at all.

Saturday: Today’s energy is both stabilizing and activating. Not as paradoxical as it sounds, that translates into considered, deliberate movement. The teamwork vibe starts during the dreamtime. it carries into waking guidance, which can tap you into the best of your own abilities. The morning has an uncommonly gentle atmosphere for the last weekend before Christmas. The Moon is void of course from 7:57 AM to 1:26 PM EST, so either put off last-minute shopping till the afternoon or hold tight to receipts for possible returns. The rest of the day holds the promise of magic and sweet nostalgia, from twinkling lights and glistening shop displays to songs and scents triggering happy memories. Time present holds reason aplenty for smiles and more, too. Cultivate the good vibes coming off growing connections.

Sunday: In the predawn hours Venus hits a point of measuring with both Saturn and Pluto. You’re getting serious about what you want. Relationships are getting real (in terms of consequences, commitment and form); they’re also falling into line with they conceptual shifts you’ve been making in response to the screech of the cosmic alarm clock. No need to be apologetic; in fact, you’ve probably got no inclination to be. The Grinch doesn’t have a monopoly on heart expansion. Your heart has grown several sizes of late. One benefit: You’re comfortable with admitting what you want and, more importantly, allowing yourself to both want and actually have what you want. (There’s a difference; think about it.) Did you write to Santa yet? There’s still time.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Gemini lunar eclipse Sagittarius New Moon

2012 Sagittarius New Moon

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:39:27 -0500

December 13, 2012
12:42 AM PST / 3:42 AM EST / 8:42 AM GMT
21 Sagittarius 54

By Kathy Biehl
Please visit my Holiday Shop for gifts of insight!

The cosmic alarm clock is going off! This month’s Sagittarius New Moon isn’t merely a signal, but a pointed invitation to wake up, install clean filters and go forth with an updated approach to life.

The change is more than intellectual, though it does involve what goes on in our minds. There’s also a large and significant portion that’s below the level of thought and language, in our psyches, in our cells, in our bloodlines even. Another large and significant portion originates outside our beings, in our environment, in our media diet, in our social circles and families, in our upbringing and education, and in the conventions and values of our culture.

All of these are intertwined in one big, less than tidy ball. No matter what shape it’s in, and knotted and snarled as some components may be, the combined impact remains: What you think is what you get.

All of that is up for a new phase. You already know that. You’ve already been hitting the wall or, more likely, the breaking point in one major area of life, maybe more. And no, the cosmos is not about to heap more upon your overloaded spirit. This week’s New Moon does not bring more ripping up and out -- that’s been going on for months, a process that accelerated during last month’s pair of eclipses. This is the passageway into Doing Something About It.

Everything supports passionate, unhesitating, impulsive action and reaction. The Moon’s ruler, Jupiter, is on the receiving end of a yod, or Finger of God, from Saturn and Pluto. One’s the ruler of structure, order and the status quo, all of which the other is inescapably, deeply and utterly transforming. For the next couple of years, they’re working as a team, facilitating overhauls and reorganization of all our foundational structures, internal, external and collective.

That collaboration started in October, and it’s accelerating now. By pointing to Jupiter, they are imbuing their collaboration with his happy-go-lucky, bigger-is-better bent. You want change? Get going and he’ll mushroom it way beyond what you initially contemplated. (Possibly beneficially so; he does have a golden touch.)

Their collaboration also interjects their restructuring and overhaul mandate into Jupiter’s domain -- including this Moon phase, which he rules. This mandate directly speaks to what you do with all the thoughts and data and programming that flow in and out of your mind, your cells and your environment.

That’s where the alarm clock is ringing: Time to wake up. Time to live by revised rules, revised theories, revised philosophies, a revised frame of reference.

We aren’t likely to hit the snooze button, and the few who do will find it uncooperative. That’s because an enormous wild card factor is also in play with this Moon. As it comes into being, Uranus, the awakener, the cosmic rebel, the agent of unpredictable change, is stationing direct. He’s been retrograde since July, and matters that have been rolling around since then may burst to the surface now.

Anything can happen: A shaft of light piercing the sky and upending your previous view of reality. A lightning bolt delivering a “Eureka!” moment -- or blasting apart a situation, relationship, belief or point of view. A spark catching fire and inciting daring action. A gas pedal hitting metal.

What’s for certain is that inactivity is going on the window. Dynamite is going off in stuck places. And odds are good that we’ll respond energetically, if not enthusiastically, when we hear the cosmic alarm clock sound.

Have fun with it. Seriously! You’ve got cosmic permission to install a new operating system. So pick one that suits you -- and let ‘er rip!

© 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.

Forecast for week of Dec. 10 - 19, 2012

Fri, 7 Dec 2012 13:13:46 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

Please visit my Holiday Shop for gifts of insight!

Have you ever seen a flashing red arrow pointing the way? No? Well, aren’t you in for a treat. That’s exactly what the cosmos is sending your way this week. Maybe it won’t actually appear in the sky (though...who knows?), but it will be in your consciousness -- if you’ll just take notice.

This week births a huge shift in consciousness. All those beliefs you’ve been rethinking, sabotaging thought patterns you’ve been identifying, unhelpful technology and transportation routes and vehicles -- this is the week to move beyond them into a new framework that supports both you and the evolutionary drive everyone’s undergoing.

The planet of the week, and part of the driving force behind this shift, is Jupiter. What with all the hubbub in the skies this fall, he hasn’t been getting much press lately, but he definitely has gold-tipped fingers in everything right now. He’s the ruler of Sagittarius and currently backing his way through the opposite sign of Gemini -- where last month’s lunar eclipse took place. He’s been whipping up thought and talk connected to last June, to 12 years ago, to all manner of topics alluded to in the second paragraph (the one above this one).

This week, four spotlights hit happy-go-lucky, bigger-is-better Jupiter. The first clicks on Monday, when Mercury, planet of gab, gadgets and getting around, moves into Sagittarius. This puts each of them in the other’s home, a condition called mutual reception that makes each resonate with the other’s influence. Until Mercury clears Sag at the end of the month, this condition will escalate the level of chatter and running around -- and also make us think, process and talk about everything that’s going on. That will generally happen with a warm-hearted, optimistic, dare I say, jovial vibe, though jingoism and strident viewpoints could mushroom, too.

The second is Thursday’s New Moon in Sagittarius, the formal launch of the next, new phase in consciousness. (Read my full mooncast, which will be posted by Wednesday.) Jupiter is the host of this event, which invites us to move into the new framework that we’ve been considering. While we, of course, are free to stay with our existing opinions, prejudices, life philosophy and frame of reference, we also have significant pressure from the cosmos to update them.

This comes from the third spotlight on Jupiter, which blends with the New Moon’s energies and colors the whole moon cycle: a finger of God from Saturn and Pluto pointing right at Jupiter. This is the flashing red arrow I mentioned at the outset, with a bleating klaxon to boot. Saturn and Pluto are the lords of structure and restructuring, and they’re teamed for the next nearly three years in the same type of energetic commingling that Jupiter has with Mercury. Their alliance impels us to reorganize at the deepest possible levels, thoroughly, responsibly, ruthlessly and wisely.

That impetus is leading right now to Jupiter and all that he rules. Reorganize more. Restructure more. Purge more. Attack your basic, default, unconscious beliefs. Dig up stuff you forgot was in your mental attic. Shine the light of this new day into all of that. Knock out cobwebs. Knock out the thinking and programming and ancient memories and maxims that relatives and teachers and TV hammered into you while you were growing up. Flood the space that results with optimism, hope, faith and your own truth(s).

Odds are this round of clearing out won’t require much premeditation. It’s getting a powerhouse kickoff from Uranus stationing direct on the same day as the New Moon. Uranus embodies volatile, unpredictable, unforeseeable change, these days with all the impetuousness, single-mindedness, derring-do and solo bent of its current base of operations in Aries. Uranus has been retrograde since mid-July, and his change of direction will propel into being all manner of twists, turns, monkey wrenches, epiphanies and breaks for freedom that have been stirring below the surface since then.

The result? Clean slates, bold leaps, jettisoning of baggage and a slew of startling, sudden moves. This week ignites a flame that galvanizes us to action. If by chance you don’t spy the flashing red arrow, take note of what’s different in your life by the weekend. That will hint at the arrow -- and its direction.

And keep writing materials by your bedside, too. The overnight hours teem with activity every single night. Clues are running rampant.

Oh, and the fourth spotlight on Jupiter? That comes from Venus entering Sagittarius Saturday evening. Relationships are a huge part of the playing field where that red arrow is pointing. Let the parties begin!

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
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Monday: Fierce overnight processing leads us into the week. You threw your lot with a risk in the wee hours. Whether that was embracing a bold break or simply adolescent-style disruption, you committed to the choice, and that commitment leaves you secure in yourself, secure enough to proceed all the more from honest, unapologetic personal power. Fly as high as you dare and then some. You’ll have plenty of good company. Watch for some of that to get a bit heated after the sun goes down, some flaring up with desire and obsession, some with control games. Don’t attach (good luck!) and the mood will lighten soon enough, after Mercury returns to Sagittarius mid-evening. Put writing materials by the bedside.

Tuesday: Realizations go off like a string of firecrackers during the predawn hours. Sift through your earliest mental ramblings to find them; they also have clues as to why you and all of creation is slightly out of sorts. It doesn’t help that the air is swirling with clouds of confusion and worse that are skewing perceptions. Go with your inner GPS. Despite the off-kilter start, the day promises a light, low-pressure atmosphere and pleasant companionship. The Moon goes void of course after meeting Venus at 8:09 AM EST, and there are no aspects whatsoever until 5:22 PM, when the void ends with the Moon following Mercury’s lead into high-energy Sagittarius. Moods intensify; fuzzy-headedness, nostalgia and romance run rampant; conversations abound. Boring it will not be.

Wednesday: The dreamworld is hopping for the third consecutive night -- are you starting to glimpse the flashing red arrow? The overnight hours take you from riled up to igniting with enthusiasm to controlling and targeting these impulses. The air is clear today of that intermittent sense of futility that has plagued so many. Enjoy boundless possibilities. You’ll be charging toward a few of them. Talk about second winds: we’ve all got access to renewable energy, as the week’s most high-octane line-up moves into place for the overnight hours.

Thursday: Sleep? Rest? Some bodies may well spend chunks of the overnight hours with eyes closed, lying down even, but deep restorative slumber is not in the cards (okay, stars) for anyone! The Sagittarius New Moon (at 3:42 AM) flips on a nightlight that floods our beings with hope, optimism, warm-heartedness and a party spirit, after which the Moon goes void of course until 4:43 PM EST. Inside the void, Uranus changes direction and pours accelerant on inner fires and outer sparks. While they stoke (the real conflagrations may come later), good moods prevail and connections evolve. The evening promises sweetness, romance, even magic.

Friday: The skies are not yet ready to give us in the Western Hemisphere a good long night’s sleep. Quite the opposite, in fact: the overnight hours are the most active of the week’s, with seven aspects by 7:18 AM EST. Psyches and minds alike are getting on board with the drastic and profound personal change that this week is bringing. We’re finding a comfort level with it all. We’re finding ourselves actually saying “Yes!” to it. And we’re embracing it head-on (and, yeah, maybe with some terror), as our hearts and minds gain sparkling clarity about what’s most important to us now. Concentration is a challenge in the morning -- after all, who’s really rested? Proceed gingerly. The week is catching up with everyone. Nerves and communication are showing the strain. Don’t look for the love vibes till evening.

Saturday: I mean, really? Another action-packed overnight? Minds are racing; accelerators are jammed. Stay in bed if you awaken. Downtime is beneficial even if little more than lying still staring at the inside of your eyelids. The impulse to run around will be hard to deny once you’re up. We’re all running on fumes, and, surprisingly, they have staying power. Lasting effect is another matter. The Moon is void of course for the bulk of the day, from 3:17 AM to 4:53 PM EST. Milk, cookies and a nap would be appropriate afterwards. Do allow yourself some quiet time. Our hearts are in the deepest, darkest stretch of Scorpio, until Venus enters Sagittarius late night and sociability returns like a phoenix from the ashes.

Sunday: No rest for the weary...The dreamworld (or a late night development) invites casting off the previous and going for the new. The more it shakes up your norm, the better! Blowing the carbon out clears the mind, too, which comes up with a beneficial (and likely fun) idea before dawn. Just one more reason for having those writing materials handy. High energy and spirits are on hand to launch us into the day. Still, a travel advisory is in effect. Tempers are likely to snap in the morning, and relationship expectations won’t line up in the afternoon. Once again, that inner GPS keeps you on the most beneficial path. Once you move past the expectation issue, love and compassion flow with reliability and security. Meanwhile, your mind is heeding the flashing red arrow, and how. Look for proof before bedtime.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Gemini lunar eclipse Sagittarius New Moon

Forecast for week of Dec. 3-9, 2012

Sun, 2 Dec 2012 10:52:44 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

Please visit my Holiday Shop for gifts of insight!

At last, a rare week without major forces hammering at us. November’s eclipses may still be visiting departures and awakenings upon us, but they will have the effect of aftershocks rather than registering high on the Richter scale.

We’re in a phase of consolidation now. It’s a week of sorting through rubble real and emotional, making decisions and commitments and refocusing our lives accordingly.

We’re responding to the building cooperation between Saturn, the ruler of structures, and Pluto, lord of death and rebirth, and also the agent of unavoidable change that is working on our most fundamental structures these days. The two lords are moving into a sextile, which my astrologer colleague Kathy Kerston calls an offer you can’t refuse, and which will be exact next week. This aspect heightens the teamwork vibe coming off the pair, from each being in the other’s sign, or in mutual reception. This condition blends their energies, so that when one acts or reacts, the other participates or feels the effects.

Change has been rumbling and erupting in identifiable areas of your life since June at least. Since October, when Saturn entered Pluto’s home base Scorpio, their mutual reception has been harnessing the ongoing destruction and regeneration to stabilizing and commitment energies.

They’re converging now. Let light into dark, dirty, diseased and scary places and tidy up. Face so-called reality. Evolve!

The week has a few long stretches of time especially suited to soul-searching and personal house cleaning. For Tuesday evening, Friday morning and the greater part of Sunday, the Moon is void of course (beyond major aspects to planets until she enters the next sign). Don’t push for particular outcomes then, except maybe for actual cleaning -- I’m finding Moon voids well suited for activities you’ll have to do over eventually by their nature. The impending Saturn/Pluto sextile promises a phenomenally productive experience during these voids.

Think of them as times for laying bricks or paving stones. Simply being in the midst of all that has been happening furthers the process inordinately -- because the bottom line of Saturn and Pluto’s teamwork is being in the moment.

Messages have special importance this week, and stillness will help you recognize, listen to and assimilate them. Mercury, cosmic messenger and ruler of vehicles for information and movement, is crossing the north node on Friday. On a collective level, watch for information that could affect affect huge swaths of us -- or point the way to the future -- pertaining to taxes, debt, surveillance, big money and big secrets. Personal conversations are likely that clear up mysteries, address profound issues, create uncommon intimacy and cut fraying ties.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

Monday: The Moon’s journey takes us to an expansive, self-satisfied and high-energy destination. The kickoff is unexpected -- a Eureka! moment, a declaration of independence, a twist that has you happily scuttling plans and kicking out walls. Certain walls push back, leading to a definite choice in the amount of force you will use in response. Common law uses a concept called “excessive force” -- which weighs the appropriateness of an action by comparing it to the severity of the provocation. Keep that notion in mind, and you’ll land in your happy place. Dreams could sail to some wild places tonight; having bedside writing materials handy could be amusing at minimum.

Tuesday: Issues of “want” and “can’t have” reverberate throughout the dream world, while also pointing out connections that aren’t linking up neatly. Tread lightly during the day. Everyone’s still playing catch-up with major developments; the general vibe is vaguely unsettled. Don’t brace for the other shoe to drop, because that way of looking alone could summon one. Instead, be aware that you are acclimating to some new circumstances and haven’t found a place of comfort with them yet. Stay aware that others are in the same boat, especially when communication snarls or disconnects escalate late afternoon. They hang in the air when the Moon goes void of course around 5 PM EST until 6:52 AM tomorrow. Effort to sort things out is pointless for the moment. Retreat and take it easy tonight instead.

Wednesday: Communication remains edgy and dicey; in fact, you may wonder if Mercury’s still retrograde. He’s not, but he’s not at all comfortable with the subsonic rumblings coming off Pluto this morning. They turn increasingly into a clear and agreeable tune as the afternoon progresses. Brain fog lifts. Demons prove to be shadows. Work ethic ramps up come evening, and an epidemic ensues of cleaning bathrooms, closets and basements. For this purge-a-thon, real and metaphor work equally well.

Thursday: Maybe it’s from a sense of accomplishment left over from yesterday; the day’s start sees you brimming with optimism, grand ideas and the drive to follow through. Push yourself (after all, haven’t circumstances been doing that to you already?), especially into unfamiliar territory and approaches. Notice which connections respond with positive reinforcement.

Friday: Messages are uncommonly important today; even conversations and pieces of information that seem insignificant at the time have monumental implications. The flurry starts during the overnight hours, when the gears in your subconscious whirr and whirr into making sense of something. (Check your early morning thoughts for clues as to what.) Allow dreams time to evaporate; you may awaken strangely motivated in a way that doesn’t make sense, or you may feel like you’re pushing through fog. This is one time today that the mind does not hold the answer. Safest response: ask to be guided to the actions that are most beneficial. That and floating are advisable for the first part of the day, with the Moon void of course from 5:37 AM to 1:37 PM EST. Floating isn’t a bad approach for the rest of the day, either -- or at least dropping attachment to outcome. Relationships benefit from breathing room and may become edgy without it. You know the adage: if you love it, set it free; if it’s yours, it will come back to you. (Delete the alternate ending of chasing it down and chaining it up.)

Saturday: Overnight voyages venture into choppy waters. The key to calming them is, as always, within. You may awaken fresh from facing a demon (or truth), cutting away decay or all of the above. Don’t allow communication hiccups to derail an otherwise buoyant morning. The potential is great to accomplish more than you have most days this week (or most weeks of late), as determined and dedicated effort meet inspiration. Try handing the reins of a task over to guidance and see what results. That goes for letting off steam, too. Pushing another person isn’t likely to yield pleasant results; physical activity may be a safer means of venting. Smiles abound by the party hour; wear yours and you will get plenty in return. Enjoy the give and take. The Moon enters a void at 7:06 PM EST that lasts until late tomorrow afternoon. Writing materials by your bed could turn out to be useful again.

Sunday: The Moon is void of course until 4:54 PM EST. That means: take it easy! Overnight, dreams are heavy on relationship plots (could be your heart is opening to one in particular), best-possible scenarios and comforting probabilities. The day has a jittery edge fit for a child looking in a toy store window. The excitement can elevate ordinary activities into something special. Keep your mind and ears open; messages are still coming in. The evening’s may feel heaven sent.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Scorpio solar eclipse Gemini lunar eclipse

2012 Gemini Full Moon Lunar Eclipse

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:21:44 -0500

November 28, 2012
6:46 AM PST / 9:46 AM EST / 2:46 PM GMT
6 Gemini 46 / 6 Sagittarius 46

By Kathy Biehl

As the Beatles sang, “What goes on in your mind?” That question is all over the air (and social media) as we head into this month’s Gemini Full Moon. It’s a doozy, too -- can’t you feel it? -- demonstrating the emotional wallop that words can pack and revealing ever so much about the state, quality and reliability of our information flow.

What goes through our minds and what we do with it has been an ongoing theme since December 2010, when the current eclipse cycle began. We’ve had opportunity after opportunity (not always offered gently) to reconsider our communication sources, patterns, tools and technology, as well as our beliefs and life philosophy. Lately the noise level has been escalating, and so have the calls to update all of these.

We have arrived at the next-to-last eclipse in this cycle, so the pressure’s mounting to reexamine our relationship to ideas radically and ruthlessly. We’ve got only a few more months to clean out our mental attics. When this cycle ends next May, where we are with all that is roughly where we’ll stay for the next 19 years.

The exercise we’re going through now is hardly theoretical or intellectual. Likely you’ve been sensing that. For just one example, look at the elephant-in-the-room-level evidence that was all over the rhetoric surrounding the election (which was only three weeks ago -- can you believe it?!?) -- the passion, the self-righteousness, the my-way-or-the-highway proclamations, the fury, the utter, abject terror on both extremes. Emotional reactions all of them, and they have not faded since the vote tallies came in.

The election results demonstrated to people all along the political spectrum that vast numbers of other people do not share their view of reality. And what have people done with this data? Instead of adjusting their thinking in light of new evidence, one reaction has been to cling to a position more loudly and insistently -- witness the disinclination to accept what the votes say about the majority’s choices, the petitions to secede and the rash of accusatory public statements by party representatives and candidates whose behavior boils down to being sore losers. (To be sure, there have been some sore winners as well.)

A parallel has been going on in your own life. You don’t see it? Maybe a hand grenade hasn’t blown up your tidy little view of reality, but something has challenged it -- scuttled it, even. Are you perhaps in possession of information that disproves something you have believed for a long time? Maybe about yourself? I’m going to say: you are, and you have been. The expiration date is here for certain words that you use to label yourself and for ways that you view yourself, other people, relationships and even reality.

For years and years and years you have been thinking and acting as if certain things were true, things that you were told and taught and bombarded-to-brainwashed with. Some of them aren’t valid now; some never were. They aren’t all major in themselves, but the totality of them affects and to a large extent creates the filter through which you experience everything.

Across the board, you’re being called to clean that filter and update your assumptions, your words and your beliefs. Odds are certain topics have already come up for reevaluation. Here are a few worth pursuing. What do you automatically like and dislike -- in clothes, food, entertainment, activities, yourself, others, anything? How many of your automatic answers still apply?

It could be as simple as trying on a piece of clothing you’ve loved for years and suddenly seeing it as ridiculous (as recently happened to me). Or sampling a food that you’ve hated since you were a child and enjoying the taste (as, again, I did when I realized fresh asparagus is a completely different food from the canned version I’ve been served as a kid).

It could also be monumental -- coming across images of a much younger you that unmistakably contradict negative opinions you’ve been carrying about yourself, or crystallizing your awareness of a core belief that has plagued your relationships.

You have permission to rethink any of these. Reframe the past few weeks from that perspective. How have you already been rethinking? While you’re at it, take a look as well at the extent to which you listen to other people. Do you automatically accept information as “fact,” or do you check it out yourself?

An amazing example of this has been playing out on Facebook since the Sunday before the eclipse, when misinformation about copyright and privacy started spreading like wildfire. It was heavy on legalese and well written, and I saw people fall for it who are otherwise critical and independent thinkers. Links to articles debunking the hoax quickly followed, but the incorrect posts have kept coming like the last kernels of popcorn in the bag.

Remember that when you’re tempted to pass something on that sounds good. Remember it, too, when you’re reconsidering the many ideas you have picked up from other people throughout your life, especially when you were young. The fact that someone you respected (or feared, or depended on) told you something does not make it true. You have the right and responsibility to verify information for yourself.

All these issues are live and huge just now. The Moon’s ruler, Mercury, has stationed direct and is effectively idling the engine before moving ahead this weekend. (We’re stuck, for the moment, with whatever and whoever are in our space.) Jupiter is next to the Moon and whipping up information and communication issues into gale-force winds. (Technology and transportation are involved as well.) They are everywhere we turn, unavoidably, inescapably, and a cosmic force is shoving us into addressing them. Venus and Mars, rulers of our heart and drive (and the archetypal representatives of a couple), are forming a Finger of God that points directly to the Moon and Jupiter -- directly to the center of the winds.

We are processing emotions through our thoughts and words (and, apparently these days, texts and Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr and Instagram and ....) It’s not silent, or peaceful, or static. It’s like the cyclone that took Dorothy to Oz, or Alice realizing that the jury that had convicted her was a deck of cards, then flying through the air.

Embrace the flurry. Engage with it. Play with it. Turn it to your advantage. It will change your life for the better. Form follows thought, and when the thought changes, so does the form.

For an in-depth explanation of the Gemini/Sagittarius eclipse cycle (including how it is affecting each sign), order my 2-mp3 set “It’s All In Your Mind: The Potential of the Gemini/Sagittarius Eclipses of 2010-13.”

© Kathy Biehl 2012. All Rights Reserved. Image © Deborah Fennelly 2011; used by permission. 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.

Forecast for week of Nov. 26-Dec. 2, 2012

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:22:10 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

A watershed week awaits. Inner doors open. Some outer ones shut; others lead to bridges. Communication starts to return to its normal and upright position. Forceful restructuring occurs (possibly with a helping of fury on the side). Revelations abound about relationships and beliefs, a lot of which are past their sell-by date.

Intense? Yes, but productively so.

Last week may have brought a holiday for most of us, but we’re not getting to ease back into a regular schedule. Instead the skies are shooting us into the next phase, with four major events taking place on Monday alone -- followed by a reigniting of the change agents’ clash *and* an eclipse.

Monday is a heady cocktail -- shaken, not stirred -- of factors that have been brewing and now converge. The week starts with a lightning bolt that pierces how you see and present yourself (the Sun trining Uranus). You’re ripe for startling changes and handing the reins over to your heart, your spirit and a completely nonrational idealism. Compassion and kindness are in great supply (Venus meeting Neptune by declination), and so is a gentleness that you would do well to stock up and impress into your cells.

Major heart developments are locking in, too (Venus conjunct Saturn). The process starts, as always, on the inside. As you get solid with your wants, the certainty and grounding that result spill over into all your connections. Important alliances are locking into place. Couples are committing or making public decisions that they reached over the weekend. Relationships that are departing can wind down with great care and respect (bringing to mind one of the happily memorable parties from my cocktail waitress days -- a couple celebrating their hours-old divorce decree with the attorney who’d shepherded it through.)

Topics that have been swirling, or internalized, or stymied begin to turn around now, and not merely on the relationship front. Mercury is stationing direct, which has the impact of waters moving forward, such as the tide coming back in. The first moves are nuanced and slow; it will take till the weekend for the waters to rush. Still, especially in combination with other events coloring the week, secrets, truths and honest answers will surface, in minds and in conversations, and deeply personal, powerful realizations will abound.

This cocktail sets the flavor for the week and primes us for the two monumental astro-events. Tuesday brings the meeting of Mars and Pluto, the two guardians of will, action and anger, not to mention the sign of Scorpio. This is a fierce combination that triggers action (and anger) both conscious and unconscious relating to the ongoing tearing down and evolution of our fundamental structures. The inherent violence in this combination is, fortunately, likely to find expression more below the surface than on it. The edge will be softened -- or rendered less effective -- somewhat by the timing, since this occurs during a void moon.

Changes that have been rumbling inside you are hitting the point of action. Instead of thinking that maybe someday you will X, the motivation is arriving to get moving on X. Your inner shift this week very possibly relates to June and September, when Pluto directly squared off with the other cosmic change agent, Uranus. Mars and Pluto coming together delivers a fearlessness and forcefulness of purpose that may take your breath away. However this translates into action -- whether on your part or someone else’s -- the action is not out of the blue but tied to stirrings that have been in process for months.

You can harness this for your own beneficial purposes. Know that some people will do otherwise. The fear that has been escalating wildly lately will hit a fevered pitch and lead to action. There’s no telling what this will precipitate on the political front, or the part of people who are not willing to accept election results; there might also be a backlash on the part of men against the recent rise in power of the feminine. Forewarned is forearmed: Steer clear of human powder kegs. If you realize you are about to go off yourself, defuse the flame or redirect to productive ends.

This powerhouse pairing is still in the air when the week’s major event perfects: Wednesday’s Gemini Full Moon lunar eclipse. It’s not a one-day event; we’ve been building up to it for weeks, and it will be playing out until possibly as long as next June. This is a high-octane emotional harvest-cum-report card, dripping with revelations, flipping internal switches to the “off” position and ushering in phenomenal understanding of what’s been going down inside of you and with other people. This is the next-to-last eclipse in the cycle that has been with us since December 2010, directing attention to our information sources, our thought processes, and the beliefs we form from both about who we are and what happens between us and another person.

For an in-depth explanation of the Gemini/Sagittarius eclipse cycle (including how it is affecting each sign), order my 2-mp3 set “It’s All In Your Mind: The Potential of the Gemini/Sagittarius Eclipses of 2010-13.”

This eclipse cycle has nudged, and in some cases shoved, us into rethinking and resetting where we get our information and what we do with it. Sound theoretical and intellectual? Not these days. This week’s returns, realizations and revelations promise to be passionate, to say the least. This moment in the cycle comes on the heels of the guillotine-edged Scorpio New Moon solar eclipse, while we are thrashing about in that sign’s intense waters or, for those who prefer on-board imagery, struggling to get our sea legs.

Everyone is sensitized, raw, open and perceptive with a precision that is newfound to many. Emotions have been intense, enormously so, for several weeks running. The lunar eclipse is escalating them even more and dropping all of us into choices and developments with stark consequences. Watch for a rash of zero-tolerance edicts. No more settling and putting up with; more importantly, no more harboring a world view -- and opinion of yourself -- that permits conditions that require tolerating.

The bottom line, as always, exists in yourself. Please don’t blame anyone this week; lord knows, lots of people will be doing that. Take responsibility for the thought patterns and beliefs that underlie the emotions you are experiencing. You have the power (and the sky’s support) to change the way you think of yourself. -- and to reinforce a healthy, positive, yea verily even loving self-image. Read more in my mooncast, which will be on the site by Tuesday.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

Join me at 1 PM EST this coming Saturday, Dec. 1, for “Navigating the Shift With Ease,” my talk on the astrological influences that are making us more susceptible to other’s energy and simple tips for reclaiming and protecting your own. It’s part of Shay Parker’s Embrace the Shift Telesummit, a two-day extravaganza of information to guide you through the shift of 2012. Watch the video below the day by day forecasts for more information; register for free (and listen to interviews with all of us presenters) here.

Monday: You have arrived at a milestone in processing and assimilating the change imperative that has been erupting in and around you since the beginning of the summer. Update the words you use to define yourself and your life. Choose paths and approaches that break from your previous norm. Maintain a posture of loving kindness, especially toward yourself, and notice how and where your heart is finding stability and purpose. And don’t rush -- Mercury’s direct station is giving time all the speed of molasses. Add to that the Moon going void of course for 24 hours just before 8 PM EST, and incentive abounds to stop, look and look again. Monumental transformative forces are building. Let them.

Tuesday: The Moon is void of course until 7:59 PM EST. You know the nagging discomfort you get in the center of your being when you know a relationship is going bad but you are not yet up to breaking it off? That pervades the overnight hours, and that’s the emotional state that takes you into the powerful conjunction of Mars and Pluto mid-afternoon. This is a galvanizing moment for everyone, especially so for anyone with planets near 8 degrees of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and most of all Capricorn, the sign hosting this gathering). It’s time to implement those bold, enormous moves you’ve been contemplating. Please act responsibly, unlike the many today who will not. If you get angry, please do not unload on another person; both of you could end up feeling like scorched earth if you do. Instead, use the emotion as rocket fuel to take the action you know you must. There are no take-backs today; what’s done is done. The atmosphere simulates smoke rising from a battlefield after the Moon shifts into Gemini (which ends her void and begins the build-up to tomorrow’s lunar eclipse). Don’t look for calm or reassurance from any external situation. Grounding and certainty exist within yourself. Holding tight to that will get you through the fog. Put writing materials by the bedside, and ask for insight in a dream on any issue you’d like to see move forward.

Wednesday: Did you get a breakthrough dream last night? A novel solution? A secret word to unlock a communication door? A shift in perspective that could usher in a bigger, brighter, grander experience than you have thought possible? Not sure? See how today plays out; the answer may yet arrive. We’re under a category 6 Full Moon, a lunar eclipse in Gemini. (Read more in my mooncast.) Everything is larger than life today: emotions, desires, temptations, reactions, dramas, scandals, connections, financial dealings, affairs of the heart, and all the underlying beliefs that all of these developments reveal. Look at everything as a report on the state and quality of the words and concepts that are flowing through your energy field. You have multiple choices today of how you respond to the rising chatter. Adjustments come naturally (and are, in fact necessary) in your relationships, desires and stems of values, in what you are willing and able to do to go for them, and most of all in your emotional stance on all this intensity and evolution. Since June, the Uranus/Pluto square has been forcing new structures up through the surface, like tectonic plate shifts spawning mountains and canyons. That’s been going on inside of you as well as out in the world, and today you can tinker with the process. By evening, it can leave you feeling good -- and entitled to do so. The good vibes send the Moon off into her next void at 8:05 PM, which will last under Friday morning.

Thursday: The Moon is void of course all day, so set your sites on sitting with the eclipse developments rather than trying to make any particular goal happen. Two major events take place within the void. Venus and Mars make the cooperative link of a sextile, which opens a bridge between heart and will, desire and derring-do, the feminine and the masculine, and even specific people. The opportunity won’t fall into your lap; you have to reach out and work it. You’ll likely have the vision to perceive it for what it is, though, as well as the nerve to go for it. Processing and assimilating the ongoing change imperative has rendered you more self-aware, confident and comfortable in your own skin. The evidence that comes of that comes in behavior that you would not have taken as recently as last spring.

Friday: The void that ate yesterday ends just before 9 AM EST with the Moon entering the emotionally expressive waters of Cancer and quickly flowing into an open channel with Neptune. This heightens sensitivities and intuition. People are innately attuned to each other, whether they’re aware of it or not, and I won’t be surprised if unscheduled doughnuts appear in offices throughout the country. Lightning strikes abound in the group-hug atmosphere -- some disruptive, some dispatching participants to their own devices, some revealing brainstorms and brilliance in the gentle chatter. Giving yourself over to experience leads, oddly, to internal order and calm. Immerse yourself in a task and you will emerge unaware of how much time has passed. Definitely a day to make up for what some might consider lost productivity earlier in the week. If you don’t already have writing materials at your bedside, stage some. You will find them useful in the morning.

Saturday: Happy December! (Can you believe it?) Overnight, information flies in that disrupts, unnerves and even titillates; like it or not, it’s the sound of freedom calling. You see how far off certain objects of desire remain; you make choices about what you want (and how much of it you are ready to receive); you adjust your sights and awaken with motivation anew. All this nighttime activity primes the pump for lovely dispositions and connecting, fading into sentimentality, wistfulness and nostalgia as the afternoon wears on. The big decision of the evening is whether to continue full speed ahead or adjust your modus operandi. Bigger is better is going to be the impetus; succumb to it and you could be up well into the wee hours -- in which case lively conversations await.

Sunday: Take it easy for a change. Lord knows we’ll all been through the ringer lately, so help yourself to a breather: The Moon is void of course for the bulk of the day (1:56 AM to 8:58 PM EST). An easy communication flow launches the void and sets the tone for the day. While you’re chatting and letting your mind roam wildly, spend some time playing “What if?” Whatever you dream up, make the vision bigger, grander, more outrageous, more fun and far more fulfilling to you. You’re stretching your concept of what’s possible. When the contours retract, they will still be further out than they were before you played this game.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Scorpio solar eclipse Gemini lunar eclipse

Forecast for week of Nov. 19-25, 2012

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:47:29 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

Good news! No, the intensity is not going away, but the next best thing is coming. As this week goes on, everything that’s been ripped and stirred and shaken up will start settling down and stabilizing.

Thank goodness.

Do not underestimate how grueling the past few weeks have been. Even the good and positive developments have put us all through an energetic ringer, disrupting and shortening sleep and keeping the pressure up to the limits of tolerance...and sometimes, beyond.

A break is finally coming. Deal with obligations at the beginning of the week, because motivation is taking a holiday later. Hump Day shifts us into quite a different gear. The transition won’t exactly be comfortable, but the other side of it is much, much, much more quiet, calm, peaceful, grounded and -- dare I say it? -- sane than a lot of recent days.

Two planets trigger the gear shift on Wednesday, both by changing signs. The Sun begins his annual stay in Sagittarius, signaling the beginning of the holiday season. His mood change will be palpable (and welcomed by many), injecting much-needed levity, optimism and lust for fun into daily goings-on.

The Sun’s move promises to amp up our personal energy and outlook and make it easier to play and find the humor in the intense goings on. They’re still with us, of course, because the population count in Scorpio isn’t changing. As soon as the Sun gets out of that sign’s steamy waters, Venus slips in and takes our hearts in with her.

One she departs her gracious Libra home and leaves niceties behind on the banks, we’ll share her willingness to get dirty and messy in pursuit of desires, even (especially) ones that normally stay private. The past six weeks have primed us for this; even if you normally hold yourself back, you likely won’t. Whatever we want, we want down to our toes, common sense be damned.

Common sense will certainly be absent from some of what’s about to transpire, what with subterranean impulses calling the shots. This is going to spawn juicy news items and vicarious pleasure for those of us eating popcorn at the sidelines, as secrets, affairs, betrayals, big money plays and utter insanity break through the surface of those waters.

What’s ahead is not all lurid scandal and reality TV by any means, though. Venus has several entries on her dance card that will keep her from spending all her time in the water lolling about or immersed in intrigue.

Her first move, on Thanksgiving Day, could be absolutely magical, in fact. It opens the floodgates to the highest, most forgiving, heart-expanding and inspiring energies, as she and Neptune link, coordinating the mundane and higher expressions of love and inspiration. Giving thanks could be more than an intellectual concept this year; it’s likely to come pouring out of each of us fervently and naturally. This link bodes well for sweetening interpersonal connections, too.

Let the good vibes flow. Splash in them and ride the currents. They’ve got the potency of waters at a spa, or a healing shrine like Lourdes, with the therapeutic powers that Chiron is beaming to Venus. Their teamwork can wash away anguish and pain, soothe no end of emotional wounds and bathe us in the knowledge of the interconnectedness of all life.

That knowledge is growing from inkling to certainty as we move into next week. The certainty, the growing inner calm, the comforting clank of relationships locking into place all come from Venus meeting with Saturn on Sunday and next Monday, in a super-conjunction (by declination the first day and by degree the second).

They are bringing the magical and healing potentials down to earth and turning them into something solid, workable and real. Venus and Saturn are encouraging committing to your heart’s desires and, okay, maybe some of the less, shall we say, noble ones as well. When these two come together in Scorpio they can take some kinky turns indeed. They are also well disposed toward other acts of deep, trusting union, which will nudge many a budding relationship toward commitment and stable form.

Take time this weekend to look back over recent weeks (months)(years). The skies are making that possible, with long moon voids creating a prolonged sensation of floating (Thursday afternoon and the entirety of Saturday), perfect for the long holiday weekend in the US.

Recent upheavals have put you through another round of reprioritizing. Some clean-up work remains for the multitudes who’ve come through physical and metaphoric storms. New relationship possibilities have entered your field of vision, if not your life. You know what you need to deal with; you know what you want to pursue. Sit. Ponder. Just be with all of this. Be grateful for what you have. Be grateful for what has left. Be grateful for what you see materializing ever so slowly and magically. And, most of all, commit. To yourself.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

Monday: We play out the day on a bridge between the spiritual and physical worlds. Yes, that’s where we live all the time these days, but awareness of that is stronger than usual now. Sink down your grounding cord, lift up your spirit and go wherever the day leads. Some of the turf ahead is a bit rocky. Getting around may take you through an unnerving twist or two, and so might some of the information that wafts by you. Stay on the bridge. You’re secure there.

Tuesday: Desires, cravings and temptations are more than on the prowl; they’re on a veritable rampage. Lots of fun is possible, actually, but so is lots of drama. Find your truth and position of personal power and stand firm. After a short void (9:32 - 11:55 AM EST), the Moon runs us through a happy gauntlet, encouraging divinely inspired action, fresh perspectives and real-world follow-through. Harness by purposefully centering yourself early afternoon and asking to be led in the directions that are most beneficial for you.

Wednesday: Gear shift day. While many in the US are scrambling to meet work deadlines and prepare for holiday feasts, the Sun and Venus each move one sign ahead. Their combined movement stirs uncommon attachment to the upcoming gatherings (as if traditions and family expectations don’t already engender attachment enough). Slouching and procrastinating are not possible, given the inherent discomfort of the day’s aspects. Take them as motivation and decide to move through and on. Put writing materials by your bedside. If you’re seeking answers, this would be a fruitful time to request them in dreams. (Be sure to set the intention that the information come in symbols that you understand and also that you remember it.)

Thursday: This is no run of the mill Thanksgiving. The difference starts in the overnight hours, which deliver the equivalent of a sleepover in a multiplex cinema. Messages, guidance and realizations flood our dreams. At least one of them is a major love story. The experience attunes you to unwelcome walls and obstacles, while also predisposing you to breaking through them. Your night travels echo in the air throughout the day, resurfacing as you go about last-minute preparations and embark upon the centerpiece activities. There’s no need to act on the echoes, at least not yet. We have a day outside of time, because the Moon is void of course for the bulk of the day, from 1:32 AM to 8:12 PM EST -- and there are no aspects whatsoever from sunrise in the East until afternoon. Check in with your heart throughout the day. It’s grown. It’s evolved. Acknowledge that to yourself, and express affection and gratitude openly to the people you choose to join with today -- especially if that is abnormal behavior for you. For the old you, it is, not for the new. Tread lightly in the confrontation department. Even with the day’s vibes, static will find a way into conversations...so don’t invite it.

Friday: Sleep is restless, disrupted and outright agitating. Don’t be surprised if you bolt out of bed hellbent on ... well, you might not know exactly what. If you do manage to sleep through the tumult, you may well awaken feeling as if you’ve run a marathon. What do you feel you *must* do? A switch flipped; programming kicked in; something *must* change -- and you are both the target and instrument of that imperative. You and everyone else settle down and decide to have a good time as evening rolls in. Kick back and enjoy: The Moon begins a monster void at 8:35 PM that will last until 7:18 AM on Sunday. No one’s getting much of anything done for the rest of the weekend. May as well have a good time.

Saturday: The Moon is void of course all day. There’s a lot of talk and socializing inside the void, but don’t put pressure or expectations on any of it. Simply be in the moment. Instead of running around shopping (you’ll probably be unhappy with what you buy and return it, anyway), devote yourself to errands and chores that you’ll be redoing eventually. Clean, cook, bake, organize, rake leaves -- engage in actions that clear the decks. This kind of work is good for the soul, and you will feel sane and grounded because of it.

Sunday: Life resumes its normal pace and feel (whatever normal is now!) when the Moon ends her void at 7:18 AM EST. A grand trine among the Moon, Mars and Pluto aligns our hearts and conscious will with a higher will. Ask to be led to the highest, most beneficial course of action and it will flow effortlessly, regardless of whether you are aware of what’s happening as it unfolds. On a conscious level, this is a heart-driven day, teeming with reassuring, grounding and ground-breaking experiences, connections and moments of healing. Look for the magic; expect it outright and you will find it. If you’re a tub person, this is a terrific time for a good long soak. Drink of the day: the milk of human kindness. Be sure to pour it for yourself before offering it to others.

Please join me at 1 PM on Sat., Dec. 1 for tools and techniques for navigating this time with ease. My talk is part of Shay Parker’s Embrace the Shift Telesummit, a three-day extravaganza of guidance and information. More info in the video below; register for the summit for free here.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Scorpio new moon solar eclipse Taurus full moon

2012 Scorpio New Moon Solar Eclipse

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:39:15 -0500

November 13, 2012
2:09 PM PST / 5:09 PM EST / 10:09 PM GMT
21 Scorpio 57

By Kathy Biehl
Has life seemed, oh, I don’t know, a little intense lately? And maybe like that’s cranking up? Thank this week’s Scorpio New Moon and, yes, thank is the appropriate verb.

We’ve been feeling the approach of this powerful New Moon for several weeks. Any Scorpio Moon is going to have an edge of danger, intrigue, darkness and dirty sexy power. This one is even more so, for an extravaganza of reasons.

It is a total solar eclipse, visible only in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. This one has the added whammy of the Sun and Moon meeting on the ecliptic as well as by zodiacal degree, meaning the luminaries are as close as they can be. The eclipse also has a special resonance with the relentless change imperative we’ve been under since the beginning of summer -- a resonance that is turning up the volume to 11.

One of the forces behind that imperative, Pluto, is in the sign that’s ruled by Saturn, which is in the sign that’s ruled by Pluto. Each is occupying the other’s domain, a relationship called mutual reception, which means that whatever is occurring in one domain carries over into the other. Pluto in Capricorn is exposing and renovating our most fundamental structures and institutions. Saturn in Scorpio is making relationship and joint resource issues soberingly real, while also slowing their playing out and requiring mature, responsible behavior.

These two processes are intrinsically and intricately connected now, activating ancient, reptilian, cellular programming, impulses and terrors, heightening awareness of consequences, ramifications and costs, and -- here’s the bright side -- making it possible to move through all of the above, quickly, efficiently, effectively, permanently, and experience life and union with each other more deeply than we have previously dared.

This is heavy stuff, often unpleasant and often unnerving to terrifying. That’s certainly been the experience I’ve been hearing from a lot of people, including some who voluntarily and regularly expose themselves to aspects of human nature that would freak out most of us. There’s another end to this spectrum, though. It’s also awakening, energizing and revitalizing. That’s what I’ve been hearing more about, to be honest.

I had a peak experience of this barely 48 hours before the eclipse. Along with its occurrence came the realization that it encapsulated the eclipse in its highest potential, which I now see also had a generous dose of Neptunian magic beaming into Saturn’s love of order. I was in a large open room with a hundred or more people of all ages, some miked and on stage, some seated with guitars, some standing, strumming, swaying, dancing, and singing, “We...shall...live again. We shall live again.” The scene was a remarkable unifying event-cum-nascent-movement called GuitarMash, the lyrics from “Ghost Dance” by Patti Smith. There’s your inspirational image. Refer to it as needed. (And definitely listen to the song.)

This protracted moment in time could be the beginning of the most vital, vibrant, exciting, honest stage of your life. It is that beginning, if you make it so. Remember that. Emblazon that in your heart and mind. Gravitate to that and keep the faith, because intensity is not going away ... for years. It is now part of the fabric of our life. No more hitting the snooze button. No more sleep walking. We have to wake up. We are awake. And the potential is with us to feel -- and be -- more fully alive than ever.

We’re in the kick-off for that potential. Tuesday’s New Moon is the first in Scorpio since Saturn entered it at the beginning of October, for the first time since 1983. This is the inaugural event for his tour of that sign (and his mutual reception with Pluto), which will last for the next two and a half to three years.

This New Moon is also the first event in the next eclipse cycle, which takes place on the Scorpio/Taurus axis of property and survival. From now till the fall of 2014, this cycle will be rebooting our attitudes about and relationship to money, possessions, power, sharing, intimacy, sex (including forbidden, secretive and triangles), death, taxes and subterranean impulses. While the entire cycle will be bringing back around themes, issues, people and situations from late 1993-1995, this week’s solar eclipse ties directly to November 1993. Think back to the stand-out experiences and themes of that time; something now is connecting to them.

Those two coincidings are the reason the intensity is staying around. What’s happening now sets the tone for the eclipse cycle (the next two years) as well as Saturn’s tenure in Scorpio (the next three). Current developments won’t stay the same for that period, of course. They’ll morph, mutate, die back in some directions and flourish in others. However they play out, and however we navigate them, our path is reorienting to a direction we will follow for some 19 years, until this eclipse cycle comes back again.

A solar eclipse is a doorway that may take six months or so to fully open (or for you to see what’s come through it.) Doorways go both ways, of course, and this one comes with the propelling force of an ejector seat or catapult. Situations and people leave under them, sometimes breathtakingly quickly; powerful new ones come in.

Nothing is trivial now. Use the clarifying, purifying and focusing influences to simplify your life. Eliminate broken objects, patterns, situations and relationships. If the effort to put something right outweighs its value to you, out it goes. Whittle your schedule, activities and connections down as much as you can to only what has meaning and value to you. And for that short list, you’ll find you’re willing to devote the time and do the necessary work, even if it’s scary or uncomfortable, to fit it into your life.

No matter what is going on for you, no matter what unfolds in the next months and weeks, this homing thought will lead you to the beneficial side of this eclipse: Am I going to live until I die, or die until I die? I’m choosing “live.” Who’s with me?

I am donating 10% of the fee for every reading booked and paid for between Sunday, Nov. 11, and 5 PM on Friday, Nov. 16, to funds being delivered by The Goddess in Eden directly to shore residents whose homes were destroyed. Book your session now.

© 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.

Forecast for week of Nov. 12-18, 2012

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 11:29:03 -0500

By Kathy Biehl

We are in the thick of it now -- thought exactly what “it” is will take a while to become clear. One thing’s for certain: A new reality has arrived. This has been true for many of us for some time. Last week drove the point home for the many, many others it had previously escaped. And now, we stew in the juices, each in our own way.

This week has a fiercely Scorpionic atmosphere: riveting, clarifying, eliminating, purifying, engulfing, possibly terrifying at times, primal, powerful, compelling and compelled. This can be extraordinarily positive and empowering. Please do not lose sight of that. It carries the potential for feeling more alive than usual, more awake, more focused, more perceptive and more emotionally connected and connecting.

It will be organic to gravitate to meaningful, life-enhancing and game-changing experiences and connections, instead of frittering time and energy on matters that do not engage or matter to you. It will be natural to read the currents and know instinctively which direction to head, action to take, weight to drop. Efficient. Precise. Surgical. Unapologetic. Honest.

Seize these opportunities. Be bold, especially if you normally aren’t, and if you normally are, go even bolder. What’s developing now (and for the past few weeks) is catapulting you into a course that will unroll over the next six months, the next two years and, ultimately, the next 19 years. Major is an understatement.

Too bad these pluses will be lost on some people. People who are in shock -- whom reality has dropped (or drop-kicked) into circumstances that are challenging or unwelcome or the polar opposite of what they were sure was going to happen -- will be susceptible to the underbelly of Scorpio. So will some of us who generally set our sights on the positive, unfortunately.

Know at the outset that fear is on the prowl, formless, reptilian, worst-case-scenario, doomsaying fear. You don’t have to let it in. It is not your master. Stay alert and do not hand it the reins. You do not have to tumble into dank, murky, soul-suffocating depths. You do not have to bully or pummel anyone, or entangle yourself in fevered pitch dramas and aggression. Hang tight to what is true for you. Exercise your will and your power with integrity and focus -- and extend compassion to the people you see succumbing to darkness. Model a different response, for your own purposes. It could have the side-effect of lighting the way for others to make to a different choice.

Two events in Scorpio are behind all this. This week brings the first of the next cycle of eclipses, on the Taurus/Scorpio axis of resources, money and possessions (mine vs. yours/ours), which will be with us until the fall of 2014. The cycle begins with Tuesday’s Scorpio New Moon, a solar eclipse that is activating themes and issues from November of 1993.

The past few weeks have already hinted at what’s coming back up for you. Foremost are issues of sharing, trust and intimacy; of what and how much time/energy/money/emotion you invest with others; of the return you expect and the return you actually receive. Death, taxes and sex may be up for you, too, as well as insurance, stock, pensions, other people’s money and every unmentionable that you, we and polite society shove into the back of a closet or deep in our psyches.

Perhaps you’ve experienced a major purge, or loss, or deepening of a situation related to one or more of these. Perhaps you’ve simply grown clearer about something of core importance to you. I’ve been watching friends and clients confront, come to grips with and transmute huge, longstanding bugaboos. Monsters and demons are coming to live (and light). Steel is reinforcing backbones. Non-negotiables are moving from wish list to fervently guarded reality. It’s a powerful, powerful time, with life-changing and enhancing blessings for those who will open to and embrace them. Some will take a while to come into view, because a New Moon must wax a bit before we are capable of seeing it in the sky. Patience. Trust. Sigh. (For more on the New Moon, read my mooncast, which will be posted on the site by Tuesday.)

The second cause of the week’s Scorpio emphasis is Mercury moving back into that sign on Wednesday. This shift deepens communication (talk won’t be trivial -- or cheap!) as well as the severity -- and cost -- of transportation and technology issues. Some topics and matters may resurface from the last weeks of October (don’t they feel like months ago?), when Mercury last crossed this territory.

As the Moon grows and the solar eclipse distributes its light, it will encourage intense, searching, honest and perhaps brutally blunt conversations with yourself and with other people. You may open up in ways that surprise you. Others may do the same. Connections could become fearlessly deep and real. Take chances. If they’re ever going to pay off, it’s now.

One other shift worth your notice: Mars moves into Capricorn on Friday. He’s the ruler of our masculine, assertive side, our drive, ambition, and energy, all of which are downshifting from high-energy and adventurousness to dogged, step-by-step pursuit of goals. Theory and philosophical argument give way to practicality and functionality, with a healthy dose of stick-to-it-iveness. Mars will be making his way toward Pluto and triggering action that implements and furthers the evolutionary mandate we’re under -- action with long-term consequences. We’ll feel the approach as soon as he makes the shift, and begin both undertaking and encountering implementing action.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for four and a half years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: We plunge into Scorpio’s waters before we know it. Engines start firing well before dawn and send our metaphoric bathyspheres into the deep while many of us are still sleeping. The day is watery and possibly gentle. Emotions are flowing and a channel’s open to inspiration, guidance ecstatic experience and looking at the world through the eyes of kindness. Grounding influences make it unlikely we’ll go floating off into la-la land (if you do, you might be yanked back). Some of today’s messages may not be what you’d like to hear, but the information is valuable all the same. Look for the silver lining. An internal adjustment may be in order, too; it holds a clarifying and empowering potential.
 Tuesday: The waters are choppy overnight and into the afternoon. Our psyches are picking up signals from the solar eclipse coming at 5 PM EST. Keep in mind that you are not the only person feeling the stirring of frustrations, desires, confidence and entitlement. These factors are pervading everyone and every relationship as we enter the Scorpio New Moon. (Read about it in my mooncast, which will be posted on the site by Tuesday.) Major comings and goings are in the works now, all guided by subterranean impulses. It may be best to keep your own counsel in the hours immediately after the eclipse. These kinds of stirrings have a tendency to feed fears and suspicions, That can cloud a person’s ability to read situations accurately, which is also being challenged by a clash between Mercury and Neptune. This is not the night to attempt to sort anything out. Make your own kind of music instead.

Wednesday: The atmosphere’s intensity and mystery builds even more as Mercury, the ruler of communication and transportation, dips back into Scorpio during the overnight hours. An aspect of yourself is ready to drop off, like a snake skin. Its departure may be disconcerting and even a wee bit uncomfortable, but once it leaves you’ll be surprised to see how paper thin and wrinkled it is. Emotions are monumental, not to mention all over the map. People are feeling them deeply and speaking them honestly. No one’s particularly open to having flaws in their logic (or its lack) pointed out. You have the power to navigate this course responsibly and maturely, which will make gambles and actions that are uncharacteristic or groundbreaking for you pay off. At the end of the day, think back and give yourself credit. How have you evolved? How are you proceeding from a base of power and personal truth instead of the approaches you formerly took? How are you neutralizing fear and desperation?

Thursday: Dreams explore the comparative concepts of “enough” and “more.” Could it be that you are settling? Uncomfortable with allowing yourself to want and then have ... more? Or opening to the prospect of more? Your mind chews this over; while it may not come up with an action plan, it does build a bridge between your conclusions and what you are willing to do about them. Getting along with others is easier today, even though conversations are still heading into deep waters. Doorways open to connecting, to repairing misunderstandings and ruptures, to simply enjoying co-existing. When a new factor flies in out of the blue, everyone has a choice in their reaction. Sure, it may disrupt plans, but its arrival doesn’t have to spell doom for the underlying connection. The wild card might have the effect of an aerator in an aquarium -- delivering fresh air into the situation and keeping it circulating and bubbling.

Friday: Talk about intensity and clarity: Whatever you feel today, you will feel , with certainty, down to the tip of your toes, and then some -- and so will everyone else. Neptune rules how we go into this, so here’s a tip for avoiding his confusing, escapist or deceiving potentials: Ask to be guided to the most beneficial direction(s). Handling the inevitable monkey wrenches will be easy peasy, and you’ll naturally gravitate to a stabilizing force, whether you consciously recognize it or not. Speaking of stabilizing, it goes onto everyone’s agenda with Mars moving into goal-oriented Capricorn today. We’ll be doing more than looking before leaping; we’ll be fixing an eye on long-term prospects and calculating the route and effort yet to come with every step we make.

Saturday: The skies are treating us to more activity today than we’ve seen in a long time. Half of the action occurs before dawn on the East Coast. Even if we’re asleep, hearts and minds are processing, processing, processing, delivering you to greater clarity and knowledge of yourself. See if you don’t enter the day with a mental calm and fixedness of purpose. They permeate both your behavior and what comes to you today. Every’s firm, unequivocal and on target. That’s not unfriendly at all. It’s a relief not to encounter ambiguity, when you know you can rely on statements and information. Go with your gut today, too. If a sudden urge overtakes you, follow it, especially if it erupts in the center of your being. Your brain is functioning differently now; instead of forcing action, it is following through on impulses and guidance. Relationships flourish in this kind of atmosphere. And how. Before you go to sleep, ask for a dream to show you bigger, better, grander and more fulfilling possibilities for your life. Also ask for it to use imagery that you can understand and remember.

Sunday: The dream world explores vast new horizons for your life, almost unnervingly, intoxicatingly so. Inspired action is the order of the day. Plug in your inner GPS and have fun with it. It’ll show you when and where to break loose and when and how to settle back down.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Scorpio new moon solar eclipse Taurus full moon

Forecast for week of Nov. 5 - 11, 2012

Fri, 2 Nov 2012 16:39:04 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

We are in a new reality. Last week demonstrated that dramatically, as a storm shut down the financial and transportation hubs of the nation -- perhaps the globe -- and reminded man that he does not rule everything on this planet. The signal was a wake-up call to the previously unaware or avoiding: outdated structures will not support, and will likely not withstand, the circumstances in which we now live.

Even if you weren’t in the storm’s path, you were touched by it -- by concern for friends and family, by relentless exposure to news on TV and social media, even by shortages in your geographic area. How did last week give you a time out? What did you do with it?

We’ll be digging ourselves out all week and beyond. In the midst of the communication, power and transportation disruptions, Mercury retrogrades late Tuesday, Election Day. This occurrence has an upside and a downside.

On the upside, we have the opportunity to rethink and re-envision our communication and transportation systems -- and revisit our beliefs about climate and weather. Shifts in government policies have their genesis now. Epiphanies about your own life are coming now, too. As Mercury eases toward an action-demanding square with Neptune (exact next week), call down guidance and inspiration (and not confusion or avoidance).

As for the downsides...Your normal mode of getting around is likely to be disrupted. Watch for continuing traffic snarls, road closures and divertings and ongoing gas shortages. (It’s like a war zone, people have been saying around me in northern New Jersey. I agree: a war of natural forces against human shortsightedness.) You may not be able to communicate at a distance as easily, by phone or email or online.

And what about Election Day? Enormous question marks surround it that may not dispel for weeks. Will people have transportation to the polls? Will polls have power? Will the machines work? Since they have no paper trail, will they be hijacked? And, a question I’m seeing few address: is the election a charade? Who and what really install the government? The peculiarities of the Electoral College mean that many individual votes don’t matter, depending on the state in which they’re cast. Will this be the election that demonstrates that our system is outdated and nonfunctional in the new reality as the power lines and subways in lower Manhattan?

If you look at the election in terms of the bigger evolutionary push, the specific, immediate results may be easier to swallow.

In your own life, use this retrograde to revisit your thoughts, beliefs and modes of communication and transportation. Are there recent conversations you’d like to return to and expand on? New connections you’d benefit from researching? Are you paying lip service to opinions and points of view that don’t hold up? Research may be in order. The retrograde is a fertile time to define your terms (words do change meaning, you know), to expand your thinking and knowledge, to acquire revised and updated information.

As Mercury turns retrograde, Neptune and Chiron go direct this week. The tides are shifting. Leave the task of reading the currents to your inner guidance. Its navigational system is the most reliable now, when physical instruments are faltering, or the mind is misreading them. Your link to your inner knowing (and greater spirit) is what best guides you through physical reality.

An enormous healing of the human spirit is possible from this -- healing of the wound of separation. It is, after all, truly an illusion. As last week reminded, we are all in this life together. Be kind to others. Be kind to yourself.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for four and a half years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: Last week’s down time isn’t over yet. We get an easy start to the week with the Moon void of course till 2:40 PM EST. (Did you set your clock back yesterday?)(Does your clock even have power?) Devote the first two-thirds of the day to brainstorming, opening and emptying yourself. Also advisable: tasks that will require redoing by their nature -- cleaning, filing or organizing, etc. Afterwards, make the conscious choice to follow your intuition, inspiration or guidance. When you hit a roadblock, push off from it no matter how irrational that seems (especially as irrational as that seems.) Communication and information will flow.

Tuesday: Election Day in the US. Vote! The dream world processes your recent, unprecedented and amazing journey. Scales fall from your mind’s eye, shackles drop from your legs, and you cut back and redefine what’s most important to you. The day has an expansive and confident, if slow-moving, atmosphere (watch factions acting cock sure their candidate has the election sewn up.) The stopped-in-time feeling comes from Mercury stationing retrograde. Make allowances in travel time and expectations for responses. Don’t be so sure you know what’s happening, either. Misplaced or excessive confidence will get jolted.

Wednesday: Yesterday’s dreamworld was clarifying, freeing and simplifying. This morning’s is upsetting, unnerving and rattling. It’s motivation to get moving -- a sensation that will hang on the air over the course of the day and gain power like a storm in the Gulf. Acting on the impulse is ... sigh ... premature. After the Moon and Mars fire us all us, she goes void of course from 10:20 AM - 11:36 PM EST. Ponder; prepare; tighten your coil. The tension will make your eventual action all the more powerful.
Thursday: Pierce the mists of confusion and deceit today. Ask for them to be revealed; ask to be shown the truth; ask to be shown what is real and solid and dependable. Information of great import is all around. Some you will encounter; some you will request; some you will pass on. It’s a day for putting on your big girl/ big boy pants and acting like a mature and responsible adult, even if you feel like a pretender. Dressing and acting the part leads to being the part. See if you don’t look back in wonder at the bold step you took. Bold for the old you; now natural for the new.

Friday: The goddess of love and money is whispering what you want and urging, “Go on! Take it! Don’t be shy! Ask for more!” She’s a little intoxicated by desire, too, so look closely at any magic potions you’re offered to make sure they’re really what you want. (Cotton candy can make you sick, after a point....) Her reverie is sweetest and most inspiring before dawn. Alas, the daylight hours aren’t likely to match her visions. The shortfall is greatest come evening. Look at your reaction as more of the incentive that was stoked on Wednesday.

Saturday: Bee looking for a time to act? Today’s it. Personal evolution is a mandate now, with the Moon forming a t-square to change agents Uranus and Pluto. Pluto is bearing the brunt of the pressure, forcing tectonic shifts in structures and goals. It’s your personal microcosm of the shift into the new reality the entire world is undergoing. You’re being outfitted to function fully in your current conditions. Family and dependent relationships may have to give. The starting point of your nurturing impulses must now be: You.

Sunday: Neptune stations direct, and since he’s the dreamweaver, his shift should make your overnight experience more cinematic than usual. The morning promises to be more and sociable than yesterday’s excitement might have led you to expect. Your heart is settling comfortably into your new groove. The increase in your comfort is rubbing off on the people close to you. Factors are stabilizing -- within you, within a connection. Talk roughs everything up, like sandpaper, or verbal foreplay. The mode is unfamiliar and otherworldly, which could make you a bit woozy. Rely on your inner GPS.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Libra new moon forecast Taurus full moon forecast

Forecast for week of Oct. 29 - Nov. 4, 2012

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:03:52 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

It’s time for our annual celebration of ghosts and goblins, and the skies are certainly doing their part. They’re hosting four big events this week that encourage encountering and contemplating the exciting and frightening -- and living on the edge.

The first two happen on Monday and launch the week. Mercury’s changing signs and stationing to go retrograde (I can hear the groans), and the Moon is full in the “show me” sign of Taurus.

While most of us are sleeping Monday, communication and just plain getting around take on a different flavor when their ruler Mercury shifts into Sagittarius. He’ll speed five degrees into the sign and then hover at the point where he will turn retrograde on ... Election Day. As happened in 2000. Yup. A spawning ground for confusion, delays, breakdowns, disappearing or miscounted votes, weird weather, dare I even say it? deceit...about which more next week. For now, let me put one thought into your head: don’t wait till the last minute to vote.

More immediate to your experience: Desire to get to the truth is going on the window, for the time being. An enthusiastic, seat of the pants approach is taking its place, which has its good points and its bad.

The volume is turning up, as distinct approaches unroll. One is oriented toward expansion and learning, curious about philosophies, cultures and peoples outside its experience. One already knows what it knows, thank you very much, and will happily and passionately shout down contrary opinions and information. (“My country, right or wrong” and “My way or the highway” are extreme examples.) Another approach -- which could overlap with either of the first two -- has little interest in being pinned down, or in listening. Enthusiasm, joking (heavy on the stupid or tasteless), argumentativeness and bolting are likely in any and all.

Think the political discourse (if it warrants such a respectful label) has been rabid? Just you wait. Racism and xenophobia are running amok (don’t think your own mind and mouth are exempt, by the way), and so are self-appointed mouthpieces for the voice of God. Endeavor to look for amusement; there will be plenty of cause. And don’t fall into the trap of shooting off your mouth or automatically reposting purported quotes or facts in social media; research them first.

Mercury will return to this week’s turf (and topics) in December. Meanwhile, he will be traveling back to the middle of Scorpio and stationing direct on Monday, November 26.

As all things Mercury catch fire, something primal is simultaneously being stoked. The lust of little children on the prowl for Halloween candy is stirring within all of us, courtesy of Monday’s Full Moon in Taurus. How willing are you to share? To trade? To sneak loot from someone else’s bag? (Parents, ‘fess up.) To drop the mask and costume and reveal who you really are?

Physical evidence is key to the experience of Moon in Taurus. It values most what it can touch, hold, consume and possess. The developments and questions this Full Moon brings are harbingers of the next eclipse cycle, which formally begins with November’s New Moon. For a lengthy analysis of what is coming to light, read my mooncast.

The Moon’s ruler Venus is the driver of the third major astro-event of the week. She is now in her home of Libra, the sign of relationships and agreements about how we treat each other (including laws). Her movement forward this week creates a challenging aspect pattern with Uranus and Pluto, the cosmic change agents that are rocking and restructuring our world for the next several years.

She’s turning their clash into a dynamic configuration called a t-square, which pits her (relationships and values) against Uranus (independent, unpredictable, anarchistic impulses) and demands action from Pluto (unavoidable, structural change). The pressure is forcing fundamental overhauls -- for starters, in the role of women in our society and legal system. Other areas involve specific relationships, the rules (spoken and unspoken) that govern how we relate to each other, our money and resources, and the very nature of what we value.

The question with each is: will fear or something higher (respect, love) steer the actions we are propelled to take now? These actions are part and parcel of the Full Moon process, which colors and fuels each of them. Be honest with yourself. Look at what you’re thinking, feeling, suspecting and seeing, no matter how irrational it is. In fact, the more irrational, the better to bring it to light and consciousness. At a minimum you’ll spy what’s been steering the car; at best, the light will disarm or vaporize it.

Use that honesty as the springboard for proceeding in every situation. It will simplify so much for you, and will yield powerful, potent, phenomenally meaningful events and connecting.

Yes, some of it might spook you. Put a candle in your jack o’ lantern, real or metaphoric. Stare down those monsters and demons. Be present and real and see if you don’t get that in return. (Say hi to friends and family who’ve crossed over, while you’re at it. The tradition is that the veil between life and death is at its thinnest, so who knows? You might reach them.)

With so much going on, and so intense at that, the week’s fourth major astro-event is welcome, providing an extended and recurring breather to sit and ponder and consider. Day-eating void-of-course moons are back, those formless, floating stretches that occur between the moon’s last major aspect in a sign and entry into the next. Making anything happen gets nowhere; people don’t answer phones or email; the little that does manage to occur often unravels or turns out against expectations. These days of out time are better suited for going with the flow, introspection and, I’ve increasingly found, tasks that you are going to do again eventually (cleaning, laundry, bookkeeping, etc.).

Appropriate for the holiday, this week’s voids are monster-sized. The first starts Monday evening and lasts throughout all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday, until 2:40 PM EDT -- coinciding with the fearsome storm that has been predicted to slam the Northeast. The second engulfs all of Friday, from 5:22 AM EDT to nearly 4 AM Saturday. Been wishing for down time? You’re going to get it.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for four and a half years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: We wake up with energized minds and the sensation that significant conversations and connections took place while we were sleeping. Still, an edginess pervades the day that you probably can’t quite identify. Everyone’s balking at unseen barriers and rules (and likely some highly visible ones). Communication is just plain weird, rife with magical thinking, or confusion, or misunderstandings, or smoke and mirrors. Add to that the Full Moon in Taurus peaking at 3:50 PM EDT. “Show me the money!” is the event’s undercurrent, with “or else!” coming when the Moon falls in line with Pluto’s bent for pruning. Situations take on life-or-death clarity then, whereupon the Moon goes void of course for three days at 5:01 PM.

Tuesday: The Moon is void of course all day long. We’ll be pondering weighty matters throughout it, some life-simplifying, some life-changing. Inside the void, the Sun makes an easy, cooperative aspect to Pluto that will midwife monumental self-empowering shifts, if we’ll only accept the assistance. The feminine is out of sorts with the masculine (in particular, the entrenched, power-mongering side). Her displeasure, or cause for it, should show up in news feeds, but don’t place much stock in any one development that seems to be taking shape. It will look different after the void.

Wednesday: It’ll feel like a day outside of time until mid-afternoon, when the Moon finally changes signs (at 3:40 PM). Only after that do the few aspects of the day finally happen -- which means that before then, there will be nothing to distract from the emotional tides and processing of the Full Moon. An otherworldly, even fantastical air hangs in the air as twilight approaches, fittingly for Halloween. Gab, gadgets and getting around won’t go smoothly or as expected; adjustments are called for in obligations and responsibilities. All’s well that ends well. Even if a quarter of the country is wringing itself out (or shoveling snow), a festive atmosphere is on tap for the evening.

Thursday: The day is bustling inside and out. Monday’s friction between the masculine and feminine echoes today, in the form of action or backlash. Schedules and plans shift on a dime. When a piece of information or a thought or a possibility flies in from left field, catch it and run. The change of pace delivers you to a crossroads, and the direction you choose to take has the power to strengthen you and simplify much. (If you need help choosing, consider this question: which was expresses love, and which expresses fear?) Relationships aren’t flowing freely and easily; impose your expectations on someone else’s and you might be unpleasantly surprised. Use the sensation of disconnect to step back and ask for another perspective. Include past relationships in your inquiries, too.

Friday: Another day outside of time is here. The Moon is void of course for most of it (from 5:22 AM EDT until nearly 4 AM tomorrow), and there are only three aspects all day long. Two occur overnight, triggering restless sleep and stirring feelings of futility and powerless. (If you’re prone to muscles cramping in your legs, they are probable now, so stretch and take magnesium before bed to minimize them.) You’re your own likely target later in the day. If you catch yourself beating up on yourself, please stop and notice. The day’s programming is freeform; it does not have to be dictated by voices in your head, especially past ones. Let current you set the playlist and steer the inner conversation.

Saturday: Today makes up for yesterday’s formlessness in spades. Take a breath and center before you launch into it. It’s going to be busy, busy, busy. The tension that Venus is stirring up with Uranus and Pluto hits critical mass over the course of the day. The pressure is forcing situations and attitudes to evolve; there is no way to escape or postpone it. The Moon is jumping into the fray as well, so emotions will be pitched, and every development highly highly personal. Bring your point of reference to yourself again and again, and be honest about what is fundamentally true and necessary for you. This does not have to be hellish, by the way, although some people will certainly fall prey to that potential. It could be wonderfully, exhilaratingly terrifying, in a “I can’t believe this is really happening” way. Set your clocks back! Daylight Savings Time ends at 2!

Sunday: Yesterday’s turbulence lands us on calm shores overnight. You have come through a milestone. You have behaved responsibly, most of all toward yourself, and feel a new level of comfort with and confidence in yourself. Let it settle in. The day has no major aspects at all, only minor ones that tweak how you are going to proceed with the people around you. Think of everyone as baby chicks exploring the strange world outside the shell they have just left. Or butterflies who have emerged from the cocoon with wings still drying. Act and speak gingerly.

Some seasonal music for your enjoyment, from the carousel at Knoebel’s.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Libra new moon forecast Taurus full moon forecast

2012 Taurus Full Moon

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:30:31 -0400

October 29, 2012
12:50 PM PDT/ 3:50 PM EDT / 7:50 PM GMT
6 Taurus 48 / 6 Scorpio 48

By Kathy Biehl

Full moons invite emotions to emerge from hidden places and come out and play. What’s surfacing now promises to be uncommonly fierce and revealing, and not merely because this year’s Taurus Full Moon falls during Halloween week.

We’re in the first days of an immersion that will play out over three years, as Saturn, proponent of commitment, responsible behavior and the status quo, makes his way through the dark and sometimes frightening waters of Scorpio. What’s now coming to consciousness -- or, minimally, gaining expression -- is the first wave of how we feel about issues of money, resources, ownership, sharing, trust, sex and control, which find their astrological home on the Taurus/Scorpio axis. They’re highly charged, all of them, setting off irrational and clutching impulses, primal terrors and, at the other extreme, a heightened experience of life (and union) with more focus, profundity and intensity than ever before.

The stakes are high. Ramifications are stark and real. From one perspective, ancient monsters and tactics are lumbering out of the grave and grabbing at power and renewed life. They are particularly visible on a collective level, where battle lines have been drawn on taxes, government spending, and women’s bodies (issues of which neatly encompass both sex and control).

Fear is, alas, rampant. It does not have to taint or control you, though. Keep these tips handy:

Tip #1: The bogeyman is a manifestation of fear.
Tip #2: The bogeyman has only the power you grant him.
Tip #3: The bogeyman is the most frightened of all.

Got it? Good. Acknowledge the terror under the masks you encounter and you will (a) diffuse their power and (b) possibly even view them with compassion.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at other potentials of this Moon. Taurus deals very much with the here and now, the tangible, the bankable. The role of possessions is under scrutiny. What do you own? What do you share, and what do you expect/get in return? Are you happy with the return or glum? (Image for contemplation, from “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown:” trick-or-treaters examining their loot house after house and Charlie Brown inevitably announcing...”I got a rock.”)

Attachment is a theme, too. What -- flip the first question -- possesses you? (Image for contemplation: Gollum, in Lord of the Ring, clutching the ring and muttering, “My precious.”)

Whatever your answers -- whatever is stirring for and in you now -- a few characteristics are certain. It (whatever it is) feels solid and real and unavoidable. It is not trivial or passing. It involves letting something go (perhaps in yourself, perhaps in a situation), possibly merely letting go and giving yourself over to an intense experience or development. What remains will not allow (or inspire) getting out of easily, and will touch and reshape you at the depth of your being.

The weighty, somber air comes from Saturn, still close to the Sun after last week’s meeting and requiring us to take our end of each equation seriously indeed. The sense of monumental goings-on is also gaining fuel from transforming, regenerative, death-defying and intensifying Pluto, who is in easy communication with both ends of the Full Moon. (Pluto and Saturn are in cahoots, too; since each is in the other’s home sign, each is resonating with the other.)

What we want, we want deeply, drawn by a gravitational pull that reduces logic to irrelevance. What we are releasing, we are releasing for good. As for all points in between, we are being shown the costs and benefits.

Do not fear this.

This formula can simplify, strengthen and amplify. It can yield huge upticks in self-esteem, self-worth and resources both personal and joint.

This will involve some shifting. Venus, ruler of the Moon as well as of all that we hold dear, is contacting Uranus (the agent of volatile change) in a way that challenges where and how we set values, as well as specific connections and in relationship dynamics as a whole. Venus is also contacting Pluto (the agent of unavoidable change) in a way that demands action. Attitudes and situations are turning without warning, with lightning speed and with a force that will penetrate the core of your being.

Don’t squander this amazing potential on trivialities. Set your intentions boldly. Walk straight into the storm; dive into the water and open your eyes. Wave at the monsters and creepy-crawlies that pass by you, even if they challenge or push buttons. (Inspirational image: “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?” -- Indiana Jones, on entering a chamber in Raiders of the Lost Ark.)

The issues, and to some extent the situations and people, that crest now will be ongoing themes for the next few years. We’re in the first wave of not merely Saturn’s three-year tour of Scorpio, but also the next eclipse cycle, which will take place in the signs of Taurus and Scorpio. We’re already feeling rumblings of the first shot, November’s New Moon solar eclipse in Scorpio. The coming cycle will reboot and reset our experience of money, intimacy, sharing, power/control and life itself. This week’s Full Moon is the lead-in. Pay attention.

© Kathy Biehl 2012. (Image © Kathy Biehl 2011.) 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.

Forecast for week of Oct. 22-28, 2012

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:01:38 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Be on the lookout for specters, ghouls and trick-or-treating. It will feel like Halloween before the calendar says it’s time. Spooky vibes are coming ahead of schedule. We are in for another important and potentially intense week.

The main venue for the week is Scorpio, where nothing is trivial and much is deeply felt, craved and possessed. The focusing and transforming potentials of this sign will be permeating our experience of life, and especially of relationships, for the next three years or so, as Saturn makes his way through Scorpio. This week brings a baptism in those potentials. We’re not merely sticking our toes in the water; our entire beings are going in, deep.

When the Sun enters Scorpio on Monday, the annual phase begins of the veil between the worlds growing thin, of nature hastening its descent toward winter, and of heightened awareness of the passing of time, and of decline, decay and death. We begin instinctively to prepare for a time of going inside. This week, we feel this with an uncommon solemnity.

For the first time since 1983, the Sun is melding with Saturn in Scorpio, on Friday. This meeting is orienting us to the next three years. It is imprinting on our psyches the potentials and challenges to come. It is immersing us in the seriousness of our end of the relationship spectrum -- specifically the part where we invest our time, money, energy or emotions with someone else’s.

Whatever -- and whoever -- is with us at this point, we are going to explore extremely deeply and tenaciously. The breakdowns and break-ups that happened so quickly before aren’t the order of life now. The situations that made it past the recent gauntlet of upheaval are with us for a good while. There are no do-overs for the actions and choices that we make this week and for the next few; what we do now has staying power, because Saturn is covering territory that he will not revisit.

Don’t take that as reason to freak out. Instead, treat it as reason to take everything seriously, especially yourself. Always start with yourself.

This is a time to be profoundly honest with yourself. Admit to yourself what you want out of your various relationships and arrangements, and what you are willing to invest of yourself in return. Admit to yourself the truth of what you are really putting in and getting out. How much deeper could you go? Likely, lots. Acknowledge the desires and terrors that are stirring within you and, yes, this includes skeletons in the closet and all manner of compulsions and monsters that are not generally fit for polite public discussion. Take them seriously.

This is a time to be profoundly honest in your words and actions as well. Speak up, bravely. Show yourself where it matters, and bridges to intimacy and union will take shape. Small talk and trivial interactions can wait for the holiday season. Right now, a few honest words speak volumes and deepen connections.

Communication does resound with special importance just now. Mercury, ruler of our information and transportation vehicles, is crossing the North Node of destiny on Thursday, as the Sun is making his approach to Saturn. Watch for messages that reveal undercurrents, truths and lies, that lock in connections, that set out a course from which you will not deviate.

The collective conversation will be similarly revealing, possibly discouragingly so. I’ve been saying all year that fear is so rampant that it is becoming an entity with physical form, much as Voldemort evolved into more and more distinct shape during the Harry Potter books. Thursday may be the shining moment of this new entity of fear. <ital> you do not have to accept it. You do not have to allow it to govern your life.

Now, there are several approaches you can take to this Scorpionic immersion. You can succumb to the darkness and allow fears, paranoia and the boogie men under the bed to run rampant and steer your thinking, emotions and actions. (That phenomenon is inescapable in political discourse and social media feeds.) You can put on your X-ray goggles and investigate the darkness with a researcher’s fervor. You can dive in and explore depths of emotion, desire, intimacy and union -- an approach that has the potential to heighten your sense of being alive and, if the circumstances and company are right, obliterate the boundaries between individuals and worlds.

The skies offer support for not succumbing to fear. Enthusiasm and gumption and impulses to go for it (whatever “it” may be) are getting a huge boost from Mars, ruler of our drive and action, and beneficent Jupiter, who increases anything he touches. This puts rocket fuel and incentive at our disposal for jumping into those Scorpionic waters and going deep.

There’s another incentive to connect. A counterbalance to the Scorpionic weightiness is on the way. Venus, ruler of our hearts and relationships, is entering her Libra home on Sunday, and good vibes are sure to follow. Until the week before Thanksgiving, she’s encouraging beauty, grace and harmony in words, appearances, gestures, activities, interactions and environments. Her presence in this mode will soften the edge of the exploring and communicating to come. The contents may be fierce and raw, but they’ll be in a pretty package.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for four and a half years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: Dreams move us beyond our comfort zone and smack into walls and barriers that are blocking the gratification we seek. That’s rumbling around in the back of your mind as the waking week starts with yet another round of processing change. Grab the unexpected opportunity; try on a perspective with a jaunty slant; go for the change of pace. Each time you push your limits, it’s becoming organic and automatic, isn’t it? And empowering as well? Taking a deep breath and acting boldly comes easily, with the Sun entering Scorpio. The emotional impetus is there, too, thanks to a hand-up from Mars. Dreamland promises an escape tonight. Lines are open, so ask for information to come to you. If you like, be sure to ask that it come in imagery you can understand and also ask to remember it.

Tuesday: The predawn hours are happier than usual, instilling a feeling of comfort and satisfaction with yourself and your lot in life. Sail into the day on a wonderful current between the Sun and Neptune. It’s enhancing your connection to information, energy and guidance from a higher perspective than your conscious mind -- your intuition, a muse, spiritual love, your guides and angels, the wisdom of all of consciousness. Hand the reins over to your inner guidance system for the day (at least). Odds are you’ll feel compelled to stretch yourself, and the GPS will keep you on a beneficial course. Be alert for messages, too. This is the day that Mercury crosses the North Node, and major tidings are coming. Some will be in conversations, some in the public discourse (for example, on TV or in a social media feed). The compulsion to speak out increases with nightfall. Some conversations can’t be put off; some have to take place. Don’t assume the worst. The compulsion could be clarifying and deepen a connection. Tonight would be another fertile time for asking for insight in dreams.

Wednesday: Song of the Day: Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World.” The link to higher consciousness continues all day. Ride on it! It’s safe, and you’ve got a reliable grounding cord, so there’s little danger of coming unmoored and floating off into the unknown. It’s one of those rare mornings when you could sense the divine all around you (speaking of which -- who else has noticed how spectacular the skies have been lately?) The second half of the day brings another round of assimilating the change imperative. Note how you’re rolling with the punches now when your plans fly out of kilter , and how easy it is to confront the upheaval from a position of power and truth. (In other words -- aren’t you going with the flow ever so much more?) Note the seriousness in the air, too. Major commitments are brewing -- the first and largest being to yourself.

Thursday: The Sun meets Saturn during the overnight hours. Their meeting permeates the early morning ramblings that start your day, and also your mood. Your psyche has taken in the imprint. In what way do you feel more settled? (Or weighted down?) How have you narrowed your focus? To what have you committed? The day is boisterous, with people so intent on their own missions that they bump up against each other. Entitlement genes will be in overdrive. If you stop and actually look into the eyes of each person you collide with, bridge-building conversations are possible. Talk things out. Just plain talk! Don’t let jiggles derail you in the afternoon. Talk.

Friday: Dreams stir up possibilities you hadn’t previously considered (or dared) and also explore the pleasing potentials of a connection or two. Messages and information fly all morning. Some of what comes your way provides a little distance on a matter that involves your heart. You’ll have plenty of time to ponder all these developments when the Moon goes void of course from 11:05 AM to 3:32 PM EDT. The hours after the void have a softened tone. There are no major aspects, and the few minor ones primarily put you at crossroads. Fear and negativity or diving into the depth of an experience? Assertiveness or receptiveness? The latter may not be an either/or, but a seesaw requiring a balancing act.

Saturday: The predawn hours put you through another round of processing and assimilating the ongoing change imperative. You’re embracing freedom, possibly even kicking doors open to it, and a mandatory growth spurt is the result. How are you shedding a layer of skin -- or trappings that would otherwise inhibit your freedom of movement? This round resonates through the entire day; there are no aspects at all until evening. When bodies in the sky start making contact again, it’s party time! Excitement and enthusiasm run high. People want to go out and have fun. Once the fun starts, folks want more. It’s a jolly atmosphere for the parties that cluster on the Saturday before Halloween. Enjoy! Oh -- you might find it very entertaining tomorrow if you put writing materials by your bed tonight.

Sunday: The predawn hours are feisty. Last night’s wonderful connecting leads to all kinds of fruit basket turnover. Some people will be wondering (possibly even saying out loud), “What was I thinking?!?” Some will bolt from new connections, some from old. Some will leap happily into risks. Existing obligations loom like specters in all these scenarios -- but universally, wild cards will prevail. Despite the restless sleep, you may be energized and even agitated as you fly into the day. Direct a little of that energy to combing through your scampering thoughts and impulses. They’ll reveal lots about your overnight process and conclusions. Then allow yourself to slingshot into whatever activity consumes you. Odds are great it will involve others. Venus moves into Libra around 9 AM EDT and encourages companionship and social pleasantries. Rose-colored glasses are the accessory of the day. They will help you view others in a loving light -- and make for a softened, lovely, even if vaguely otherworldly stretch of time. Life has been so challenging lately. What’s the harm in a little escapism?

© 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.

Podcast for the week Libra new moon forecast Aries full moon forecast

Forecast for week of October 15-21, 2012

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:02:35 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Implementation is the theme of the week. The imperative to change is pushing situations and people into motion, at the same time that a new phase is launching in how we treat each other.

New details or wrinkles might introduce themselves into situations, but much of what unfolds now has already been taking shape to some extent. We’re picking up puzzle pieces that are already on the table and moving them around, instead of going to the shelf and taking down a box with an entirely different picture -- or a different type of activity box altogether.

Although who knows? There’s enough of a Uranian element this week that anything’s possible. Somebody could upend the table and precipitate a flurry of trying new combinations for all those puzzle pieces.

Mars, the planet that rules our action, is teaming with unpredictable Uranus (one of the two hosts, as you’ll recall, of the ongoing cavalcade of change we’re living for the next few years). They’re firing up motivation to get moving on the shifts and cracks and outright changes that have been erupting inside and out.

Progression won’t be neat and tidy, though. This interaction is volatile to the max. Unpremeditated action will be epidemic. A lot of wild hares are going to be running loose. People will be leaping into spur-of-the-moment adventures, both philosophical and physical.

Even when you do end up taking an action you’ve contemplated, the timing, and probably the manner, will fly out of you. If you thought about it too much right now, you might screw it up. Or chicken out. Raw, fierce action will do what you want, without your mind interfering.

You’re unlikely to worry about this. We’re all getting used to expressing our personal truth and wielding our personal power. Both are moving noticeably into a new level of comfort now. That comes from the conversation Mars is having now with the other change cavalcade host, Pluto.

Like Mars, Pluto rules our actions, too, but from a different perspective. Two actually. One is deeper and less conscious -- the cravings and compulsions and programming that lurk in the basement of our psyches and deep with our very cells. The other is far greater than our mortal will can engineer or control -- a universal force that trumps all human tinkering; fate, if you will. Our mortal will, our mortal actions are now aligning with those two higher perspective. All are working in coordination, in a way they haven’t previously.

See if you aren’t impulsively, boldly, daringly chipping out of patterns and situations this week, almost as if your very life depends on it. In a sense, it does. Your very thriving does.

Amid this activity comes Monday’s Libra New Moon, which simultaneously puts a bow on the relationship lab of the past two and a half years and also launches the intensive in intimacy and sharing that will dominate the next three. Both courses are courtesy of that old teacher Saturn, enforcer of rules, responsibilities and commitments, who has just left the relationship and reciprocity playground of Libra for the frisson of shared resources and ego-dissolving union in the waters of Scorpio.

Notice your interactions. Notice the difference in the air -- and the difference in you. Communication’s favored now, thanks to cooperation between Venus and the cosmic messenger Mercury. Doorways are open. You’ve just got to leap through them. More in my mooncast.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for four and a half years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: The skies shove us out of bed and into the week with a one-two punch. The first ignites your inner fire and gets you up and running earlier than you might have planned. Even if you manage to eke out more time under the sheets, see if you don’t jump into the day with enthusiasm and purpose. The second punch is the Libra New Moon, ushering in the next phase of the adventure we call relationships. After the Moon meets the Sun, she goes void of course (makes no further major aspects) until 8:07 PM EDT. All that jump starting and nowhere to go with it ... except within. Watch out for hypersensitivity to walls and limitations, within you and emanating from others. You could be fleshing out a situation with your own projections. (That’s never happened before, right?) Once the Moon gets well and truly moving again, she’s in the deep end of the pool with Saturn and making eye contact with Neptune. Trust your gut. Its wisdom is feeling solid, isn’t it?

Tuesday: Doorways to conversations and connections are wide open this morning. Reach out; accept overtures; answer texts, email and calls; follow every little jiggle you get. The bulk of the day has no aspects whatsoever, which allows a grand long time for all the outstretched tendrils to intertwine or not. An adjustment in perspective or communication mode is likely late afternoon to early evening; after all, how many chat windows can you have open on Facebook at once? (Prepare to test the limit.) How many connections can you be pursuing/engaging with at once? (That one, too.) This energy could compel movement on one that’s been stalling. you may be going against the grain of your upbringing, but you’re in the groove with higher will. The playing out should be fascinating and fuel many a memoir and script. The Moon goes void of course at 10:24 PM EDT until tomorrow evening,

Wednesday: The Moon is void of course for the whole workday across the US, until 8:26 PM EDT. Inside the void, private “come to Jesus” moments abound as we’re assimilating powerful and potent truths. The evening brings a testing of illusions. Some firm up; some turn to dust. You might be glad tomorrow if you put writing materials by your bed tonight.

Thursday: Psyches undergo another productive round of processing all the change overnight. A part of you welcomes, embraces and actively cooperates with the change imperative; the potential for break-through and self-actualization is that great. Your comfort level with your own truth and power is also deepening, and you’re letting go of trappings that no longer fit or benefit. Check your early morning ramblings, which teem with clues of all of this activity. The result could be a simple as waking up with a clear resolve, knowing your unique path, and your mind.

Friday: The predawn hours are energizing, galvanizing, motivating and ultimately reassuring. They point out areas for improvement in relationships while stirring the wherewithal and confidence to voice them. Forget scheduling important work late in the day. The weekend starts early, when the Moon goes void of course at 4:27 PM EDT. The late evening hours are simple, blessed and grounding. Direct the beams of Saturn and Neptune your way. Ask for guidance or inspiration and let it guide your life. Keep those writing materials handy....

Saturday: Messages fly overnight -- onto your phone, into your email and all through your dreams. Some may be a bit hard to swallow, but there’s a medicinal value. Yes; they’re good for you. Some of what comes through is going to nudge you further down the channel of change. That could happen out of anger, or a sudden change of mind or heart, or a focus and knowing that goes straight through your being. Tread lightly in the waking world. Conversations are primed for static and drama. Whispers are going to come across as shouts. Modulation will be advisable throughout the day.

Sunday: At last! A quiet night! A happy morning! Soothe ruffled feathers; build bridges; brunch; make light and merry; pick up the phone and actually talk to folks. The “Jaws” theme surfaces late in the afternoon. Notice what topics turn up the volume and respond accordingly. Even with your care and caution, the atmosphere has the potential to remain disconcerting and borderline confrontational. The person you’re really at war with is yourself, which you might keep in mind as the evening slips into night.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Libra new moon forecast Aries full moon forecast

2012 Libra New Moon

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:14:02 -0400

October 15, 2012
5:03 AM PDT / 8:03 AM EDT / 12:03 PM GMT
22 Libra 32

By Kathy Biehl
This month’s Libra New Moon is the first new moon of the fall season, and the first in the new mode of relating we’ll be in for the next three years.

Relationship dynamics and rule books are integral to the sign of Libra, in terms of both our actual outer dealings and our inner wiring for them. We’ve been exploring all of them -- and taking all of them far more seriously -- for the past two-plus years, as taskmaster Saturn traveled through Libra. Relationships have come, gone, sunk down roots, collapsed and re-formed. They’ve pushed us into awareness of give-and-take, reciprocity and fundamental fairness. They’ve prompted us to rethink and renegotiate what we want, what we are willing to give, what we are willing to accept and, just as importantly, what we are not.

Now Saturn has left Libra and moved his lessons in responsibility and commitment to the intense, untamed waters of Scorpio, where we will explore sharing, trust and intimacy -- and all the sublingual appetites and terrors they stir. This New Moon comes on the heels of that shift, and it officially launches the new relationship paradigm we have been approaching.

We’ll be more keenly aware of what we’re putting in -- and, more importantly, what we’re getting out of -- every agreement, arrangement, connection and relationship. No more automatically putting the other person first, or putting ourselves at a disadvantage, or taking action unbidden on the assumption that’s what the other person wants or needs.

Some of you have already been experiencing this. The impulse is becoming greater, more natural and more widespread now.

The Moon’s ruler, Venus, is on board with this reckoning. She is facilitating cooperation and deep, meaningful, truthful communication, via an opportunity aspect to Mercury in Scorpio that’s about as tight as it can be. This is priming us to open up and connect in ways and at depths we may not have dared before.

Her consort Mars, ruler of our drive and representative of the masculine end of the relationship axis, is part of this equation, too. He and Venus are not in close contact, but he is pushing through change on her behalf. He is an easy flow to awakening, liberating Uranus in Aries, a combo that is lighting a fire in everyone and everything. Not only are both action planets, in fire signs, but Uranus is in Mars’ sign (i.e. under his command, as if anything could “command” Uranus), and their link is tight to the max. All of which means this double team is igniting excitement, enthusiasm and openness to impulse, radical, sudden change.

All these aspects are setting the tone for Saturn’s entire journey through Scorpio over the next three years. A new relationship paradigm. Deep, soul-baring communication. Lust for radical change. Remaining independent and true to ourselves as we sink ourselves more deeply than ever into union. (How’s that for a paradox?) Let the games begin!

© 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.

Forecast for week of October 8-14, 2012

Fri, 5 Oct 2012 18:41:38 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Form meets formlessness this week. Theoretically that’s a paradox, but we’re about to see how those seeming incompatibles can and will converge. Each of us is due for contact with a consciousness greater than the parameters of a mortal mind, and the impact will permeate life here on the ground.

A new phase of life is clearly here. With Saturn now in the sign of Scorpio, we’re embarking on a several-year journey into the depths of our beings and connections with each other. As we explore the myriad ways we invest with and in others (time, money, emotion, energy), the road will pass through dark, scary, profound and steamy territory. That’s later. For now, the path is heading into mystery...and maybe even magic.

This is where form meeting formlessness comes in. This week, and effectively for the month, structure-loving Saturn is in direct and easy communication with mystical, otherworldly, anything but physical Neptune. Saturn likes rules, order and all things tangible; Neptune is in the clouds (or generating them), if not far off in the cosmos, where divine guidance, spiritual love, artistry, illusion, escapism, deceit, delusion and insanity coexist in one unbroken continuum. This week, they’re collaborating.

Aim for the higher end of that spectrum. It will certainly be pouring down onto terra firma. The trine, which is exact on the 10th, is a conduit for compassion, grace and telepathy flooding our closest connections. We could spy God in a beloved’s eyes, or in a brilliant sky; this link is an opening for insight and epiphanies to rush in that elevate physical existence to a holy experience. The artistic productivity that comes from this will be mind-boggling.

Resolving old business will also be in the air. We were on the brink of this aspect earlier this year. This link started to come together after the holidays but did not quite lock into place. As that happens does now, developments that did not quite take shape in January will firm up.

There is a possible downside, of course. With the enforcer of the status quo in cahoots with the cosmic fog machine, there’s no telling how far the the power structure will go to harness spin and puffery and outright lies. They will not be harmless puffs of smoke, unfortunately, but incantations, if you will, with real ramifications and real consequences.

Back to you: Invoke the magic. Set aside time for contemplation, meditation, cloud- and star-gazing, reverie and generally lolling about. Thursday and Saturday are optimal for this, because the Moon will be void of course for the entirety of both days and forward pushes aren’t going to amount to anything, anyway. (More about what that means here).

Ask to be led to courses of action that are most beneficial to you. Ask for the higher perspective on situations in your life. Pay attention to your dreams; ask for answers to come in them, too. (Be sure to specify that (a) they use imagery you understand and (b) you remember them.) Ask to approach others with compassion and forgiveness.

Include yourself in that request. Mars is approaching an action-demanding encounter with Chiron, the wounded healer that challenges us to master the physicality of existence. That contact will be exact on Monday, but we’re feeling it all week. You’re here; you’re human; get over it; okay?

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my quickie podcast. Please give it five stars on iTunes! NEW: You can now get my podcast as an app for Android and Kindle Fire at Amazon and as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod! Apple product info under this week’s podcast.

I have now been making this weekly forecast freely
available for four and a half years. Please support it by
booking a reading or making a donation. Thank you to
those who have donated -- I truly appreciate your gesture.

Monday: A small craft advisory is in effect all day -- but don’t attach much to the turbulence, because the Moon is void of course until 7:44 AM EDT tomorrow. Choppy waters start in the predawn hours, which stir vaguely unsettling emotions and impulses. (Is “it” real? A dream? Do you go for it? Not? Aughhhhhh....) They continue to swirl throughout the morning and make it a challenge to pay attention to what’s in front of your nose. A little focus would pay off, because a split-second decision sets the course of the day -- and the tone of your interpersonal dealings.

Tuesday: The overnight hours are active again, but this time the sailing is much smoother. Processing fuels all kinds of grand feelings about yourself and your life at this point. You have come through so much lately, and there is much to appreciate and celebrate. There is also more to desire, and a major object for that comes into focus in the dreamworld. It’s not quite in reach just yet. As always, check the wisps of thoughts and images floating through your head in the morning for clues as to what your psyche was up to overnight. A high-energy day follows. A bolt from the blue -- a message, a piece of information, a realization, a change of mind -- leads to a course correction (possibly split-second, as yesterday). You may end up taking an action that is bold and frightening by your normal terms, taking the risk of revealing more of yourself than you ordinarily permit. The fallout is initially liberating, energizing and exhilarating ... but will rock a boat or two as night falls. You do have choices in how you treat others, remember. If you put writing materials at your bedside only one night this week, this is the night to do it.

Wednesday: Your consciousness gains a doorway onto the meaning of life overnight. Raw, perhaps brutal truths are yours for the having. Thinking sharpens, unclutters and focuses. Whether you remember the process or not, notice the clarity, simplicity and power of your mind this morning. You have no room for trivia or distractions. All the resulting space won’t remain empty. It’s a receptacle for the insight, guidance, inspiration and generally transcendent energy beaming down from the Saturn/Neptune trine. Go with the flow. Trust that all is well. Ask for help; ask for miracles; ask for magic. Be open to any and all arriving in a different form that what your mind would have. How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand? Exactly. Take your time pondering that. That’s what the atmosphere encourages, because the Moon goes void of course at 5:40 pm EDT until mid-afternoon tomorrow.

Thursday: Issues of desire, longing and relationships swirl through the overnight hours. Who’s on your mind as you start the day? Hmmmm? Ponder but don’t act, yet. The Moon is void of course until 3:24 PM EDT. Once she clears that hurdle, the time is ripe. You could think you’re making this attraction up. You probably won’t care. It feels stabilizing and comforting and compelling. What’s this? You’re going for it? Check your air tank. You’re diving deep.

Friday: Processing change fills the night again. (Does it ever stop?) (Do I need to answer that?) Another stage of clarity is here about the benefits this is bringing you. You’re making a subconscious choice for individuality and embracing/embodying your own truth. When you’re settled about yourself, the outside world follows suit. Conversations and interactions fall nicely into place. Kick back -- or just plain leave -- when the mood hits; this is not a day to work until quitting time. Whatever you start out doing this evening, it could mushroom waaaaay beyond your initial plan or intent or preparation. Be advised. Factor in, too, that the Moon is going void of course at 7:48 PM EDT until early tomorrow evening. Looks like a free play zone to me.

Saturday: Could it be; an actual day off? Yep. The Moon is void of course all day, till just after 7 PM EDT. The overnight hours provide a nice, safe, distanced platform for contemplating a relationship. The day might start more early -- and more abruptly -- than you’d like. There are no major aspects at all, though, so you’re pretty much playing unsupervised for the day. Don’t forget about that open channel to higher realms. It could guide you at a crossroads -- and also assist in firming up decidedly worldly situations.

Sunday: Predawn processing is of the massive growth spurt variety. As a result, sleep could be restless and dreams dramatic enough to wake you up a time or two. It’s a point of no return (or perhaps a pair of them), pushing us further into personal evolution. The only major aspect is a lovely, lovely heartwarmer late in the evening. Remember that all will be well, good and toasty by then, no matter what discomfort rattles you throughout the day. Huge strides in communication and generally getting along are likely part of the package.

© 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.

Podcast for the week Virgo new moon forecast Aries full moon forecast

Forecast for week of October 1-7, 201

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:04:23 -0400

By Kathy Biehl

Fall is well and truly here. Outer signs are unmistakable. Temperatures are dipping; leaves are starting to turn color. The atmosphere is definitely different as well. The sky is undergoing its own dramatic change of wardrobe, with a whopping four planets changing signs midweek.

The pile-up of planetary sign changes will have the abrupt effect of going from t-shirts and sandals to jackets and wooly socks overnight. The impact will be pervasive. Life will suddenly be vastly different, as if an unseen stage crew had flipped a row of switches and changed the lighting, temperature and mood -- and some of the cast as well.

We are still heeding the call of Saturday’s Aries Full Moon, which is kicking everyone and everything into action. Pick whatever metaphor of activation appeals or applies: The starting gun went off. Dynamite detonated. Fury/motivation/passion ignited. An ancient melody sounded and programming that had been encoded in you awakened your true nature.

Triggers and responses are still ongoing, like a string of firecrackers, or kernels erupting into popcorn. Because of all the astro-environmental changes, the Full Moon leaping could become very interesting indeed. You could start out with one set of goals, assumptions and targets -- change midair -- and find conditions on the ground not quite what you expected. On the other hand, the ground may have rearranged itself into a gloriously appropriate terrain by the time you land.

Here’s the line-up for the new October wardrobe. Venus (who, incidentally takes quite an interest in clothes) is shedding the glitz and finery of Leo for the simpler earth mother trappings of Virgo. Our hearts’ attention is turning from generosity, flamboyance and having fun to stepping back, exercising discernment, reestablishing boundaries and grounding. The objectivity that comes with Virgo will tempt some to view the people around them as improvement projects; stay on your side of the fence and focus instead on what is healthy for you.

Her consort Mars, ruler of our drive and ambition, is throwing off the dark mystery of Scorpio and igniting with the lust for exploration (mental, geographic and philosophical), optimism and humor of Sagittarius. Our inclination will not be passivity, but continuing to leap and bolt and cavort, running around new terrains and checking out the people, situations and circumstances we encounter.

The cloak of dark mystery isn’t going back in the closet, however; it’s just being passed on. The first taker is Mercury, overlord of communication and transportation, who is darkening and deepening the quality, intensity and profundity of our ideas, conversations and information when he dives into Scorpio on Friday. He’s a last-minute advance party for Saturn, the cosmic advocate for order and responsibility, who starts a two-and-a-half year exploration of the sign that same day.

With Saturn’s shift two cycles close and two begin. In the bigger picture, a 29-year journey has come to an end, while another of the same length is setting off. (What’s the story line of your life since 1983? How has it come full circle and spiraled up?)

More immediately, we’re switching from one two-and-a-half year cycle to the next. The prolonged relationship lab we’ve been in is finally over. We’ve rewritten the internal rule books that govern all our interactions and connections and renegotiated our arrangements to reflect the new order (and broken ties that simply can’t adjust). We’ve been challenged to commit to and act responsibly regarding the Libra area(s) of our chart.

Now it’s time to commit and go deep into the connections that we have chosen to keep in our lives. We are embarking on a two-and-a-half year exploration of issues of trust, intimacy and sharing (and that includes sex); of the return we get on our investment of time, money, emotion and energy with others; of taxes, joint finances and other people’s money; and of death and immortality (that is not a typo).

All have an inherently sacred side as well as an earthy-to-seamy. The sacred aspect dominates the first leg of our exploration of these mysteries. As soon as he enters Scorpio, Saturn is linking into an easy, effortless flow of energy with Neptune, the overseer of magic, compassion and transcendence. The pair checked each other out in January but did not complete the connection. That becomes exact next week, but the link is already in place, for all practical (and highly impractical) purposes.

There’s a bit of a retrospective feel, too. Jupiter is also making a change, but of directions instead of signs. As he backtracks over the territory he’s traveled since mid July, we’ll take a second look at what we’ve experienced since then, followed by a third look after he goes direct in January. This trek will take him twice over the degree of the Venus transit that happened in June, so some of the revisiting will involve exploring, gaining information about and likely expanding the benefit of what started to come into your life at that time.

Tie all these wardrobe changes and new connections together, and we’ve got relationships, interactions and conversations getting real, getting adventurous, getting deep, getting telepathic, getting magical, getting loving, and just plain getting going.

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Monday: Even with the continuing detonations from Saturday’s Aries Full Moon, an easy, enjoyable start to the week is probable. The moral: You can go after what you want and still play nice with others. Gravitate to the people who make you feel good (and notice who’s doing the same to/for you). Keep your heart open and happy and it’ll guide you when you hit a choice point involving a strategy or goal. (An early Sesame Street segment about the fun of cooperation comes to mind.) Barriers may loom large and oppressive when the Moon kicks off for a brief void (from 6:33 - 7:27 PM EDT). Afterward, the bigger picture comes into view, if you’ll look up and notice. All manner of inspiration and guidance abound. Create; meditate; pick up an instrument and see what pours out.

Tuesday: Here comes another round of processing and internalizing change. This one is of the “getting-the-hang-of-it” variety, sharpening your awareness and simplifying your experience. Don’t be surprised if you consciously welcome a development you would not have entertained a few weeks ago. It’s not insignificant. With Mars crossing the North Node of destiny, actions have a fated quality today -- possibly involving a powerful or enticing man, or a non-rational, cellular-level prompting pushing an agenda forward or hunting down satisfaction of a craving. Sexual chemistry will be ... well, let’s just say: pervasive. And, alas, violence could pierce the collective mindset, in an event that defines a line between life as it was and life as it now is. Still, on an individual level, all is well, at least for now. Be grateful for all that is right and good in your life. It’s a source of grounding and stability. As for those men, pushes and/or hunts -- something heart-pleasing and solid could lock in there, too.

Wednesday: The sky’s change of wardrobe starts today, with Venus entering Virgo during the overnight hours. Hearts are shifting into a more practical, analytical mode. As Venus’ first order of Virgo business is applying a critical eye to a relationship and pointing out the flaws, illusions or delusions in your perceptions. She issues her commentary in a dream, but by the time that echos in your waking mind, another part of you will have dismissed the caution with a “so what?” Not so fast. She’s got more to say on the subject by the evening. Might you be romanticizing a situation? Contemplating the question is more productive than talking or making a direct move. Your thinking and actions are slightly out of sync, and a conscious adjustment is in order to align them. That’s doable, but don’t push communication. It’s just not likely to click. Observe instead. Bedside writing materials could prove useful.

Thursday: The overnight hours are active to an extreme. Emotional processing fuels your fire with excitement, frustration or outright anger, and stirs irrepressible cravings and terrors. These agitators steer you through unconscious choices in your thinking and approach. Likely you’re gravitating toward stabilization. That will be more of a concept or ideal in the morning, when messages swirl through mists and haze. Jupiter is stationing retrograde at the middle of Gemini, the zodiac’s communication and transportation hub. The switch is noisy but not productive, engendering running in place and a lot of hubbub that may not amount to anything. Add to this a sense of unreality (“Am I making this up? Am I crazy? Can [x] really be true?”) and it’s advisable to put off important quests and conversations for a few days if you can. Tonight’s round of processing the change imperative has the potential to be enjoyable. (Imagine.) The benefits of breaking from your old ways are becoming more and more apparent. A daring, even wacky opportunity tonight will free you even more, but it’s not going to drop into your lap; you have to reach for and embrace it. When the realization hits of what you’ve just done, sit with it before you react. You can choose to freak out in fear, or you can stay in your own power and truth, and trust. You know which team I root for.

Friday: Grounding and calm return as Mercury and Saturn make a stabilizing link shortly before dawn EDT. It’s the last conjunction to Saturn before the taskmaster leaves relationship-oriented Libra, and it brings clarity and resolve to the worth and reciprocity issues we’ve be working through for the past two and a half years. Knowing more clearly who we are in relationship to others, we awaken into a different mode of thinking and communicating -- focused, determined and penetrating, preferring to explore undercurrents over skimming the surface. The next cycle in responsibility and commitment launches now, when Saturn follows Mercury into Scorpio for a two and a half year journey. The water’s enticing and comforting. Slip into them and float; there really isn’t much of an alternative, with the Moon going void of course around 5 PM until tomorrow evening. Hearts are open and radiating feel-good vibes; conversations are multi-level (with lots passing unspoken), accepting and downright magical, with higher guidance falling out of many a mortal mouth.

Saturday: This is hardly a day for running errands and working on the engines of your life -- and if that’s where your schedule takes you, your experience of it will be out of your ordinary. The Moon is void of course until nearly 9 PM EDT, which invites going with the flow and not investing significant energy into anything you wouldn’t want to unravel. (Tasks are fine that you’ll have to repeat anyway, such as grocery shopping, laundry and yard work.) A weird nervousness colors thoughts, conversations and the mood of the road. Circumvent the nervousness by relieving your mind of command and tuning into your internal GPS. The Moon, Saturn and Neptune are forming a grand trine in water, a round robin of free-flowing energy that’s bound to enhance emotional and psychic sensitivity and harness them for practical use. If you are a creative sort, this loop of inspiration, productivity and satisfaction could yield awe-inspiring works. The loop is also great for escapism and rejuvenation. When the circle opens, it ushers in an evening of calm, assured and loving hearts. Bask in the simplicity. When Mars moves into Sagittarius late night, you’ll know it. The evening’s comforting glow ramps into a raging fire -- enthusiasm, restlessness, the desire to get out and explore. That’s conducive to late-night socializing but not to restful sleep. Doing something to vent the energy ups the odds of sleep.

Sunday: Last night’s late-arriving energy boost translates into a highly active overnight. Ideas and realizations are flying. We’re choosing a course of action we can stick with and allowing ourselves to want what we want. You may wake up feeling as if you had a talk with an important person during the night; who’s to say that you didn’t? The daylight hours bring streaks of discomfort into the boisterousness. Today’s round of processing the change imperative is a collision with blunt demands and truths that will not budge -- meaning that we must. Breakthroughs are sudden, startling and possibly unwelcome (ah, but they’re good for you; you know that by now). Conscious desires come up against a larger, more powerful force that will not do mortal bidding. The impulse will be to push anyway. The result could be a smokescreen. It could be a cosmic truth in really weird guise. It could be an excuse for numbing via drugs or alcohol. Keep your inner GPS on and your foot off the gas pedal, and you’ll gravitate to right action.

© 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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