‘Vertumnus and Pomona‘ By David Teniers the Elder 1637 {{PD}}

The ideal-focused among us (or I should say, those of us who believe perfection is possible), and those who are susceptible to Self-doubt, may think we must modify our own innate authority and power in order to receive Love–but if it’s really Love, it doesn’t ask us to change, does it? That’s what makes the current Venus sextile to Pluto and sesquiquadrate to Ceres so confusing: Love beckons and says, ‘Let’s transform this!’ and we hear an unspoken, ‘to a higher level’, but we are ignoring all the danger inherent in looking too closely at Love, too sharply into the abyss, and simultaneously find ourselves aware that this love-thing is making us very uncomfortable with our personal authority and power, as if our agency is costing us Love–but as we know, real Love doesn’t require us to curb our power or expression. So what is happening? We’re focused on making ‘it’ happen, on ambition fulfillment (Mars sextile Zeus) and we’re already struggling with trusting ourselves and our instincts–we are perhaps too conscious of our potential for falling into a ‘blind spot’ (Juno contra-parallel Sedna)–and then along comes that seductive Venus and the compelling nature of the darkness, the mystery and compulsion of sex, the heady energy of Power, and it’s promised as some material or tangible thing (Pluto in Capricorn)–and we may feel that our life direction is unwise or impractical, that in making our choices, we’re missing something (Pallas square the Nodes), and this uncertainty weighs on us. So what it’s really all about is confidence in who we are, in our ability to make choices, to handle what comes at us–so today becomes a Rorschach test of how surely we believe we can handle anything we meet. Hint: if you find yourself facing a lot of Self-doubt today, you need to ask why you don’t trust yourself to ‘have your back’, as it were.

Today’s word image is a sign along the road that reads, ‘Half Way’–but how can we know we’re ‘half way’ unless we know both where we started and where we’re going? Maybe this is a reminder not to think we know more about our own Path than we actually do.

Juno’s bird, sometimes associated with envy. Pieter Boel ‘Study of Three Peacocks’ c1670 {{PD}}

We see a lot of internal harmony, strength, inventiveness, originality, and spontaneity–unless we’re being affected by jealousy, envy, or greed. Find out what, if anything, might be stopping up the flow of creative positivity, and once it’s gone–full speed ahead! (Mercury nov Uranus, Venus quincunx and Juno parallel Zeus)

Today’s word image is two birds on the ground, one in flight. What has recently ‘taken off’? Are you distracted by what didn’t ‘take off’? Can you keep up, or is this an instance of something ‘flying the coop’, and so out of your hands? Are you noticing sets of three? With the latter, this image might be less about achieving lift-off of one kind or another, and more about the synchronicities that noticing threes will prompt attention to.

A Black Brant IX sounding rocket launches from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska at 5:14 a.m. EST, Feb. 22, 2017. This is the first of two launches planned in NASA’s In Situ and Groundbased Low Altitude Studies (ISINGLASS) mission to study the structures of auroras. Photo By NASA – https://www.nasa.gov/and https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/sounding-rocket-launches-to-study-auroras {{PD}}

Shakespeare was onto these gals. ‘The Three Weird Sisters’, Mezzotint By Henry Fuseli http://wellcomeimages.org CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36658923

It’s a weird day, in the ancient sense of uncanny, unusual, or even in the way it can suggest meeting one’s destiny. The word itself springs from Old English, weorþan ‘to become’, and German, ‘werden’, the latter still in modern use. We see it in the way our empowerment may be brought forward through our own creative or imaginative powers, how we may be deluded about what constitutes our own effectiveness or privilege, or in the way we dream our way toward adequate Self-expression, as Juno enters Pisces. At the same time, we see the unusual, the heretical, the revolutionary, the accident and the shocking (Uranus) acted upon by the swift and small Venus (nov) and Mercury (contra-parallel and semi-sq), which flood relationship feeling, financial matters, values, thought, and communications with sudden events and revelation. This pulls our attention to all that’s wrong in our pursuit of ambition and desire fulfillment and in the current power picture (Sun sesq Zeus and semi-sq Pluto). We may vow to right it all–and yet, we can’t account for the influence of the weird, and the way it can make us ‘become’, before we even know it.

Today’s word image is a powerful telescope, fixed on one section of the night sky. We currently have the ability to see and concentrate on a single area of life very intensely, to understand, interpret, and shape it in ways far beyond our usual reach. Find that part of your life where you hold the most powerful sway, and make it whatever you want (please note: this isn’t necessarily the part of your life you most want to change, but the one where you hold all the power and influence).

‘Portrait Of A Lady’ 1890 By William Merritt Chase {{PD}}

“He who hesitates is lost”—-Marcus Porcius Cato

That’s the essence of today, as the Sun parallels Mercury, mimicking a Superior Conjunction with its potential for attention on outcomes and results, Mars parallels Saturn, aligning Will with real-world conditions and urging action to affect them, and Saturn quincunxes Ceres, suggesting that with adjustment of our personal authority, our relationship to external authorities, and the ways in which we look to command the reality picture, we can make a deep and powerful impression on our environment, our circumstances, and our status or position. To hesitate is to lose our place in the beneficial flow of Universal energy. Today it’s be ‘in the groove’ or outside it, nose pressed to the glass, looking in.

We also see yesterday’s Venus-Neptune conjunction echoed in today’s parallel between them, both prolonging the ideal Love scenario and pushing it below consciousness; rather than being quite so literal in our seeking, we are now yearning toward that idealized state, whether we realize it or not. The quincunx of Venus to the North Node says that we may feel we need to modify our values, our associations, and/ or our financial circumstances, in order to honor our goals and the road ahead. As I said yesterday, “Dream in ideal terms, but ground steps taken in real-world channels that can give ideas and fantasies form”; aspects for the 22nd offer the perfect vehicle for this, one that will be a highly accurate reflection of the relationship between you and the world you live in.

‘At Sea – Soldier Playing a Guitar’ 1941 By Ronald Searle {{PD}}

Today’s word image is a guitar, long unplayed. You’re not using some instrument at your disposal, and it could enhance your expression. What talent or skill have you neglected, that now needs to be ‘picked up’ once again?

Wacław Szymanowski 1891 {{PD}}

There’s a big promise in that title, isn’t there? We all long for what we consider ‘ideal Love’; the problem is, everyone’s picture of ‘ideal’ is different, so that pairing the purity of the Love concept with something as subjective as what one considers flawless is a sure recipe for disappointment, if only because perfection doesn’t exist (though it can seem to, particularly if we keep our viewpoint narrow, and so mislead us into believing it’s possible). Venus conjoins Neptune in Pisces today, promising that perfect state of Love, or some other idealized or dreamed of condition, especially as it may apply to relationships or finances–but we need to be aware that Venus also contra-parallels Sedna and parallels Zeus, implying we may be shutting out instinct in favor of ambitions and desires, figuratively ignoring our own warning signals and effectively indulging in wishful dreaming. In essence we’re then doubling the ‘want’ factor, making us much more vulnerable to deception or to investing in something hollow or non-existent.

Is there anything wrong with dreaming and hoping? Of course not, but when we pursue the fantasy while willfully denying our innate instinctual knowledge (or while insisting on ignoring our own ‘blind spot’ material–which we may or may not be conscious of, the latter possible if we ignore feedback), we risk potential gains and certainly risk loss: of assets as well as our connection to reality. Dream in ideal terms, but ground steps taken in real-world channels that can give ideas and fantasies form (Mercury parallel Hygeia and sextile Saturn). As a matter of practicality, expect to adjust the mental approach and/ or the diet in terms that offer you authority over and responsibility for yourself–flare-ups of allergies or other autoimmune conditions or digestive issues may alert us to this need. Connecting at this time with your own sense of autonomy and agency can be your best guide through a dense, obscuring, and highly appealing Neptunian fog (Mercury quincunx Ceres).

Photo by guaca https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Guaca Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Today’s word image is a crossword puzzle, the answers to which don’t seem to mesh together as they should. Well there’s only one issue here, perhaps one the crossword solver has ignored: they’ve answered incorrectly. Is there a situation in your life that you’re sure you have the answers to, that you’ve even, speaking in crossword terms, filled in the boxes of in ink? Are you now surprised to find things aren’t working? It may seem inexplicable, but it’s not: you’ve made assumptions somewhere along the way that are not right–time to lightly and with a fresh eye review your tracks, and make corrections–the situation won’t go forward, or operate correctly, until you do.

Thank you, readers!

‘A Friendly Call’ By William Merritt Chase 1894 {{PD}}

What we choose not to know today won’t hurt us–in fact, it will make us act more practically or wisely than we might have otherwise–but it could undermine our healthier inclinations, or could create some tortured reasoning around desire and ambition fulfillment. We could engage in smart choices we almost immediately regret or see the short-comings of; could indicators be more at odds with themselves? Probably not. Likely results in a day where we don’t make any major problems for ourselves–we may actually put a few beneficial conditions in place–but in the end may feel frustrated and would rather write-off the whole thing as a wash (Hygeia semi-sq and Pallas trine Black Moon Lilith, Mercury sesq Zeus and semi-sq Pluto).

Rain Drenched Bird, Photo By Bhaskar.albert – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21043391

Today’s word image is a bedraggled bird finds shelter from the rain under the eaves.What wild and free-flying impulse or desire do you have that might need a little caring-for, a little protection, right now? Shelter that spontaneity and desire to ‘fly high’; it’s of great Soul-value, and losing it can begin an unwinding of the life force, a lessening of desire, initiation of an unfortunate kind of spiritual retreat.

‘Great Generals of the Desert and the Spirits of Grasses and Trees Who Dwell in the Void of Water and Land’ Ming dynasty, 15th century {{PD}}

Our actions and choices create the future, as they always do (Mars trine NN) but today, unlike most days, we can trust them completely. We accept our role in this creation, accept our power to effect it, and have integrated inner wisdom, a sense of practicality, and awareness of those things we have ignored or denied, so that our efforts are fully informed, and so completely healthy expressions of our Beingness and intents (Venus sxt Black Moon Lilith, parallel Juno, sxt Pallas, semi-sq Uranus, Sun parallel Hygeia).

Paperweight, glass art from Gozo, Malt. Photo By Edwinb CC0

Today’s word image is this: you hold a glass paperweight in your hand, thinking it is filled with colorful swirls, until you look more closely and see that it actually depicts _________ . That’s your Rorschach test for today.