‘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?