Hello, kittens (said in my best Dame Edna voice–for the uninitiated, it’s reminiscent of Julia Child), I hope the eclipse was kind to you. Remember, our eclipse picture sets a tone for the coming six months or so, through to the next eclipse set–and of course, the eclipse of last Saturday was only the first salvo, with the Solar eclipse still to come on July 11th. Before then we will definitely hit a rough patch (already described in ECLIPSE)–what I can say to those of you who don’t partake in the magazine is that the 3rd of July is definitely the day to watch.

You’ll notice over the coming few weeks that the blogroll will steadily shrink. It used to be my desire to provide links to as many great (or good) blogs and sites as possible. I like to change it up, though, as you know from my constantly changing template for this blog, and now I’ll be winnowing out those who lack reciprocal energy of some kind. There’s no malice involved, just a desire to spotlight those with whom I’m more actively engaged, as now the roll is just too long to really give due attention to friends and colleagues; some blogs and sites will remain if, even though they don’t link to me, I have a specific reason to feel gratitude toward the individual(s) involved. If I remove your blog or site and you do have a link to this site, please let me know and I’ll re-list you immediately  🙂

Today is of course the Superior Conjunction of Mercury and the Sun, the Superior being the meeting that occurs when Mercury is direct. This should bring a wrap-up to some seed event or development that began concurrent with the Inferior Conjunction of Mercury and the Sun, during Merc’s retro period (the last Inferior Conjunction happened on April 28th). Even if you can’t pinpoint a specific event this refers to, you should be able to apply the intention of drawing something to a close to which you’ve been applying your energy. The influence allows us to wrap things up nicely, with less effort than we might have to make at other times.

Today is also a meeting of Mars and Vesta in Virgo. Our intrepid pair trine the North Node and sextile Juno, and give us the energy, stamina, foresight, and sense of competency to tackle whatever we like. We are able to see what’s important and apply ourselves very effectively–the Moon in Aquarius helps with mental acuity and focus. Take matters into your own hands, and access your best judgment–if you feel foggy just think about things for a second–it’ll all come clear.

There’s a Fist of God with apex Venus, base of Jupiter and Pluto, forcing our attention toward the ways in which we can expand our power base (and this may take a subtle form, for instance, where we look for ways to feel more personally empowered, to raise our level of impact on our surroundings). How do we do it? Through taking a loving approach, through relationships, through referencing values, through respecting assets. It’s an opportunity to do well and do good, at the same time, if you get my drift.

2-6 AM-ish PDT on the 29th the Moon trines Zeus and quincunxes the Juno/ South Node exact conjunction. This brings a period when the emotional need to ‘best’ others may come forward in the less mature among us, while for the rest it may bring emotional desires from the past to the surface, and these will likely concern some form of feeling empowered. We may be strolling down memory lane wishing for a do-over, as what we know now makes us wish for then–use the impulse to get some perspective on why things went as they did, and be gentle with yourself–if you’d known then what you know now, you wouldn’t be where you are now, would you? And we’d all miss you.

Notice the Saturn/ Neptune quincunx and the way this stirs things up, via the Moon as it approaches Neptune. Contact doesn’t actually occur until the 30th, but my sense is that we may feel this coming–Neptune reaches out with foggy fingers and brings some emotional insight into our feelings about whatever we’re perceiving as a restriction or constraint right now–what we need to remember is that our perception of the Saturnian restraint may be muddled, delusional, or misinterpreted, and that means we could work ourselves up in what turns out to be a ‘wrong’ direction. Try to remember that at present the entire picture might not be available to us, so we should just relax and ease into the Void, beginning 3:03 PM on the 30th.

If you’d like to be prepared for July, and the upcoming Solar eclipse, look no further than here http://dogandsunflower.wordpress.com/new-eclipse-spring-2010/

Update: I’ve already had an amazing amount of blowback to my email (not the comments here), some of whom approve of the trimming of the list, and some of whom are outraged that I’m doing it. What amazes me is that others even have an opinion–after all, isn’t it my option to list as many or as few links as I like? For me, trimming the list is an affirmation of positive relationships–but I should already know that when you choose to re-claim your energy from draining venues, psychic or material, or even just from being spread too thin, some will object. My question is, do any of these people complain about the lack of links on other sites? I’m guessing not.