The Sun’s weekend sesquiquadrate to Jupiter has got me thinking: how much is too much? I think wherever and whatever the transiting Sun is touching in your natal chart is the arena where you’ll be examining this question. With a Leo Moon we will be in the mood to look at how things stand and how much of a drain on our essence they are. Juno sextiles Vesta, making it easy to measure empowerment v. what’s truly important, what we dedicate our lives to, and with Mars moving toward conjunction with Pallas, we’re open to the wise move (or at least, this weekend, to planning for it). Saturn is close enough to h. Zeus that we can subdue our basest desires and tone down our ambitions and this means we don’t have any problem keeping what’s truly in our best interests in the forefront as we make choices and, I hope, have a little fun.

Have you seen the commercial with the baby in the walker speeding along to the Melanie song, ‘Brand New Key’? I totally enjoy both the baby and the song, a particular favorite from my youth. It tells a story, but it’s arguable what that story is; the ‘I’ of the song is certainly independent, but is she a little loopy? “I ride my bike, I roller skate, don’t drive no car/ don’t go too fast but I go pretty far”According to Wikipedia and other sources, Melanie was born February 3, 1947 in Astoria, New York. Unfortunately we don’t have a time, but we can look at the planets, and extrapolate, since Melanie herself wrote the song–and the independent, free-wheeling (ha!) vibe of the song is a perfect expression of her four Aquarius (Mars/ Pallas/ Sun/ Mercury) and her three Sag placements (South Node, Juno, Venus) showing independence and the ‘go’ urge. But then I wonder: is she a bit stalker-ish, or is she just expressing herself? “I asked your mother if you were at home/ she said yes, but you weren’t alone/ oh, sometimes I think that you’re avoiding me/ I’m okay alone but you’ve got something I need” If one person’s actually avoiding another, they usually either feel threatened or don’t want to deal with the other person’s crazy. Melanie’s Saturn is over in Leo, opposed the Sun and Mars– pride might keep this person from going all fan-boy on someone–but there’s also opposition to that Sun from three more Leo placements: h. Zeus, Earth, and Pluto. Hmm. Depth, intensity, passion, and the material–so Melanie can certainly put herself into the place held by the persona of the song, and imagine a girl obsessed with someone. With her Cancer Moon, Melanie is an empathizer–and her ability to see such a specific viewpoint, along with her musical talent (Sun trine Neptune) gave us this charming song.

The new ECLIPSE should be available at some point this weekend, and offers articles on Venus and likeability, Jupiter and the social urge, the Earth Houses in the natal chart and the way we ‘ground’ ourselves, and features a great article on the US natal chart and the ‘then is now’ echo of history by the great political astrologer Jude Cowell; plus a fantastic, exclusive three-month forecast by Karen of Ravenesque! Includes access to a private page here at the blog that will contain an ongoing forecast from me, and charts, articles, and discussion. I’m centralizing forecast materials that used to be scattered between the magazine and this blog–you all know about the recent theft dramas–and I am by no means the only astrologer to suffer these–I know I’m disappointing some, but I had to decide how much is too much, for my own peace of mind. From now on most posts will be something like the paragraphs above–short and, I hope, sweet.

Have a great one!