Astro Bel Times 2010

 All divination is personal, even the planetary, and these over lighting general trends are themes that you yourself explore thru your choices and thru your own lenses and birth map. These general trends are not as comprehensive or accurate as a personal reading regarding your own birth chart and it’s unfolding thru the choices you make in your own life. You are responsible for your own fate, which is changeable yet influenced by many factors. Remember who you are!
Astrology works on many levels and we can peel back the layers to reveal ever-deeper aspects of ourselves and the truth of our being. If you would like to have a more in depth reading of how these and other planetary transits are affecting you, contact me, Mark S. McNutt, for a personal reading.

Aaah, the Bel times – flowers, green life, fragrances, and pollen – tells us that the Earth Mother Gaia is working up to a new season here in the Northern Hemisphere.  A renewal of life and growth.  What is it that you wish to intend or accomplish this season?  What mysteries are you ready to unravel? 

Beltane is the celebration of spring at the midpoint and strongest at Full Moon, usually celebrated around May 1st.  It is an age-old celebration of the renewal of life incorporated thru Ostara by Christianity as the resurrection of the light of the world (Christ).  It has existed since before time was noticed, and is stimulated by our blood and bones. 

Astrological Update for mid-April – mid-May: Begins with New Moon in Aries 4/13.

Aries stimulates new beginnings and inspiration, when the fires of our very being ignite into action and bold new endeavors.  Shortly after the New Moon, the Sun enters Taurus, an earth sign.  (4/19 9:30pm PDT – West Coast time).  This will serve to ground this excited energy, putting the fire in the fireplace of our physical bodies and gardens.  The aspects coming up are great for new love and spontaneous opportunities, things going well as long as they are not “planned to death” by the enthusiasm of getting fired up.  Expect an over abundant full plate that will settle into a forward flow by the end of the month of April.  The Full Moon on 4/28 (5:30 am PDT) brings much creativity to a head at Lunar Beltane.  Love and sensuality are now very much on the menu – and hopefully the residue of Retrograde Mars will have played out dramatically and fully by this time.  If not, and depending on your individual map and choices (i.e. Karmic patterns), Mars can dramatically come back briefly to bite you with past residue until the middle of May – end of lunar cycle.  Forgiveness is always a great strategy here.  Mercury begins its next Retrograde 4/17 until 5/12.  Most people, particularly those mentally identified and intellectually based, have a hard time with this passage. It is often a time of communications breakdown, computer failure, and mental lack of clarity.  It is interesting to note that while computers and most of their operators don’t believe in Astrology, they often ignorantly suffer its predictable effects.  Do it right away, and be clear in your communications and agreements, or suffer the consequences.  

Also, those of us who were born with Retrograde Mercury become very focused at this time and mentally clear, yet experience the mental meltdown and unclarity of others.  Avoid signing contracts in most cases, as the information provided may be faulty.  What is Retrograde Mercury good for?  Any Retrograde is a necessary exhale and unwind.  Mercury Retrograde unwinds the mind from previous ideas, thots and limitations.  So it inspires intuition, creative problem solving, and heightened sensory awareness.  Personally, I find that going on with any issue or interaxtion. It can provide insight and clarity thru intuition – but that is a Retrograde Mercury in Pisces speaking. 

Now, on to the Saturn situation.  Saturn has recently slipped backwards thru Retrograde into Virgo.  This Retrograde which occurs for five months each year (this time mid-Jan – thru end of May) seems to have a strong impact on business, commitment, and grounding over time.  Patience (probably lacking while the Sun is in Aries) is certainly good advice for the short term, until the end of May.  Saturn is once again about to oppose Uranus, like a game of ping pong with planets.  For more information, see past Astro Blogs, since this occurred last year and will again occur later this year.  I call this aspect “business as unusual” , and it can really stir things up, as it is an interplay of traditions and innovation, habit and change, assumptions and surprise, and strongly affects how business is done and the results.  It is primarily about revolution and was central in the 1960’s to the Civil and Womyns’ Rights Movements, the ‘Summer of Love’, and cultural innovation and renewal, and many changes in government and how we collectively view society.  This was repeated and came into focus over forty years later thru Obama’s election and related expectations.  Uranian aspects are full of contradixions such as Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize as he initiates a troop surge in Afghanistan, and the Health Care legislation, including the surprise loss of Ted Kennedy’s long held Democratic Senate seat, etc.  This morning, I awoke to news of the Goldman Sachs indictment, scruteinizing the loss of boundaries in how business is being done and how this affects us all..  That is Uranus acting on Saturn, while the conservative tea party etc. counter-revolution is Saturn acting on Uranus.  We can expect the next election in the Fall to be as unpredictable and very different from whatever assumptions we hold as truths now. 

Jupiter, abundance and in the dreamy sign Pisces, briefly oppose Saturn 5/17/28.  More on this next month.  Keep dreaming, keep doing.  On a humyn personal level, Saturn has moved back into Virgo.  Your personal determination and motivation now could have a great long term outcome, as long as you address the details and loose ends.  Expect unexpected results in all you do, and free yourself from the limitations of logic and likelihood, as this will confound your safe assumptions.  Find place in the excitement of free fall, and take axion to live your dreams.  Blessings on your journey.   

Mark S. McNutt has been practicing and teaching Astrology since becoming professionally certified in 1972,after being a young prodigy in these arts. Mark is available for personal readings and tutoring by phone, mail, or in person. He is also available  for group classes and presentations by arrangement. He can be reached at 541-964-5341.
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