Blog
by Steven Forrest
Light soon returns to the world. Hallelujah, hallelujah . . . but you have heard it all before and it’s not exactly shocking news. Of course I am talking about the Winter Solstice. And you might be yawning already. You don’t have to be an astrologer to know that the season of ever-lengthening nights is now about to turn. Yet, buried beneath the veil of numbing familiarity, this yearly turning of the tide of light still holds some riddles for us.
For us in the northern hemisphere, the coldest parts of winter still lie ahead, but at least there’s a reason for hope. As the eloquent jazz pianist, Bill Evans, put it, “You must believe in Spring.” If you are in the snow-belt, there’s a lyric to tape to your refrigerator! Even here in the southern California desert where I live, I am looking forward to the days getting longer again. Who can reflect even for ten seconds on the notion of “the return of the light” without a little whisper of optimism arising? Who can think of it without hope?
by Steven Forrest
If you have been watching the evening sky this year, you’ve witnessed a lovely minuet of bright-eyed Venus and much dimmer Mars. They’ve pulled apart since their spectacular conjunction last February, but they are now racing back toward one another’s arms. Their final embrace will happen on November 2, in just about exactly 24°Virgo. Over the next four weeks, on their way to that happy rendezvous, the two planets first do a line-dance with Neptune and then a sexy slow dance with Jupiter—two events in the heavens whose fingertips we will all feel in our intimate lives.
Most of my language here in this newsletter will reflect the classic Mars-Venus terrain of intimacy in a “partnering” sense of the word. But really, these configurations have broader meaning, affecting all of our various relationships. With just a little translation, all that we explore here is relevant to those kinds of connections too. Even if you are single, there are people you love. You also probably think about relationship—and these planetary patterns will underlie your thoughts and meditations.
by Steven Forrest
In pop astrology, Jupiter is celebrated as the lucky planet. So if you are a Virgo, lucky you! Jupiter enters Virgo on August 11. And all you Leos better drink up because your year of glory is drawing to a close. Jupiter’s sweep through Virgo will run for about thirteen months, finally bringing sunshine to all the world’s Librans starting on September 9, 2016.
We will have deeper things to say, fear not! But for a moment, let’s contemplate the phenomenon of plain dumb luck. Who knows what that wild card signifies in the larger scheme of the universe? Is it random—as simple as saying “every dog has his day?” Is it good karma coming home to roost? That’s my own guess—I’ve never had much faith in the “random universe” model. But whatever dumb luck’s origins may be, it’s a real phenomenon. We all recognize it when we see it. And when it raises its lovely head in your life, there’s a good chance that Jupiter has stepped into the spotlight of your chart.
Transiting Pluto is sitting right smack on my Sun. The “god of hell,” right up my nose. And yet, despite all doomsayers, I am still alive. When I was a young astrologer, I might have seen that transit coming and bet anyone five dollars that it would kill me. That was my training. I would have lost five dollars too.
Funny how fear gets in one’s blood as we learn astrology. There’s so much of it out there. Many of my private clients come to me knowing a little bit of about the planets—enough to be dangerous. I mention an upcoming transit of Pluto or Saturn in their charts and they grow pale, as if it’s some kind of death sentence. As most of you know, I constantly preach against that kind of astrology. Am I immune to the fear? I’ve got a student who adds a cool little colophon to her emails—“Start listening to your own lectures.” That’s a good reminder . . . for me, as much as for the rest of us.
I love planets in so-called “detriment.” Take Mars, for example. It’s not normally viewed as the most cooperative of planets, but just look how nice it is being to me. Right on schedule for this April newsletter, on March 31, it leaves Aries and enters Taurus—the sign of its detriment—where it will remain until May 11. How convenient! This gives me a chance to write about one of my favorite topics, which is underscoring how unintentionally poisonous to our clients some of our conventional astrological language can be. One out of every twelve of us is born with Mars in Taurus. How does such a person feel when he or she hears the word “detriment?” Ditto of course for anyone born with Mars in Libra, its other sign of “debility?” Words such as those can’t bring good news, huh?
This kind of astrological language conveys the notion of a weakness or a flawed condition that is inherent one’s chart. It disempowers people. It helps no one. And, to me, words like “detriment” and “debility” simply represent bad astrological theory.
