We are in for a very big month, even by 2020-2021 standards, with some nightmarish constellations and some absolutely brilliant ones as well. It’s going to be quite a juggle for all of us!

With the Sun now in Virgo, we have some time for slowing things up, getting more grounded and taking the time to fall back into the simple intelligence of healthy routine. Make the most of these quiet moments, as we need to keep ourselves stabilised at this time of enormous flux on multiple levels.

The Saturn Uranus Square which has been putting all of us under maximum stress for many months now, is backing off a little this month to give us some more breathing space, offering time to review what structures in our world that need to go, while identifying which ones still offer a strong, valid foundation to build anew on.

As we’ll see, Neptune and Pluto continue to be big players, while the dark goddesses are raising their collective heads to demand our ongoing attention to the bigger issues. In support of those are the great healers Chiron, Hygeia and Hekate, while Jupiter rules from on high (especially in the Australian chart!)

Sun conjunct Hygeia in Virgo trining Uranus in Taurus

Hygeia here straightaway highlights this month as one of potentially great healing, especially if we are able to draw from the deep sacred feminine within our own bodies and within the earth. As we all know, Virgo has many associations with health and healing and at the deepest level is an awesome earth priestess. These connections are highlighted and deepened by this deceptively sweet and subtle goddess, who is also a great purifier of toxic shadow energies and, a tantric priestess who can initiate us with orgasmic, whole-body healing experiences.

There is great Shakti available here, especially if we can call upon spiritual and therapeutic practices that create space for the healing intelligence within our bodies to surface, romp and release. An exact trine from Hygeia to Uranus electrifies the very same potential while supporting us to break through and away from redundant and rigid spiritual practices, structures and mindsets, especially those that have not integrated the sacred feminine in all her wild and liberating power.

In Indian culture, Hygeia is very close to Lalita Devi, the gorgeous goddess of sacred sexuality and a consort of Shiva*, one of the highest expressions of the sacred masculine. Part yogi, part wild man, part tantric master, Shiva’s asteroid is in Scorpio and in close sextile to the lovely Lalita/Hygeia, one expression of the sacred marriage and of the potency of a Shiva Shakti union.

As those of you who have significant Virgo in your charts will know, there is a great deal of sexual ambivalence within the sign and a wide dichotomy of expression, between the containment of celibacy all the way to liberating promiscuity.

Somewhere in the middle of this is a quiet and yet awesomely powerful priestess who knows the mysteries of sacred sexuality and its relationship to healing. Hygeia/Lalita is an expression of the very same. Her presence in Virgo pulls us into these mysterious, magical and juicy places!

She also calls down the electricity of the Uranian sky god into the earth, and with both connected to the movement of kundalini energy, their meeting turns up the voltage moving through our chakras and nervous systems.

Virgo Sun squaring Juno conjunct South Node in Sagittarius, trining Parvati in Taurus

As the traditional goddess of marriage Juno has been on the South Node for many months now and I have written about her placement in earlier newsletters about its general theme; the revisiting of relationship dynamics influenced by the parental marriage in this lifetime and, in the case of the South Node, by our past life history around this queen of committed relationship. I’ve been saying to people, don’t be surprised if past relationships have been spontaneously reappearing in your consciousness, whether in dreams, meditations or in your inner vision.

Whatever the case, most of us have a fair amount of unravelling and unpacking to do around this territory to find out what are our authentic needs for quality relationship.

The Virgo Sun squaring this is about reconstructing a deeper level of psychic containment, where our individuality is not as dependent on the quality of our relationships. Obviously, the presence of Hygeia next to the Sun offers a deeper pathway of relationship evolution and this is beautifully reinforced by a flowing trine with the goddess of the sacred marriage Parvati. This latter goddess can be seen as both a more mature version of Lalita and, a more spiritually and psychologically powerful extension of Juno.

Here we get to access an aspect of the goddess that gives us the commitment, the discipline and the staying power for preparing for, and sustaining, high-quality relationship.

Virgo Sun squaring Black Moon, North Node, Ceres and Persephone in Gemini

Here is another reason why the goddesses are so powerful this month! Traditionally orientated astrologers who don’t work with the asteroids completely miss out on this important information.

Anybody that crosses the visionary North Node of the Moon, however fleetingly, gives us clues about what kind of future unfolds as a consequence of how we respond to present challenges.

Unfortunately, having two goddesses of intense purification, death and rebirth and, an earth goddess who goes through unspeakable suffering from the loss of her child is all too obviously playing out on the planet at the moment.

With the Sun squaring these, coming from the midpoint between the South Node and North Node reinforces the profound truth that we are at a major turning point in our life on this planet.

There is still much darkness to endure and deal with as best we can but I reminded of a vision that the mystic scholar Andrew Harvey shared at a 2007 conference on shamanism and sacred sexuality. The Great Mother appeared to him, initially showing him the devastation that would happen on the planet as a consequence of our actions and inactions, particularly if we continue to devalue both the deep feminine and the earth as Mother.

Then she turned her head in the other direction to show him the possibility of a profound rebirth that would come if we are willing to work with the goddess, where the challenges of the next decades would be seen as the birthing pains of this great new beginning.

Working with the goddess is not simply some light and love new age adventure but the hard work spiritually and psychologically of healing the distortions to the deep sacred feminine, otherwise known as the dark goddesses, while dismantling patriarchal structures and detoxifying aspects of the masculine that have become so equally destructive.

Paradoxically, there is also tremendous support for this deconstruction and reconstruction operating at the same time as these intense squares to the Virgo Sun.

Grand Trines between the Mercury/Medusa conjunction, Kali* conjunct Saturn in Aquarius and the Black Moon, North Node, Ceres and Persephone conjunction in Gemini!

Mercury Conjunct Medusa in Virgo/Libra

At the very end of Virgo, the fierce Medusa conjuncts Mercury in the 2^nd degree of Libra, a recipe for fiery conversations, cutting through to the raw truth of things and getting more psychologically real about our darker shadows. Like the other dark goddesses, Medusa is a carrier of ancient traumas and toxic rage but she is far more than her simplistic, traditional, and patriarchal, reputation as a vengeful demoness. She is a no bullshit spiritual warrioress, a Tantric Queen and a protectress of the sacred mysteries of the feminine.

Coupled with Mercury, we need to be watchful for this ancient rage and toxicity leaking into our communications, while honouring her tenacious desire for truth, for courageous and honest interactions infused by what can be called sacred outrage. The difference between them is that the former will come through as corrosive and dogmatic bludgeoning, while the latter is clean, surgical and tempered with deep love and compassion, the true face of authentic Medusa lying underneath her protective mask. It takes a lot of purificatory work to transform the former into the latter.

And this purification is speeding up and being demanded of all of us.

Kali* conjunct Saturn in Aquarius

A similar process is reflected in the Saturn Kali conjunction, one that also contains a great deal of inherent friction but one that serves to rub off and polish the more destructive edges of each other. Kali challenges the patriarchal layers of Saturn, while seeking a reunification with the wise old man beneath his culturally derived hardened persona, a union of potentially deep and focused masculine and feminine forms of wisdom, knowledge and power.

Both are committed to facing the real and raw truth of things as the important first step in initiating any real change.

In turn, Saturn has us becoming more conscious of the destructive distortions to Kali’s energies, so that we may take greater responsibility for healing them within ourselves, while developing positive masculine structures in support of Kali’s sacred and transformative knowledge to expressed in this time of great change.

(If the Kali Saturn process sounds similar to that of the Mercury Medusa one, it is no mistake. Medusa can be seen as a Western form of Kali and in fact one of the latter’s faces called Renukal has remarkably similar mythology to that of Medusa, including a beheading!)

And at times, like Kali’s consort Shiva, sometimes the wise and empowered masculine needs to protect the world from the excesses of Kali’s wild power.

The flowing energy of the trine between Saturn Kali and Mercury Medusa puts the two points in a mutually supportive and cohesive relationship that can also be very disciplined and incisive in its actions, while demanding that we access deeper layers of wisdom, clarity and authority in the way we think and in the ways that we put our knowledge and beliefs into action in the world.

In forming the grand trine with all the goddesses on the North Node in Gemini (which is also a kite arrangement if we include the South Node and Juno!) it can allow each of us to get more proactive in moving away from the past, creating better masculine and feminine balances within and, we acting more in sync with the Goddess/North Node call towards a future that incorporates more of the deep sacred feminine.

( * It’s important to point out here that when we refer to Kali, we are referring to both her astrological body, the asteroid 4227, and the archetypal Kali. With great respect to Kali as the Great Mother in Indian culture, the astrological and archetypal Kali is the psychic equivalent of the local Kali Temple within each of us. While no temple can possibly embody the fullness of the goddess, it is our individual access point to the goddess both within and potentially, to Her cosmic form. The same applies to Shiva and his asteroid 1170.)

Mars conjunct Hygeia in Virgo

The very same healing and liberating potentials of Hygeia and Uranus applies to the warrior, action man Mars, who is rather subdued when moving through Virgo but in one of his most focused, grounded and effective transits. While his normally egocentric actions are modified by the service orientation of Virgo, this allows this very masculine energy to be more responsive to the deep and subtle femininity of Hygeia. The warrior can take time out to be softened and healed. And he will need it, to be able to handle the contradictory nature of his other aspects in this month’s chart.

See last month’s newsletter for a fuller description of the Mars/Hygeia union.

Mars opposite a Pallas Athena/Neptune conjunction in Pisces, trining Pluto in Capricorn

His opposition to Pallas has him being challenged by a subtler and more refined feminine warrior, who is operating in the fluid, shape shifting energies of Pisces and accessing levels of emotional intelligence and awareness in ways that are quite foreign to both him and the earthier dimensions of Virgo. It is a bit like having to dual with someone on a boat bobbing around in choppy water and on a big swell!

This can set up scenarios like having your ego drives challenged by a deeper intelligence that requires you to both adapt your position, while surrendering to a more accurate assessment in any situation where you want to exert your goals and desires.

Mars opposite Neptune get even trickier, as it has been known to completely undermine your drive with uncertainty, confusion and nebulous thinking. The transit has also been associated with sudden drains on your energy, psychic attacks and debilitating illnesses, including hard to deal with things like chronic fatigue. Obviously, this is not good timing considering the current wave of the coronavirus!

Given the amount of collective psychic exhaustion, fear and anxiety, it’s important for all of us to take really good care of our physical bodies, especially our immune systems. This also applies to our psychic bodies, as Neptune can heighten our psychic sensitivity to collective energies in a way that makes it all too easy to absorb. Regular meditation, and the consistent use of the subtler mechanisms of psychic protection visualisations, flower essences and aurasoma are ways of protecting ourselves. Getting back into the natural environment, if at all possible, is another great way of responding to these potential threats of our physical and emotional health.

From a broader perspective, these Mars transits are aimed at getting the masculine warrior in greater alignment with deeper emotional, spiritual and creative forces. In more worldly sense, this highlights the need for all of us to review our life goals, our work lives, how we go about attempting to achieve things,  and the ways we treat our physical bodies in the process.

Mars trining Pluto in Capricorn

One of the many paradoxes of this month, considering the above, is that here we have a transit of great forward movement, one that allows us to get our conscious will in alignment with the powers of authentic transformation, whether within ourselves psychologically and spiritually or, projected out into the world.

It sets up situations where we can be very effective in some ways and completely ineffectual in others, all at the same time. The Mars Pluto empowers us as change agents, so where we have real clarity around the need for change in lives, this transit encourages us to go for it.

How effective these changes are in the long run however, is related to how psychologically astute we are when we act. Pluto always calls us into deeper layers of self-awareness, which includes getting to know our shadow energies well and, doing what we can therapeutically and spiritually to work such territory that sabotages our abilities to bring our authentic selves into the world. It calls upon us to listen to the deeper callings of our soul purposes or life missions.

We can do some really good work here, this month! With Uranus, Hygeia, Pallas and Neptune changing the way this part of the masculine works, offering more integration with the feminine, with right brain consciousness, with the intuitive and mystical worlds, it can put us in an awesome situation of being able to make deep internal changes that are then directly impact our ability to serve the needs of transformation in the outer world.

Venus in Libra conjunct Vesta, opposite Lilith and Hekate, trine Jupiter in Aquarius and Square Pluto!

Venus is getting a similar work over to that of her mate and consort Mars, with a contradictory mix of challenges, grace and change.

Firstly, Venus is very much at home in Libra, at her loving, gracious, diplomatic and social best. The love of beauty, harmony and balance in Libra sits very well with her. However, as with the other air signs, she tends to be more cerebral and lightweight here and not that connected to her rawer, more instinctual sexual self. And this will be the source of some conflict this month, as she and we, get confronted with two often rejected parts of the primal feminine.

She does however have some deep stabilising support from the priestess Vesta, an earthing goddess of psychic containment, good boundaries and quiet depth. And she will need it! (Vesta, by the way, is also a good antidote to some of the co-dependency tendencies of both Venus and Libra)

Lilith and Hekate is a frightfully powerful combination of fierce feminist warriors, especially in Aries, two tantric, healing and witchlike Queens and carriers of ancient forms of trauma, pain and rage. In squaring Pluto, they are both in the middle of their own transformations and purifications, which can bring up the darkest energies while simultaneously being gifted a grace filled sextile to the benevolent Jupiter.

(The T-square between Venus, Pluto and the Hekate/Lilith conjunction reflects much of what is happening in Afghanistan at the moment, particularly for girls and women. My heart feels too broken to be able to write anything more about it at the moment)

In opposing Venus, how they operate in us individually is entirely dependent on how much inner work, psychologically and spiritually, we’ve done with releasing the darker distortions to these goddesses, while reclaiming them consciously and in our hearts.

If they are more in their unhealed and reactive modes, this will present great challenges and potential upheavals in our relationships. Lilith tends to carry the residues of the rejection of the intelligence, potency and individuality of women in our pasts, our ancestry and our past life records. Hekate is similar and yet there is more specific trauma around the persecution of wise women, healers and midwives in those records.

As these residues surface in the course of purification and releasing, they can arise in forms of seemingly bottomless grief, great emotional and often physical pain and, tremendous rage.

The challenge for us and for Venus in Libra is to not turn away and further reject these voices, the validity of their feelings and their cries for cooperative health and healing and reclamation.

If we’ve done enough, and this can take literally years of work, they will show us their fiercely loving, juicy and transformative faces. Whatever the case, both layers are likely to surface and, if this territory is new for you, then this is a good time to start on this deeper journey. If you get onside with them, as their distortions progressively get released, they can completely change your life.

This is one of those times of great potential healing, particularly with Pluto and Jupiter in aspect and against the backdrop of this being a month filled with the healing and purificatory energies of Hygeia.

They will also have some awesome input for your sex life is well!

Go well with that!

With love and blessings,