Given how intense the collective astrological climate has been for months, it was a pleasure to be able to write about more obviously positive line-ups. However, it is not the full story and here I can blame the lack of space in my column for not including more of the tougher aspects.

Saturn squaring the Neptune, Eros, Medusa, Pallas Athena conjunction

This conjunction is such an unusual mix of energies which I am still trying to get my head around. Neptune around Eros at its best links our spirituality with the youthful playfulness and eroticism of the God of love but at its worst, speaks of the shadowy side of seduction and dark expressions of sexual energy, especially if distorted versions of Medusa’s energy adds  savagery have invaded this psychically fluid space.

In turn Medusa is surrounded by traditional enemies; Eros as a flighty and enragingly elusive masculinity on one side and Pallas, a goddess who tends to side with the masculine and who betrays Medusa a number of times in their joint mythology. They do not sound like happy campers!

However inherent in this combination are great opportunities for purification, the psychic flushing of ancient residues that can make way for a degree of unification between them all.

Neptune tends to open things up psychically, which can encourage Medusa to take off her enraged mask and allow her true potency to arise; one which connects the beauty of Eros with the tantric depths of the sacred feminine, which adds tremendous Shakti to the mystical upper chakra expressions of Neptune and empowers the incredibly subtle warrior and healing intelligence of Pallas Athena. In doing so, Medusa is freer to show her incredible depth of all accepting love, tantric passion and clear boundaries, something much-needed in the Neptune fluidity of Pisces.

I describe these as opportunities, however with Saturn squaring all of them, it is more like imperatives. Saturn in Sagittarian demands greater consciousness around the shadow aspects of this combination, with a fierce focus on each of us taking responsibility for working with that shadow, which includes the misuse of spiritual and sexual power in this lifetime and others.

And providing support for the complex task of unifying these seemingly conflictual archetypes, which includes linking lower chakra energies (Medusa) with the solar plexus (Pallas), heart (Eros),  throat and third eye (Pallas again) and crown chakras (Neptune).

It would be lovely if this was as clear as it sounds, but with Saturn squaring Neptune exactly, we have to expect a degree of turbulence, uncertainty and chaotic fluidity as their different realities systems collide.

This is another reason why it is so fortunate that the month begins with a grounding Moon in Taurus, and one that conjuncts Hecate, an aspect of self that has the skills to handle the complexity of such constantly shifting territory.

Chiron in Pisces opposite Hygeia in Virgo

Chiron the wounded healer is now stationary at 25° Pisces, slowly turning to head back into the depths of Pisces, while Hygeia, this goddess of healing, is preparing to enter the sign of Libra. So we are having the last of the Chiron/Hygeia oppositions that started in January 2015, winds which have escalated the healing imperatives and possibilities of this time. (Those of you who are currently having your Chiron returns, at around 49 to 50 years of age, will be getting this double dose of healing power coursing through your systems!)

Once again, despite the opposition, in lining up with each other they offer tremendous support for all our healing and spiritual processes, as these great healers are very close to the surface and therefore any quality healing practice will bear additional fruit at times like this.

In these last five years Chiron has his robust and skilful masculinity into the fluid realms of Pisces, supporting the recovery of our original psychic and spiritual sensitivity and, reversing the desensitisation and anaesthetisation process that kicked in for most of us as small children.

While in this last 18 months, Hygeia has been empowering the priestess energies at the core of Virgo, while encouraging more letting go, allowing and trust in the inherent healing intelligence of our bodies. As a kundalini goddess, she works best when we can drop out of our minds and trust the power of the sacred feminine to romp through us to produce deep and ecstatic releases.

Inherent in this transit has been a lot of sexual healing, particularly as Hygeia is a Western equivalent of Lalita Devi, the Hindu goddess of sacred sexuality. In this respect she connects us to the purity and sweetness of our sexual energies, while flushing out trauma, shame and tendencies towards sex addiction.

So it is last opposition a final blast from their unified field of healing energy reworking the Virgo/Pisces balance in all of our charts.

Kali conjunct North Node in Virgo

Any archetype that crosses the North Node is giving us a preview of what’s in store for the future, both our collective future as well as adding to our personal visions, those deeper ones that come from our very souls, in the areas of whichever astrological house this conjunction in mid-Virgo falls in.

For virtually the whole of these first six months of the year, we have had Jupiter and Hygeia conjunct the North Node, reflecting a possible future based on more gracious and liberating ways of being and living, but also incorporate more of the sacred and healing power of the feminine. (You can only got to go on Facebook to see how many postings there are around alternative energy sources, building materials, communities and resources sustainability, for instance)

And now of the mighty Kali crosses the North Node which calls for a number of tasks

• Instead of relying on traditional and limited beliefs about the nature of Kali energy, to research deeper into the essence of this expression of the great mother. Like Medusa, who is equally misunderstood, these goddesses are critical for us breaking through the bullshit, unconsciousness and denial of our social, political and economic structures.
• Whether through meditation, dance, experiential astrology and other goddess practices, get to know Kali as a profoundly beautiful and loving energy who is also a fierce protectress.
• To understand and call upon her as a great ally in our spiritual and healing journeys, especially for blasting open old karmic locks.
• For anyone really serious about the tantric journey, you must know and work with Kali, as she is at the core of our naturally tantric sexuality. When we talking about tantra in this instance, we are not talking about intimacy practices, prolonging lovemaking or notching up numbers of orgasms (however wonderful these are!) but about the necessary purifications and transformations that must take place in order to be able to live from an authentically tantric place within i.e. the internal union of sacred masculine and feminine.
• Kali is the driver behind our deepest evolutionary urges and as such is our guide as we travel through the necessary psychic and emotional deaths, that she also produces, in preparation for true rebirth, a process that she presides over simultaneously.
• As part of the natural goddess trilogy in Indian Tantric practices, when Kali awakes in her glory, the energies of Lalita Devi and of Parvati, the goddesses of sacred sexuality and the sacred marriage, operate more freely and more ecstatically

So Kali on the North Node reinforces the core drives of tantric evolution and describes the rightful place of sacred sexuality in our individual and collective futures.

This is a brilliant time then, along with the Shiva Parvati conjunction, for great work towards this vision.

Go well!