I have noticed in the collective that while there is still a fair amount of confusion and anxiety about what to do next, on other levels there does appear to be a bit more traction around getting things moving as well.

So, it’s not quite the time for dancing with joy, although we can have some fantastic moments of that, Saturn and Pluto are still very close (within a degree and a half of each other) and while separating, they will come back to a final parting greeting in September/October when they both go direct motion at 22 to 25°.

Expect then, more of the alchemical flux around the deconstruction/reconstruction cycles, which some are tempted, with some good reason, to call the death and rebirth cycle, with a contradictory and confusing mixture of optimistic and apocalyptic overtones. Whatever the case, we are still very much in the crucible of major tectonic change.

So, let’s see what other offerings the universe has for us this month.

Aquarius Sun conjuncts Eros And Persephone

Aquarius and Eros are such a fantastic mix, the level of potential freedom, mischievous playfulness, erotic zing and awesome creative potential is very high when the two meet. They are both creatures of air and sky kept grounded by the lightning rod within Aquarius and, the desire for union and passion from Eros. If they are on their own, this would be cause to dance for joy, especially if Persephone is in the spring period of her seasonal cycle.  However, being so close to the eclipse laced collision between her husband Pluto and Saturn, this goddess of the underworld is more likely to be the antithesis of the highflying Eros in Aquarius by being in her death and rebirth mode, destroying naivete and unconsciousness, while dragging the airhead masculine back down to earth, and a deep earth at that.

Inside us, this will heighten tensions between upper and lower chakras, between the bottom and top half of our bodies, between mind and body, with some possibilities of reconciliation between two seeming extremes of self, between deep earth and the interface between mind and spirit.

There is a caution that comes with this mix though, around our experience of sexuality. When the erotic playfulness of Eros turns dark, he can be very dark, while the potential for sexual initiation in Persephone can turn into attracting rape and sexual assault. Watch out then for distorted sexual energies within yourself or potentially in others, sometimes manifesting as the dark side of seduction.

The rising of this within oneself can also be a product of Persephone piercing into some old sexual wounds, whether your own or carried, flushing to the surface for release and potential healing.

Black Moon conjunct Chiron in Aries

This is a super powerful combination that will deepen all our healing processes not just for this month but for the first six months of the year. Those of you who are Chiron sensitive, the wounded healers amongst us, will feel an increasing demand to go deeper in your healing journeys than where we’ve been before. The same goes for those of you in your Chiron returns, that life changing transit that kicks in around 49 or 50 years of age.

The Black Moon and Chiron share a similar dynamic; while they are driven by an almost superhuman capacity for love and compassion, as healers, purifiers and transformers, they are equally ruthless in doing whatever it takes to get us to heal and dive more deeply into our essence. This includes the dismantling of our external and internal ego structures. The primary difference between them is that they come from the primal edges of the masculine and the feminine.

Chiron as we know is the archetypal healer, teacher and inner guru that lies underneath the layers of wounded masculinity that exists in all of us. His demand is that we courageously dive into our pain and woundedness, so that we may dive through those layers and discover the healing masculine beneath. To facilitate that, Chiron specialises in creating wounding experiences in the present that reflect much earlier wounds that we need access to in order to heal. His way is more obviously masculine, launching us on the hero’s journey.

The Black Moon, as her name implies, is the dark face of the Great Mother appearing in different cultures as Kali and Durga, Black Tara and the Black Madonna. When she visits, we get drawn into an intense purificatory inner alchemy, that some writers call “psychic chemotherapy”, where she goes after the inner demons of both the wounded masculine and distortions to the dark sacred feminine. Her dark grace is relentless as she dredges up some incredibly toxic and sabotaging parts of ourselves but like Chiron does so to provide opportunities to heal and release in territory that the average mortal would understandably not want to go anywhere near.

They are both love in action, in a way that pure love brings up its opposite.

Simply put, the first six months of the year then our extended opportunity to go deeper than we’ve ever been able to in our healing journeys. For those of you who are doing the work, and are in service, will find that an increasing amount of healing Shakti will be coursing through you to be delivered to others.

Lovers versus Spiritual Warriors – Mars conjunct Lilith in Sagittarius.

Here is another male archetype joined with a dark goddess, the blood and guts warrior joining a fierce, feminist warrioress in the wild and yet focused fire of Sagittarius. How well this sits within each of us is dependent on how much inner work we have done around releasing old anger and rage from both the masculine and feminine.

Their history can make them appear incompatible and if you still believe the masculinised versions of the Lilith story, she only has one demonic form reflecting hatred and bitterness towards the masculine in general that can never be tamed, healed or transformed. And certainly, Mars also has form in his initially abusive relating to the feminine, particularly in his wounded and wounding expressions, or if he is frozen in an adolescent state in an allegedly adult person.

However, there is an awesome dynamism in this union, a potential meeting of sacred activists or spiritual warriors, and there are strong hints of a Shiva Shakti-like tantric bond, if each has been purified enough, as both represent aspects of our sexuality and both have very strong, passionate drives. In Sagittarius, a sign that loves a cause or a mission, the urge to act on one’s beliefs and passions is exceptionally potent.

The above is a rather idealistic picture, a possibility for certain, but there is also obviously an equally strong shadow here that some people will act out destructively. Note that each of the glyphs for the sign and the two warriors have arrowheads on them, so the potential for outbursts of uncontrolled anger and rage must be acknowledged.

Venus conjunct Neptune in Pisces

Romantics beware! When the boundaryless, imaginative and visionary Neptune joins with the goddess of love, one needs great discernment, to be able to tell the difference between an authentic relationship and, delusional projections on to a potential love object or person. Great clarity, albeit possible for some, and good boundaries can tend to go out the window when these two come together.

However, if we are healthily watchful around others, a Venus and Neptune combination can represent some awesome opportunities for opening our hearts, for stretching beyond our more selfish needs and reaching into the capacity for unconditional love. As a planet of mysticism, Neptune brings a profoundly devotional quality to our loving, which can stretch us all the way to that of any of the great bhaktis in history, like Rumi, Mirabai, Lalleshwari or Kabir.

Venus and Neptune are also brilliant for any kind of creative endeavour, as the latter opens the imaginative and visionary aspects of our minds, to that place where we can channel creativity from sources beyond our limited selves. The same applies to our inner experience around beauty, music, chanting and the natural world.

So, this transit can provide some exceptionally beautiful experience, as long as you watch out for the poor boundaries and hyper charged infatuations!

Mars/Lilith square Venus/Neptune.

For all the opportunities of both conjunctions, this is a particularly tricky square.

Venus squaring Mars can bring this archetypal couple into conflict, generating a great deal of tension and, an inner conflict between the need for intimacy represented by Venus and the need for independence represented by Mars. The presence of Lilith can further complicate and contaminate things here, as she can be a carrier of generational trauma and conflict between sexes.

This is one of those times when can be very difficult separating out the personal from historical sources of relationship trouble, especially when the presence of Neptune can confuse what belongs to who, while simultaneously flushing up for psychic emotional residues from past conflict.

This has all the ingredients for creating an unholy and an unhappy mess, so if you find yourself in such a situation and feel you are on the edges of losing it, the best thing to do is call timeout for as long as it takes to calm things down.

To lessen the potential of reaching that point, it’s important for all the protagonists to be able to be absolutely honest about their own feelings, without falling into blame or finger-pointing.

If however, you are able to get into a safe therapeutic container when you can allow some of the explosiveness to be released, you can do some exceptionally good healing on some ancient influences impacting on  your capacity to maintain your autonomy on one hand, while opening or keeping your heart open on the other.

Pluto/Saturn/Ceres conjunction in Kite with Kali in Libra, Hygeia in Taurus and Shiva in Cancer

The core of the Capricorn convergence is on the edge of separating out in the next months, but currently form this potent arrangement with the three major players, astrologically speaking, of the Shiva Shakti traditions.

The Kite is a grand trine bisected by an opposition, adding two sextiles to the bisecting body, in this case Shiva.  The three trines and two sextiles allow for a great flow of energy between the four points, meaning a unifying connection between transformative, tantric and healing powers, grounded in the earth by Pluto, Saturn and the earth mother Ceres.

This represents a magnificent flow on from the edgier peaks of the transformative eclipses in December and January. It supports us to get active with this great power in this more reconstructive period, to keep our internal transformation and healing moving, while exploring what needs to be created, personally and culturally, out of the rubble of the disintegration of 2019.

This includes our own contributions to the healing of the natural environment, while applying persistent pressure on government and economic systems. It is worthwhile noting that four of these archetypes; Saturn, Pluto, Kali and Shiva, are all about getting down to the raw truth of things, about cutting through delusion, denial and unconsciousness.

Jupiter in Capricorn trines Vesta in Taurus, sextiles Neptune in Pisces.

Jupiter is relatively quiet this month, especially when compared with the bigger and more challenging dynamics but is nevertheless doing some important and less obvious work. His connection to Neptune is one of the sweetest combinations spiritually, as the Jupiterian urge to keep growing and expanding is heightened by the more transcendent energies of Neptune.

Traditionally this is brilliant for meditation and other practices that take us beyond the limitations of the mind. It magnetises people’s interest in higher forms of knowledge, and allows us to be more intellectually, psychically and energetically more fluid and trusting of the nonrational sources of knowledge, awareness and intelligence.

On their own though they can suffer from ungroundedness but less so with Jupiter being in Capricorn and, with the connection from the two of them with Vesta in Taurus, another earth sign.

Vesta is the quiet but potent priestess, who acts as a grounding conduit for higher forms of knowledge and spiritual power, using a form of yogic will to contain and concentrate such energy so that they can be effectively directed into the world as an act of service.

At a time when we are being asked to trust more deeply in our more intuitively active visions, and when there is still so much in flux personally and collectively, this is a tremendous gift.

While the more dramatic players in the current cosmic dramas are out there doing their thing, quietly behind the scenes of these three preparing the ground to be able to manifest the next steps in our creative and spiritual journeys.

With love and blessings,

Daniel