posted January 25, 2010 07:28 AM         

Kind of stressful and ambivalent week ahead of us ~ news we don’t much want to hear, things we don’t want to face, and situations we are not in the mood to deal with. That said, your job is to get clear on what you DO want by running into, working with and dealing with what you DON’T want. It is amazing how clarifying what you don’t want can actually be!

So you’ll be clarified like butter is after it melts!

Butter becomes clear by gently heating it and removing the impurities. You will be heated this week by Mars in warm fire Leo talking to Sun, Venus, Mercury, Pluto and Uranus. You get clear on what you want with Mars warming those planets up ~ either by aggravating or heating them up. The planets will help you get clear by asking you to explain what you want in greater and clearer detail to Mars.

Remember Mars is STILL RETROGRADE so he’ll bring you and your Sun stuff you don’t much want but …. But Mars gave it to you! Mars got it for you! But you don’t want it! But it isn’t what you asked for! But it has flaws! But it ain’t your dream! But. But. But. It is a But week.

Try And instead of But to get Mars to go back out and get you what you want.

Right now Mars is NOT in the mood ~ kind of like when your mother cooked dinner after a hard day in her world and you walked in the kitchen, asked what was for dinner and said “BUT I don’t WANT pork chops! BUT I hate pork chops! Why do we have to have PORK CHOPS!!!” Your mother glares over the top of her eyeglasses at you. She rattles the spatula in the frying pan, flips the pork chop.

Mom has had it. (Mars has had it too.) Mom says, reasonably pleasantly considering that she brought you into this world and would like to take you out of her world right about now, “Look, this is NOT a restaurant! We are having pork chops!” (Mars says “Jeeze You are SO FUSSY!!! I got it for you! Take it! Here!” )

If you were smart, you’d stop wailing about the pork chops or whatever Mars brought you right about then. However, YOU’VE had a bad day too so you continue with “BUT I HATE PORK CHOPS!!!! You probably cooked peas with the PORK CHOPS too! BUT I HATE PEAS almost more than I hate PORK CHOPS!” You wail about what Mars brought you too!

It kind of devolves from there.

You get the idea.

And, it doesn’t have to devolve!

You have a couple of choices besides continuing on and on about the pork chops and peas or whatever Mars brought you. You know that into each life some pork chops must come.

Try And instead of But.

Honey instead of Vinegar.

Peanut butter and jelly is a decent substitute dinner when the disliked pork chops are on the menu.

Mercury is very, very active ~ moving forward talking to just about everyone in the sky in crabby and cranky ways. He’s in an oppositional mood this week as he moves through Capricorn. There are a type of aspects called declinations. Mercury is talking to quite a few planets by contraparallel ~ pushing back or not liking what they say. Or they are not liking what Mercury is saying to them. Mercury is still in his shadow so he’s also wrapping up the story from December.

If you hear things you don’t like this week, think about them. Mars is still retrograde so working to change what they said is probably not in your best interest. That said, knowing what they are thinking IS useful. Similar to arguing with your mother about hating pork chops a few minutes before dinner is going to be served, is not productive, arguing this week is not productive. Take the information received and move forward with it. Know what YOU want. Or know what you DON’T want. Either way, THAT process is clarifying. Arguing about Pork chops is not a good use of your time or energy. Plus you are going to irritate who ever you argue with. Why waste time like that?

Finally Saturn and Pluto square each other for the second time this week. These two boys don’t much like each other. Back to the analogy of a Boy Named Sue from a few months ago when they met up for the first time. Pluto is Saturn’s child and never got over being eaten by his father in the same way a Boy Named Sue never got over his father naming him Sue and leaving town.

Now Saturn is retrograde so the authorities are in retreat and fleeing from the power of an angry or power grabbing Pluto. Aside from being a lovely planetary setup for another major earthquake at the end of the week, we need to understand that power kicks back and takes over in the face of too much cooperation or nicey-nicey lets all be getting along. See the mundane section for more on this reversal energy in our society.

In YOUR life, Saturn’s closing square to Pluto wants you to look at and psychologically process the dynamic of how you work with power (or don’t) as well as how you are an authority (or aren’t) in your own life. Time to grow up. Be responsible. Own your power and understand how your actions caused the current results in your life. Claim your results. Take charge. Figure out how the current situation in your life came to be. You will be working with it until August 21 so you might as well snuggle up with it this week and get to know it as best you can.

Monday Moon in Gemini offers us choices that are hard as Mercury in argues with Mars in Leo. Clarify the butter! As words heat up, make sure to clarify that you are actually hearing what you are hearing. It might not be what they actually meant to say. Double and triple check. We have to adjust, adjust, adjust. Venus has a bad hair day as a sudden reversal makes her completely crazed. Life is a bit chaotic and not organized to her liking. Venus needs to take a more freed up approach to the situation which she is NOT up for. But that actually will be a good thing if you can get her to try it and do it. She’s needing a bit of change. Like new shampoo makes your hair shiny and bright, time to try a new approach with the goddess of love.

Tuesday. Mercury isn’t hearing happy talk from Venus even as he suggests to Uranus a solution that they all will like. One summer in my summer share house, there was a very neurotic woman who had a ½ share. Mid-summer, she came to the house and spent the entire weekend up in her room, crying. Her two friends would hurry up the stairs and hurry down the stairs, looking worried, whispering between themselves. They delivered food to her room. When I inquired, after the second day of closed doors and in-room food delivery, what exactly the problem was, I was told it was a bad haircut. A beautiful beach weekend at a lovely share house right on the Great South Bay where a beach hat would completely cover whatever damage had been done to her hair by the errant cutter was completely lost in tears and sorrow. And her two friends suffered too as they had to listen to the sorrows of a bad haircut and deliver food to their inconsolable friend. Take a different strategic approach. Hair grows out. Eventually.

Wednesday Venus now SHOUTS at Mars. When she finally appeared, packed and ready to leave the summer house to catch the ferry on Sunday with her hair covered by a cap, one of the guys in the house commented that her hair did not looking that bad to him. She shouted at him. She threw the pile of New York Times sections at him. She burst into tears. Of course, if she hadn’t spent the entire weekend in her room crying about her hair, he never would have NOTICED she’d had it cut. Be careful about provoking the situation from yesterday today with errant comments. People tend to overreact and shout a bit. Lots of emotions flying around. Avoid arguments over pork chops too. People are creatures of patterns and habits. What is the “tell” that told you NOT to go there? You KNEW you were pushing the line…. Be careful. Watch who you meet today. They can be quite important in your life in the months ahead. Make sure to get their contact information.

Thursday or Jupiter’s day finds the jolly giant a bit frustrated by his silly argument with Mercury yesterday as the tension starts to build of Saturn’s square to Pluto. Vesta offers a great idea about how to change the patterns and get what she wants. Mars has an aspect of brilliance to Pluto so while the idea is great it might not be the best time to work on it. Pluto is trine to Vesta and encouraging her to move forward to her next challenge and vision of how her home and hearth can change. It is a good day for renovations and shifts in how things are going to be done. Sun fights with Uranus about stupid stuff, suggesting you watch out to not have a fight for the sake of fighting ~ complaining about the Pork chops right before they are served. Not a good idea. Moon in Cancer is quite productive provided it moves the energy from arguing about Pork Chops to quirky creative solutions.

Friday or Venus’ Day finds Mercury having ANOTHER argument with Uranus. He’s just not letting up on complaining about the pork chops and peas! Or the bad haircut! Sun opposes Mars so he might just throw his plate across the room too! Remember there is an underlying tension building of the upcoming Saturn Pluto square that is part of the extreme frustration energy felt today. Mars is sick and tired of NOT getting what he wants! Sun is sick and tired of Mars complaining all the time. Not a fun day.

Saturn’s day brings a full moon in Leo. Read the full moon report on this site for more information on how to work with the energy. Mercury argues about Pork chops today as well as all sorts of things that irritate him. Total waste of time. But when you are in the mood to argue….. Well you know what happens. Redirect that energy toward the idea of what you want. Disappointment breeds the desire to change things. So get busy thinking about how you would change things if you could. You’ll be able to change them in March when Mars goes direct. Things begun today dissolve in dreams.

Sun’s day is flat out difficult, depressing, powerful and illuminating at the same time. The Saturn Pluto square perfects and asks us to psychologically evolve and grow up. We need to understand why the situations in our life exist. We have to pay the piper or face the consequences. We have to be responsible. Tis time for us to stand for our own truths, values, dreams and desires. Mercury is arguing with Neptune so we can feel MIGHTY emotional and teary with this energy ~ elevated or depressed but not “normal”. Moon in Virgo gives a do-be quality to the day where we can be rather hard on ourselves with aspects that imply we will be separating from what we start today with a profound element of change. Mercury asks us to work with the patterns in our lives to understand at a deeper level what is happening ~ do you see how you attracted the situation you are in to help you move through your life? Venus works with the feminine creative nurturing energy ~ it can be a great day for getting pregnant if you are trying to make a baby! Love creates today ~ so love the changes, challenges and shifts in your life. Desire them into being. Mars has a stressful aspect with Uranus so be careful of accidents and crashes. People are very preoccupied and not paying adequate attention. Double check and triple check before pulling out on the highway or parking lot. Lots of accidents.

Mundane:

Mars retrograde brought a number of reversals or departures last week besides Conan O‘Brien: Massachusetts voted Republican for Kennedy‘s Democratic seat putting the Health Care bill and Obama’s agenda in jeopardy, Air America went bankrupt, and the Supremes said it was a-okay for corporations and special interest groups to spend mass quantities of money right before an election, effectively gutting the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill. Mars is retrograde so we can expect these situations to reverse or start to revise when he goes direct on March 10. I would be much more depressed if Mars was direct!

Gotta love Mars retrograde in LEO, the sign of cats big and small.

From the Internet: Cairo: Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old temple that may have been dedicated to the ancient Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Tuesday.

The ruins of the Ptolemaic-era temple were discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the heart of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.

The city was the seat of the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt for 300 years until the suicide of Queen Cleopatra. The statement said the temple was thought to belong to Queen Berenice, wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C. Mohammed Abdel-Maqsood, the Egyptian archaeologist who led the excavation team, said the discovery may be the first trace of the long-sought location of Alexandria's royal quarter.

The large number of statues depicting Bastet found in the ruins, he said, suggested that this may be the first Ptolemaic-era temple dedicated to the cat goddess to be discovered in Alexandria. This would indicate that the worship of the ancient Egyptian cat-goddess continued during the later, Greek-influenced, Ptolemaic period, he said.

Modern Alexandria was built squarely on top of the ruins of the classical-era city and many of its great temples, palaces and libraries remain undiscovered. The temple was found in the Kom el-Dekkah neighborhood near the city's main train station and home to a Roman-era amphitheater and well preserved mosaics.

Reader Mail:

Zenaida wrote: I have been a follower of your column for a long time and today it is the first time that you disappoint me. I can't believe that you dedicate so much space to talk about the Leno-O'Brien issue witch is so shallow and unimportant and only a few passing words to Haiti in the moment that humans beings are going thru so much suffering; missing the opportunity to expand on the incredible spiritual lesson we can all learn from this. With all due respect, I would like to hear from you on this subject.

Anne answers: Sorry to have disappointed you, Zenaida. I have a Pisces Moon which makes writing about the extreme suffering in Haiti very difficult for me. And, I don’t happen to believe our voyeuristically witnessing suffering expands our spiritual lessons nor does it let us learn things other than suffering and horrible things occur to people. Death via earthquakes and the resulting suffering are unpleasant, difficult and painful to watch. To my mind, the coverage is an extreme example of rubberneck syndrome where we slow down on the thruway to look at a crash and have our emotional reaction safely in our own car. I know myself when I hook into a suffering story it often reflects something I am trying to learn about myself and understand. It reflects a deeper level of my chart’s work. As you were disappointed with me and wrote, I would guess the Haiti story ties into your chart on a deeper level. You are working on clearing something or getting conscious of something.

Don’t so quickly dismiss the Leno-O’Brien story as shallow and unimportant. It is the other side of what people are dealing with in the world and a bit easier to wrap that Pisces Moon of mine around. Mars is retrograde. We are facing choices in our lives in which we want to be aware of where the envy is driving us to make a bad choice or a choice that is out of ego rather than clear consciousness.

People are either having EARTHQUAKES in their chart ~ and suffering enormously ~ like the folks in Haiti. Emotional, Psychological, Spiritual or Physical earthquakes ~ as Saturn stations and moves to square Pluto at the end of the month as the eclipse brought things to light.

Or people are experiencing ENVY and having to make CHOICES that need to be made from a clean space rather than an emotional space (like Conan didn‘t.)

Or perhaps a combination of both ~ Earthquake and Envy. Conan probably would describe what happened to him as an earthquake in his career. And certainly the 200 employees and their families that uprooted their lives, changed the children‘s schools, sold their homes and moved to California to work for him had an earthquake as they lost their jobs in a difficult economy.

Remember Zenaida, the outer stories we watch in the collective are reflections of the planetary energy we can all tap into. The people with EARTHQUAKES taking place in their chart right now are simply trying to survive the quake and find in their lives the equivalent of water and food. They are sitting in dark rooms with their blinds closed deciding whether to live or die. Their arms and lives are frozen right now as they are trapped in difficult places through the earthquake that took place in their life of an extreme loss of an emotional, spiritual, physical or psychological nature JUST LIKE the people we are watching in Haiti. My bet is the earthquake people are NOT reading my column right now.

The folks who are reading my column are watching Haiti on TV and writing a check or three as they navigate the difficult Mars retrograde energy which the Leno-O’Brien story is the illustrative example. To them, I can make a difference. Be careful. Be conscious. Don’t react out of ego. Take a long term view as the Uranus-Saturn aspect is not over yet!

Hope that helps!