Greetings Space Cadets!

May is the month in which Mars and Venus get equal time. The Sun finishes her journey through Aries the Mars ruled sign and then dives into Taurus on May 14^th.  Since the Sun has passed its maximum through the Martian sign Aries, Venus, our lady of love becomes the inspiration for this months post and it is apropos as one of the big Venusian Sabbats in the witch calendar falls on May First where the May Queen is honored, known as Beltane, additionally symbolic is that Venus is also one of the closest planets to us in terms of astronomical distance and distant candidate for possible terra-forming when the technology becomes available, hence the flavoring of various technological and cultural references as seen through out this months post. Taurus a Venus ruled sign approaches its ingress 13 days later (after Beltane), although this year it wont be nearly as rowdy with Mars going into apparent retrograde motion, meaning it will be an inverse energy and a little more subdued then is typical.

Which of course naturally leads to the fact that six planets will be in retrograde through the month of May an event that happens every ten years or so. It seems a great deal of the energy will be turning inward for a period of review and revision which is actually an important part of any developmental process, including the evolution of the world’s cultural system. If prophecy is merely a device used to envision possible futures which then become the visionary impetus for action in the world then this is a perfect opportunity to look at our collective narrative and examine if it is serving our ultimate aim of thriving as a species on a finite planet. Currently I would say no that we are slightly deluded and living well outside the established boundaries of the planetary operating system. That said we can certainly change that and perhaps the retrogrades serve as a potent metaphor for a much needed review and possible course correction, if nothing else it is the ideal way to utilize them.

All that said it may explain why the signs may not be as vigorous as is usual, many of them are turning in on themselves and evaluating their respective symbol sets.

Aries: April 19th-May 13th: Pioneer Venus

Aries faces an interesting paradox this month as the Sun enters your sign on the 19^th and Mars makes a retrograde motion towards the sign opposite you on the sky-disk (Libra). Aries usual fearlessness and bold approach finds itself somewhat frustrated during this period as it is difficult to connect with the outward motion the sign is characteristic for. It will bring to the fore political questions pertaining to autonomy and personal liberty and their relationship to overall civil society. As it currently stands the social contract is in rapid decline and elites are attempting to create liberty and autonomy for corporations and governments that serve their ends at the expense of our civil liberties, which could lead to unrest and a very uncivil society.

The pertinent question for Aries in this retrograde transit are what are the balance points between social responsibility, a need for action, and of course the extent to which people have autonomy and liberty in their own lives and if a certain amount of autonomy has to be sacrificed to ensure collective liberty for all individuals. Further the deeper questions will pertain to your own power to act in your life and where respecting the liberty of others falls. It means that we don’t always get everything and we are not always on top, that is a hard sell for Aries, but as far as retrogrades go it allows for a deeper probing and a more nuanced understanding of what freedom is in the personal and political sense, it also invites the idea that there are others we must take individual responsibility for, and that the fate of societies rests with understanding both our autonomy to act and our social obligations in creating a just and fair society.

Taurus: May 14th-June 19th: Aphrodite Terra 

Taurus which is the true sex fiend of the zodiac (its opposing sign Scorpio has for a long time taken this rightful title). It is the Bulls that have the angle on the field of human sexuality. Venus your ruling planet is also particularly well placed this month as it is not experiencing retrograde motion which normally flips the polarity of the signs it rules making it difficult for its natives to touch the tap root of its regenerating energies and creating an inwardly focused stance. Taurus gets to come out and play, burning off the heaviness of the last year in the purifying fires of the Beltane season. Beltane is also coincident with the International Worker’s Day. A day devoted to the struggles of laborers throughout history who have fought for fairness, equal rights, and safety regulations to improve the lives of working people everywhere (the majority of humans). Taurus also correlates to finance which is a huge component of workers rights, and there are movements afoot all over the world to support wage increases for service workers not to mention numerous pilot projects explicating a Universal Basic Income and in some circles fervent talk of crypto-currencies (think bitcoin) and resource based economics.

More important for those Taureans politically inclined now would be a great time to get involved into the cutting edge of gender and sex politics. As genetic sisters of the sexual revolution Taurus’ are particularly well placed to understand that pleasure and sexuality are not merely the way a species perpetuates itself but are instinctual forces which adhere human societies together into mutual aid. In a word humans are inherently sexual creatures that use sex to make love not war similar to the bonobo chimpanzees that are our closest primate relatives. Taurus is an equal opportunity slut and does not care one whip about distinctions of gender, sex, or race and is far more interested in maximizing mutual pleasure that quibbling over insignificant details. It is a month where the bulls get to play and be fully outwardly expressive. It is a good time to let your hair down and play. More importantly in a time of increasingly vitriolic politics play is an activist strategy, and a form of work that seeks to inject much needed creative chaos into a political endgame that has apocalyptic undertones. It allows new life to be breathed into movements which have been blunted by macro-economic fuckery by financial elites.

Gemini: June 20th-July 20th: Twin Planets

Venus is Earth’s wilder, and more volatile twin, and often referred to as the twin planet. You who are the epitome of the twin archetype often tussle with an inner conflict between the more hospitable Terran twin and the more wild Venusian twin. Further, you are also up against the tide of a ruling planet in inverse relationship which changes your internal polarity so that the darker twin is favored. That is to say the one that fearlessly delves into the unknown territories of inner space, your own private underworld. It seems that is exactly what is being empowered at this juncture, the more hermetic, hermit like, and inward seeing twin is dominating and attempting to unwind all of your confidential unknowns. You may feel less verbal and social than normal for a Gemini which may have others around you concerned, and perhaps panicked. But no worries you are feeling like a hermit these days carefully observing your own depths something that the other side of yourself is typically not comfortable doing.

With the retrograde through Aries the penetration is energetic and has you looking at the areas in your life where you question what level of autonomy and liberty you can take, and how you might be constrained by social expectation. It is a sort of Jekyll and Hyde paradox, in that part of you is outwardly respectable and socially palatable, while just under the surface is an insatiably lusty, taboo breaking freedom fighter fighting for its ascendancy. There are two ways to respond to this inversion layer, one is to be filled with dread as it might mean you spend some evenings in with very good wine, and that a holy terror is mucking about the under layers of your psyche. Or you can grab the popcorn and sit down for a great show, and enjoy the silence, something all the air signs struggle with.

Cancer: July 21st-August 8th: Venus of Ammisadqua

The Ammisadqua was an ancient piece of astronomy which faithfully tracked the motions of Venus in the sky in her helical arc risings and settings as recorded using lunar dates and tracked for 21 years. The text was part of a greater Babylonian text that dealt with astrology and the attaching of omens to celestial motions. These natural risings and fallings certainly respond well with the tidal nature of Cancer which is uniquely sensitive to the urges and pulls of life. There was time in Earth’s history early in the evolution of biological life in which the moon was much closer to our planet and as a result the tides were much more volatile and higher than they are now as well as being more variable. Even so, the tides would ebb and flow and in their wake would be patches of wet sand in which primitive life-forms first evolved which would eventually give rise to the biological exuberance that is the hallmark of Earth. The reason these tidal energies are emerging is that Cancer is holding a difficult paradox that Humanity is in the midst of.

The very real possibility of mass extinction as being caused by a singular species actions is rapidly becoming more plausible as time passes by. More that we are potentially toying with the end of birth for our own species is hardly noticed even though salient. Cancer is sensitive to the retrograde tides dominating much of 2016 and is contemplating what this might mean. Cancer as the archetype which originates, protects and preserves life has its work cut out for it. That one element of life (Humans) is proving to be a cancer to the rest of life on Earth is a difficult reality to hold. There is a necessary desire to protect human life as well as life in general. Cancer your task is to is to figure out the course we can be on to strike a balance with the collective of life on the planet. Our technology can be pressed into the service of life and humanity, it will mean we must reconnect with the ancient inextricable link that we have with life and mimic its ways. Cancer you may have a strong involvement in directing technology in the mimicry of nature and also a role to play in an economics of the biosphere. On a more personal level you are called to protect and preserve the life systems in your environment and reorient as best you can your lifestyle to better accord with life, if it means you drive a great deal less and use the bicycle more, every action counts.

Leo: August 9th-September 15th: Superior Conjunction

Leo’s are doing major shadow work, with Jupiter moving retrograde through the archetype its natives may be deeply questioning assumed leonine identities. Namely since royalty and elites have become an increasing source of disgrace and human suffering the supremacy of said elites is certainly up for debate. More importantly that these elites are utilizing financial instruments to hold the mass of humanity hostage is certainly not winning them any points and what’s more it is being done for dubious reasons, mainly to maintain an uncertain hegemony and to increase their wealth to astronomical sums that no reasonable individual would ever be able to do anything with. The desire for wealth is not the problem, what is problematic is when it becomes an implicit reasoning to take it away from others, and insidiously it’s being siphoned away from those who produced it.

The excesses of this plutocracy have become too much to bear and popular social unrest is the natural result. Leo holds the archetype of elite power and the monarchy, that said inversely it also holds the shadow energy of that which is the idea that all of us can be monarchs, of our own flesh and can be at the helm of our own destiny provided the world has mechanisms in place that allow for it.. Leo you are encouraged now with Jupiter about to finish its grand tour moving backwards to step up to the helm and become the leaders and voices of these burgeoning movements for equality and fairness and an understanding that power like wealth is a shared asset belonging to the commons and not to a small slice of Humanity. Leo becomes the voice that calls out this disconnect and points out that these versions of “leadership” do not work and that elites are not the only ones who have a say in the trajectory of the future. (as a demonstration of just how clueless and out of touch many of these one percenters are see this from the Guardian). Leo, you do not have to be an example of all that is wrong with figureheads, you can become the model of what goes right with inspired leadership that realizes there is more power when it is shared and diffuse.

Virgo: September 16th-October 30th: Magellan Radar

Virgo, since you are a Goddess in the clothes of the proletariat you have lived your life by a simple philosophy work hard, play hard. You are also driven by a service forward ethic, which is noble. What you are learning in the current world trajectory is that there is a thin line between service and servitude and if you are finding that increasing chunks of your life are devoted to work and play is taking a backseat than you may just be overdoing it. There is a vast distinction between being of service and serfdom. We are living in the midst of an economic breakdown/breakthrough cycle in which even though there have been technological innovations designed for ease and to allow us to work less we are increasingly working more and on leaner margins of course do to poorly deployed macro-economic policy designed to serve the interests of those pulling the strings instead of those doing the actual work, and no being a high-income earner does not make you immune to it either. In a word Virgo this Mercury retrograde period is best served by stepping back and reclaiming some of your lost autonomy.

Being of service is undeniably a noble sentiment but when it crosses that thin red line and becomes servitude you have to step back and re-assess. Virgo may have been spinning it wheels the last few months rushing and it is now taking it’s toll on your nervous system, you are running on only epinephrine and it is burning you out biologically. May is a time now to step back into your integrity pull away from the demands (even if only for five minutes) and take a pause. Review, and revise and figure out if the trajectory you are on is truly reflective of your autonomous vision. If not it may be time to consider a course correction and a realignment with the principles that bring you to your Virgin namesake, that of being complete in and of yourself, which is to say self-contained, and self-possessed if increasingly your life belongs more to the demands of others it may be time to pull back and draw some perimeters where angels fear to tread.

Libra: October 31st- November 22nd: Akatsuki Transmission

Libra is naturally a diplomat, softening the sometimes rough edges of its sister sign Scorpio, which is to say that Libra is the cloth covering the throbbing erection of Scorpio or as I like to think of it the goddess Kali in a pencil skirt. Libra may be finding it harder to be the pencil skirt version and instead is leaning towards the other side of its polarity the stance of Nemesis the avenger. In one hand justice holds the scales in the other is the sword and she is blinded by the blindfold on her eyes. If Libra finds itself indiscriminately wielding the sword to deliver swift justice it comes as no shocker given that the martial planet in moving backwards through Scorpio and will land in Libra. All the terms of the alleged social contract are up for review under these transits and there may be a fight, whether hashed out in the halls of justice or public opinion.

It’s not difficult to be uproariously outraged by the uncivility of our so called global civil society. The rampant inefficiency and waste in the handling of our shared resources, the profound corruption of our political system by plutocrats who are seeking only to entrench their bottom lines at the expense of the commons that underpins their wealth, and finally the glacial pace at which authorities entrusted with collective well-being are responding to a number of converging crises, technological upheaval, economic chaos, and Climate Change. Given this it should hardly be surprising that Libra is feeling less than diplomatic. Relations are strained as Libra wants more autonomy and the capacity to act (the definition of power and liberty) in a set of cultural circumstances that constrain and resign us to selling our time for money, even in a context of abundance and productivity. I advise that Libra not squelch the sense of outrage but channel it to something useful instead, art and writing is always a great choice but if you have no knack for either than whatever you’re good at is best. That anger can be attuned into action, be deliberate!

Scorpio: November 23-November 29th: Mariner Probe

Scorpio is known to be ruthless, a secret agent with a deceptively friendly smile, not to mention being a holder of dark secrets. It is a misnomer as Scorpio is actually simply purifying the dross in an existential act of alchemy and attempting to purify the soul of humanity by draining it of self-generated toxins. Scorpio is experiencing a double dram of retrograde energy with both its ruler and co-ruler in regressive motion. The normally forward moving energy of Scorpio is delayed and the scorpions may find themselves frustrated at the resistance the world shows to meaningful change. Scorpio more than any other of the stellar cyphers is committed to transformation, the kind that can blow you open and also blow you apart, it can annihilate anything atom for atom that refuses to change, it is the naked forces of nature that don’t give one whip of care to your third quarter report or your fledgling civilization.

Scorpio is hair trigger this month and ready to dispense with any person, system, or institution that is preventing human progress (and not the ersatz progress of economic dominance but the real progress of species maturity). I would advise that you don’t act to hastily and throw the baby out with the bath water. While it may feel the whole world is working against evolutionary movement it may just be your perceptions are limited by the fact that you are light-years ahead and the world is lagging and stuck on a futile frequency. I advise that the course of action is to avoid the caustic solution of simply cutting away the baggage but instead to engage with the frustrating and slow process of global evolution and perhaps you might just provide the world with a few useful razors to cut away the policies of extinction and usher in a new aeon. If not you will certainly blow them away and shock them in the most exciting way, by infiltrating past their internal firewalls and getting under their skin in your decidedly penetrating fashion. If you have to resort to subterfuge be very deliberate about it and of course cover your tracks.

Ophiuchus: November 30th-December 17th: Kosmos Orbiter

Ophiuchus has never been a stickler for tradition and largely because it has been this very element which has led to the snake bearer being hunted and stalked throughout history in an implicit campaign of suppression of all that is anathema to the Patriarchy. Ophiuchus is dealing with strong feelings this month and is not sure which exit to get off at. To add to the resistance Saturn the symbol of consensus reality and limitations is transiting your sign in backwards motion meaning that all that was devised in progressive motion is now subject to review and delay. I am going to suggest something that normally I would not recommend to anyone. It might actually be advisable to have a look at the tactics of those in positions of authority. Normally it would be unadvised as those in authority currently are holding illegitimate power much of which they attained through a fraudulent system.

In a word borrow some the tactics or at least study them so ultimately you know what you are up against, once you have their number you can proceed with your own plans for world domination. Ophiuchus is very much the kind of chaotic attractor the world needs at this juncture of history to incite much needed advancement. .As far as social evolution stands our society is still in the Bronze Age. Ophiuchus contains the spark plug within itself to rapidly advance the rate of social evolution so that our social systems resemble the space age we actually live in technologically. That  it will mean the return of the feminine as the cosmic goddess continues her shimmy into our cultural imagination is appropriately attuned to the Ophiuchan frequency. Your task is to destroy the imbalanced Patriarchy and usher in a more egalitarian age.

Sagittarius: December 18th-January 18th: Venera Landing

The Archers of planet Earth are undergoing a tremendous journey of soul searching with your planetary ruler in retrograde motion and the evolutionary catalyst of Pluto moving through your sign in backward motion. Sagittarius is experience an inversion of the entire evolutionary struggle of humankind, in a word the archer is taking the entire struggle and internalizing it, working it out in its personal psyche. This is in fact the normal response to Pluto in retrograde as the outward facing motion of direct transits becomes the convex impulse of internalized rumination. Sagittarius may find themselves examining the conflicted perceptions that humanity is currently experiencing. There is a collective violation of established realities and social sub routines that is proving difficult for many of us to navigate through. The Sagittarian mind is witnessing this great turning directly and acutely and it can be at times paralyzing.

Ultimately Sagittarius must vehemently avoid a natural tendency towards finality, it is too soon for dense conclusions, at current the precise affect of holding soft perimeters and avoiding rapid paradigmatic leaps. Instead there has to be a careful investigation of the tides of violent opposition that is defining much of humanity at current. A careful analysis of the conflicting models of reality all conscious agents are using to define reality. In truth Sagittarius secretly knows that reality is a fabrication of the mind but for now the Archer must hold the expansive view of relativity or quite simply that no single agent is wrong given their model of the world. It is too soon to call which trajectory Humanity has locked onto, there is still a spaciousness for us to decide.

Capricorn: December 19th-February 15th: Ishtar Regio

Recursion is the experience a sequence or pattern that continually repeats itself, a few salient examples are the branching patterns that constitute the vascular system of our bodies, and another would be the cycles of history. This one is particularly poignant as it can seem of late that Capricorn is stuck in a recursive loop. At the personal level it feels like you keep repeating the same series of actions in hopes of a different outcome and alas it seems that it gets you nowhere. Largely this is a signal from the Universe that you cannot avoid what is meant to be versed from these experiences. In a word they keep repeating because there has not been a requisite shift in the consciousness that continues to create the complication.

This is particularly pertinent as it applies to the human situation of late in which we seem to recursively create the same social conditions replicating the cycles of history which continually entrench the forces of oppression for generations. Largely it is because we cannot seem to disabuse ourselves of the notion that our current social model is flawed. We continually tell ourselves that our model is the one that has engendered the greatest human flourishing in all of world history; even though the reality staring us down demonstrates otherwise. A cursory look into the ethnographic record would show there have been many social models of human flourishing and some of them have been far more effective than ours. What all this is meant to compel is to take the stance that you need to learn from the past and stop living in it. Raise the bar to a new perception one in which you can look at old problems from another angle and see the solution hiding in the fractal of recursive history, unless of course you would like to keep banging your head against the wall, it will however not relieve the pressure.

Aquarius: February 16th-March 10th: Mutual Inversion

An interesting nexus point the water-bearer finds themselves in this month as both their ruling planet of Uranus and Neptune transiting Aquarius find themselves in mutual reception and both in retrograde motion. I liken it to a meteorological phenomenon known as an inversion layer. This occurs when a layer of warm air rises over top a layer of cooler air and keeps the air below trapped in stasis. In cities such as San Francisco it is marine inversion layers that create the distinctive planar fog that descends over the city. A retrograde with planets in mutual reception is identical to this. It means that there is a flip in the signs polarities and the normally outwardly focused Aquarian has now pout themselves under the microscope. Individually it means that the water bearer is course correcting. There is a tendency towards seclusion as Aquarius is regenerating and refining itself. Aquarius is essentially reviewing visions of the future.

Humanity is in a race between paradise and dystopia, as such it is the cultural narratives we tell ourselves, the story of reality we live by that determines which course we take. Currently we are on track for dystopia one in which we will all be working more for less, having our jobs replaced by machines, the continuing concentration of wealth into the hands of elites, which further exacerbates class tensions and threatens to grind the economy to a halt. Our technology is in service to growth and corporations instead of life and the populace at large, there is some talk and action on Universal Basic Incomes but it is certainly not at the intensity it ideally would be to be truly effective, if anything there needs to be more of it. While there is a groundswell of movements working towards paradise we are still going to have to contend with some difficult transitions and upheavals. Aquarius as the holder of the archetype of the future you must remember one simple directive, apocalypse is the easy way out and requires no effort. Apotheosis requires every ounce of strength, fortitude, effort, genius, intuition, and intelligence, it might require more elbow grease but it beats extinction any day. Use this retrograde period to figure out how we can all course correct and get back on track to a more sustainable future.

Pisces: March 11th-April 18th: The Venusians

Pisces, like your Aquarius brothers and sisters you are experiencing the effects of a retrograde polarity inversion in mutual reception. Granted Pisces, your concerns have little to do with confronting the terrors of the future and a great deal more to being deeply sensitized to the plight of the suffering masses. Naturally compassionate you may find yourself feeling profoundly overwhelmed at the intensity of your emotions and empathic responses when presented with collective struggle. This is possibly your best trait that no matter how high the frequency of ridiculousness becomes you are capable or remaining tender-hearted and demonstrate the fortitude and courage it takes to care in a sometimes heartless world.

That said, Pisces you do need to take some time out and channel these intense feelings into creative outlets whether that is direct action activism or something decidedly more Burning Man inspired. Let May be a nexus in space-time where you play with your imagination and funnel your inner intensities into a worthwhile project that can hopefully shift the vector of Humanity towards course correction. You have the unique capacity for having your finger on the pulse of humanity and seeing the larger-picture forces that shape human destinies and you have the unique imaginative capacity to come up with alternatives, it had to have been a Pisces who coined the term “Another World is Possible” in any case it is your clarion call.

May Aspectarian: Month at a Glance:

Date	Event/Aspect
May 1st	Sun sextile Neptune (Aries/Aquarius)
May 3rd	Sun trine Jupiter (Aries/Leo)
May 5th	Sun quincunx Saturn (Aries/Ophiuchus), Venus quincunx Mars  (Aries/Scorpio)
May 6th	New Moon in Pisces
May 7th	Sun trine Pluto (Aries/Sagittarius)
May 9th	Venus sextile Neptune (Aries/Aquarius), Sun conjunct Mercury (Aries)
May 10th	Venus trine Jupiter (Aries/Leo)
May 11th	Venus quincunx Saturn (Aries/Ophiuchus)
May 12th	Mercury trine Pluto (Aries/Sagittarius)
May 13th	Mercury conjunct Venus (Aries), Venus trine Pluto (Aries/Sagittarius)
May 15th	Sun enters Taurus
May 19th	Jupiter Stations Direct
May 20th	Venus enters Taurus
May 21st	Full Moon in Libra
May 22nd	Sun opposition Mars (Taurus/Scorpio), Mercury Stations Direct
May 24th	Venus opposition Mars (Taurus/Scorpio)
May 26th	Jupiter square Saturn (Leo/Ophiuchus), Mars enters Libra
May 30th	Mercury trine Pluto (Aries/Sagittarius)