Breaking Ahead, Still Held Back

From http://awitchsdaily.blogspot.com/

Most astrology focuses on the Sun—Your Will and Purpose

But what about the Moon?

The Moon is the Embodiment of Communication, Emotion, and Spirit

The Goddess

Opposite God

What is the Moon’s Message to You?

That is the Will and Purpose of This Column

Published Every Monday—Moon Day

This week, in a rare synchronicity, the sun’s character, having just shifted to the futuristic sign of Aquarius, matches the moon’s message, a waxing crescent that is struggling to break with the old to make way for the new. Specifically, you are beginning to feel and see the length of days expand from the darkest of the year to greater sunlight shed. This is all good news, but remember, though you feel aggressively jubilant about your prospects, and you should, where you want to be is not where you are now. You will have your personal revolution this spring, but for the moment, hold steady.  

Aries, Born 3/21-4/19: You’re really feeling the fire this week, Aries, as the moon is shifting through you and your sign. Remember that even though you are the masthead of the zodiac, a rugged individual who leads all others, enlisting the cooperation of others, especially those whom you find beautiful and diplomatic, will help you actualize the fire in your belly.

Taurus, Born 4/20-5/20: You’re feeling a little unsettled this week, a state the you, as the fixed, sitting, bull do not enjoy. Make sure to reach out to a friend or partner who can be a sounding board to shed some light on what’s upsetting you, and in turn, move forward at your own pace.

Gemini, Born 5/21-6/20: This week is a great time to start letting your ideas catch fire, especially amongst friends, larger social groups, and organizations. If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it fall? Your ideas want to be freed, so make a wish, and let those around you do the rest.

Cancer, Born 6/21-7/22: There’s a lot of emphasis on your relationships and partnerships right now, but make sure to take care of your own career and public recognition. You’re great at nurturing and holding onto others, but hold onto the emotions that will carry you far, and reach out to those specific people who can help to this end. You’ll be surprised at the audience you can court.

Leo, Born 7/23-8/22:  You’re thinking about the future more than usual this week, a dragon breathing fire. But remember, slow and steady wins the race, and creating the ideal blend of elements, and dispensing with the difficult elements that aren’t serving you is the way you truly get to the future you desire.

Virgo, Born 8/23-9/22: This is an emotional week for you, Virgo, especially with regard to work, the area of your life which you value the most. Understand that the pain you are experiencing now, unclear and tempestuous, will lead to better results later.

Libra, Born 9/23-10/22: This is an interesting week for you, Libra, as you’re thinking much more about what you’re creating as opposed to curating that which comes before you. This applies to sexuality, relationships, work, and creativity. Though you are the blind judge, you are a creator too. Search your feelings and let them be your guide, a departure from the airy, thoughtful being that you are.

Scorpio, Born 10/23-11/21: This could potentially be a great week for you, Scorpio, as your deeply instinctual feelings, if you act on them in a healthy manner, can take you far with regard to knowledge, travel, career, and new social networks. The trick is to manage these instincts so  you don’t feel the urge to sting.

Sagittarius, Born 11/22-12/21: You might be feeling a little deflated this week, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a lot of energy for you to put some sensible checks on your finances, and even your deepest values and beliefs, so that when you do press onward, as the Centaur and archer, you can ride more easily to glory.

Capricorn, Born 12/22-1/19: There’s extra emphasis on your career this week, which is a perennial and sometimes self-sabotaging emphasis. You can’t always make it to the top alone, even if the others who help you are acquaintances along the way.

Aquarius, Born 1/20-2/18: This is quite a curious week for you, but you are the unique one of the zodiac. There’s part of you that is perpetually living in the future, yet your hidden emotional and dream world holds you back. Remember that moving forward is at once a process of negotiating with the past as you move forward. Keeping this in your extraordinary mind will help you truly move forward on your own terms.

Pisces, Born 2/19-3/20: Hang on for the ride; what is usually dreamy, formless, and fluid breaks into new life for you, Pisces. Who would have thought that your dream world could become a reality?

I’m Dan Beck, an astrologer and writer based in New Orleans, LA. To discuss the themes I wrote about above, and make them happen here below, book a session with me, today.

A New Moon, A New Year

Celebrating the Vietnamese Lunar New Year with the Dragon at Boomtown Casino in Harvey, LA

Most astrology focuses on the Sun—Your Will and Purpose

But what about the Moon?

The Moon is the Embodiment of Communication, Emotion, and Spirit

The Goddess

Opposite God

What is the Moon’s Message to You?

That is the Will and Purpose of This Column

Published Every Monday—Moon Day

This week is really the beginning of 2018. After coming down from the massive Super Moon at the beginning of this year, this new moon in the serious sign of Capricorn, along with five other planetary bodies, signals a year of structure-seeking, slow, and steady success. Down the street from me, there is a Vietnamese Lunar New Year’s celebration happening, ringing in the year of the Dog. The Dog is quite different from the Goat, less serious and more fun-loving, and that is the Dog’s fall in Vietnamese folklore. But the combination of the two will yield massive success for you in 2018, a care free attitude combined with sober planning, execution, and discipline. Today is also the birthday of Martin Luther King, the greatest leader to come from the United States. I was fortunate enough to hear Coretta Scott King speak at my alma mater, New England Conservatory, as I played for the commencement ceremonies my junior year. She spoke of her courtship with her husband, feeling blessed that they were called to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest in the bus boycott, and hoped that speaking at New England Conservatory would inspire her to get back into singing. She was a beautiful, self-possessed, earthly Taurus, the best manifestation of that sign and spirit, and her husband, Martin Luther King, was Capricorn, the greatest expression of ambition and success.  

Aries: 2018 could shape up to be a huge year for your career, but you must pace yourself. Place reasonable checks on your hard-driving nature, and the stars will take care of the rest.

Taurus: 2018 can be the year where you rise above the pleasures of the earth which you hold so dear. The roots that hold you in place have the ability to transport you to the heavens, and other realms of travel and knowing, if you’d only climb the beanstalk.

Gemini: 2018 will be the year where you dive into the deep, dark recesses of your soul, and make great gains. Integrating and placing structure around the rejected parts of your psyche, not your preferred domain, will prevent you from flying too high in the sky and being burned by the sun.

Cancer: 2018 will put an inordinate amount of emphasis on other individuals, relationships, and partnerships of all kinds. But remember who you are, Cancer, and never forget that love and home are the domains where you triumph.

Leo: 2018 will be the year where you put your warmth and creativity to work for you, but not without some balancing and adjusting. You succeed when you nurture yourself, the sculptor and objet d’art, working in tandem, a singular act of love and creation.

Virgo: 2018 is the year where you can truly do what you love and love what you do. Work and service are your hallmarks, but they won’t be mutually exclusive from what you love doing, and in turn, your own personal success.

Libra: 2018 will be the year of your family and home base. You’re so used to juggling and judging that which the universe throws at you that you lose the anchor of your home. No matter, as you’ll have it this year, as long as you make the necessary judgments with regard to people, places, and things that don’t nurture your home base.

Scorpio: 2018 will be the year of communication, short trips, and siblings. These aren’t necessarily the natural fields in which you play, but place some structure around these areas in your life and see how a little light-hearted, playful communication can lift you up.

Sagittarius: 2018 can be a great year for you, if you harness your fire. Remember, Apollo drove Helios’ sun, and the next sign over, Capricorn, asks you to put the reigns on your exuberance and optimism. Cautious optimism is always better than unbridled optimism.

Capricorn: 2018 and the next several years really are your years with so much planetary activity in your sign. Appreciate and be grateful for the gifts, but don’t let it get to your head, as your ambitious, success-seeking nature can do.

Aquarius: 2018 will be a year, ironically, about the past. Dredging up past karma and shedding light on the unconscious motivations that drive your present will lead you to the future visions you hold so dear.

Pisces: 2018 will be a year for succeeding, but in an unconventional way. If you get yourself organized, you will have much success with friends, larger social organizations, and even the wishes you dare to make, but only if you find some suitable, structured channels in which to swim, as a lone fish and with your school.

I’m Dan Beck, an astrologer and writer based in New Orleans, LA. To personally explore the Moon’s Messages and other spiritual themes, book an Inner Makeup session by calling 504-313-8706 or e-mailing dan@innermakeup.net.

The New Darkness of Jupiter

Gustav Holst's Jupiter from The Planets

Hip, Hip, Hooray! Jupiter, the planet of optimism, expansion, knowledge, and luck, has moved into…Scorpio. At first glance, this seems like odd territory for such a grandiose, buoyant planet to find itself, Scorpio being the sign of darkness, sexuality, death, power, and intuition, but I’m optimistic for Jupiter’s transit through the sign of Scorpio this coming year.

Signs are how things happen, coloring planets and points, so Jupiter entering the sign of Scorpio means this usually upbeat, glass half full, largest planet will take on a darker, more intuitive, controlling, secretive demeanor over the next year. What does this mean for you? Scorpio is ruled by the planets Mars and Pluto, power planets that control war, physicality, and all aggressive action; and, the secretive, unseen, crystalline underworld dimensions, respectively. Jupiter always encourages you, gleefully, to expand, learn, and gallop forward, but this year, Jupiter being in Scorpio will demand, viscerally, that you make the hard, necessary changes required for you to truly rise. This is the terrain, to use Freudian language, of the Id. What is your body demanding of you that you’re not giving it? Denying your body and mind what it wants creates cognitive dissonance with the other parts of your psyche. Not all desires and wants should be acted upon, but they must be at the minimum considered, acknowledged, and dealt with to relieve tension. Acknowledging this darker, hidden part of yourself will allow your deepest, truest desires to emerge and subsequently to be grappled with. In fact, though these desires might be necessarily rejected by the ego after years of conditioning maintained through the superego, to use more Freudian language, they are in fact screaming out for love.

One of the most moving images recently to come through our computers is the image of Pluto’s broken heart, the modern ruler of Scorpio. All Pluto asks is that you deal with the depths of your soul and make the hard, necessary changes that need to be made to live the life you truly want, the big, expansive, Jupiterian life. But all too often you discard these instinctual feelings to do “the right thing” or what you think you “should be doing.”

Pluto's moving broken heart.

Fear not! Jupiter is here for the next year, and matters that are traditionally the harsh terrain of Scorpio, namely sex, death, inheritance, other people’s money and motivations, and investments, will be much easier this coming year if you heed the lesson of Jupiter and have a positive mindset, all while keeping the aggressive and controlling energy of Scorpio in mind and in check. What does this mean throughout the signs? Read on below.

Aries: This is an extremely powerful transit for you, as Jupiter will be transiting through your sector ruling sex, other people’s money, and transformations. As an already physical sign, being the ram, you might be so exuberant that you run yourself into the ground, one of your natural inclinations as an Aries. But Jupiter transiting through your eighth house, the natural house of Scorpio, asks you to stop and think about your pulsing, physical undulations and where they are perpetually leading you, but, ponder where you really, truly, deeply want to go and not simply act on physical impulse.

Taurus: Jupiter moving into Scorpio is a great chance for you to put your earthly, Taurean pleasures and gifts towards relations with partners, whether in business or marriage, and even adversaries. Taurus, you are gifted with the roots and flowers of the earth, and are often content within yourself. While this can be good, too much solipsism will drop the value of your possessions and materials, so put your value to work in relation to others and see yourself expand greatly.

Gemini: This is interesting, as it usually is with you, curious, communicative Gemini. All about flying and ideas, Jupiter in Scorpio in your work and service area this year asks you to apply, somewhat more soberly, all your flighty machinations. This may take some discipline, but your work will pay off dearly.

Cancer: Usually content to emote and feel from within, Jupiter asks you to express and dramatize your gifts of feeling and emotion this year. You don’t have to give up your self-protection and care, but if you’re being honest, you do want others to hear your song, and they want to hear it too, so invite them into your fold.

Leo: Usually you are the great, warm, dramatist, but Jupiter asks you to devote some more time at home this year and with family. Without a home base, all your creative, golden, warmth won’t mean as much if you don’t take care of your family and home sector of your chart. Plus, you have a big heart anyways, so give it to those who matter most.

Virgo: Heady Virgo, you can drop the analysis and burdens this year. You needn’t worry, rather put all that you’ve reaped, analyzed, and organized into action through commerce and communication. Open yourself up to where the work you slave over could take you, and Jupiter will help get you there, but you need to watch your martyrdom complex if you desire to expand and grow.

Libra: Jupiter just left your sign, but this is not a bad thing. The past year has been about making judgments and balancing the fruits that have come your way. Now the chips are down, and it’s time to possess that which you truly value and take only what’s necessarily. You’ll find it’s all you ever wanted in the first place instead of endlessly deliberating over what you think you may want.

Scorpio: Bam! This is a very powerful year for you, not unlike Aries, with whom you share a rulership in Mars. As harnessing and controlling your power is a perpetual issue for you, Jupiter can help, ironically, tame you, as you step into your power in more expansive, joyous modalities. It doesn’t all have to be darkness, doom, and gloom.

Sagittarius: One might be tempted to say that Jupiter in your house of dreams and the unconscious plane is a bad thing, but this may be an area for you that is yet untapped. Your ruler is Jupiter, and your MO is to know and seek, so allowing some unexpected unknowns to fortuitously appear will do you well. In other words, joyously embrace the mystery!

Capricorn: Jupiter moves through your house of friends, hopes, wishes, and larger groups. Here is a chance for you to get outside of your self-oriented, success driven nature and get out amongst the multitudes. It can’t be all work and no play, and you’ll be surprised how your new social networks and friends in fact drive and help your career from unexpected places.

Aquarius: While your futuristic visions are the necessary idealism we all in the greater society require, you do well during Jupiter’s visit to your area of career and public recognition to work on yourself and a more conservative path forward, a slow ascent to greater success rather than relying on the visions that live with your head in the clouds.

Pisces: Jupiter is your original ancient ruler, but this coming year, Jupiter visits your area of learning, knowledge, and travel. Usually content to live in your watery, dreamy, formless world, try to attain some hard knowledge with Jupiter this time around. Take a class, write, and/or go on an educational expedition rather than relying on more esoteric forms of knowing that are your natural realms.

Dan is a spiritual consultant, astrologer, and writer based out of New Orleans, LA. To explore the themes expressed above in your own spirit, and more, book an appointment by writing to dan@innermakeup.net or calling 504-313-8706.