With the exception of Monday, the 23rd of August, this week looks to be quiet from the astrological angle.  Coming off the aspects of Saturn to Pluto on Saturday, the 21st and Neptune on the 23rd the sense of human peace and complacency has been taking quite a beating. Hopefully with a few days respite from the stars, this can be a period of rejuvenation and adjustment.  Life always takes us higher, and a few plateaus in our ever ascending course are essential. 

The full moon on Tuesday, the 24th can bring another sense of crescendo to affairs.  In Vedic astrology a full moon is considered quite beneficial, with the lunar substance of the mind fully illuminated by the light of the Sun.

It has been a very intense last month astrologically, and I a wrote about at length in Mounting Challenges 2009-11, the final peak of the influences will be around January 4, 2011 with a powerful eclipse of the Sun.  However one additional peak date will be September 14, 2010 with the station of Pluto.

At this point I am somewhat inclined to think that the war drums are not at the critical mass to actually start a war with Iran via the US and Israel.  Maybe everybody is just too afraid to pull the trigger, and rightfully so because such an attack (on Iran) is certain to have nearly catastrophic effects on the world economy and bring us to the brink of a literal WWIII situation.  The US has not fought as powerful an enemy since North Korea in the 50’s or Vietnam in the 60’s and 70’s; and Iran has a modern army.  The ever-belligerent nation of Israel is in possession of nuclear weapons, and the US itself has brought out the possibility of using nuclear-tipped bunker buster bombs on the underground Iranian nuclear labs which they insist are geared towards the production of nuclear weapons.

But I should think the next six months or so are going to be in the shadow of this potential world-threat, and most likely more.  The astrology however would suggest that until early 2011, it will be the critical time. Hope and pray for the best, I don’t think anyone on earth needs more wars now.

As I have been talking about lately, I’m in the process of starting a new website on current events with all content written chiefly by me.  I’ll get the chance then to write a little more comprehensively about world affairs, and I would guess its importance will even eclipse StarWorldNews.  Those are big words and we’ll see how it all turns out.  You’ll be one of the first to know about it when it’s ready.

Monday, Aug 23
Issues of anger, motivation, and breaking out of patterns of powerlessness will be brought out.  Finding your personal power can be a little shaky at first, but the shaking you’re overcoming is the quaking of fear in your psyche.  Overcome fear and you can do anything, and no one can play off any hidden psychological hang-ups you have and make you feel intimidated.  Also at issue will be despair, hopelessness, and the ultimate poverty of deceit; the universe reflects back what we put out.  As Saturn and Neptune aspect today we experience the negative consequences of energy which we put out in the past emanating from our own hypocrisy. Some will find humility, others not willing to receive that may end up dishing out a little more hypocrisy.  (Sun semisquare Mars, Saturn biquintile Neptune)

Tuesday, Aug 24
There may be some moments of exalted consciousness, and the ego trying to take a little of the glory as well.  A lot of times like these, people will say things with great ceremony and heartfelt inspiration but the energy of the intention soon passes and nothing gets done.  However those with a great momentum on putting their money where their mouth is, may go far today.  Some people may hit the “jackpot”.  (Sun quincunx Jupiter)

Wednesday, Aug 25
No peaking influences

Thursday, Aug 26
Personal charisma and magnetism will be very strong, and if the consciousness of the individual is not sufficiently matured the real force in control may be unconscious desires and motivations and not the sovereign will of the individual, which always seem to run contrary to our real best interests.  The potential to use and abuse power is present.  (Sun trine Pluto)

Friday, Aug 27
No peaking influences

Saturday, Aug 28
Emotions and relationship dynamics will be very powerful, not necessarily of intrinsic truth or relevant, feelings will be very strong.  Deep closeness can be affected.  (Venus quintile Pluto)

Sunday, Aug 29
No peaking influences

Monday, Aug 30
Penetrative analysis will be strong today, as will be the voice and the intent behind actions.  Be careful with what you say today, it can have a tremendously profound impact on others.  Psychological or detective work should be rewarding, mysteries can be solves and well as new one comes to light.  In others the tendency to act or think compulsively or obsessively will be triggered; sexual matters may be stimulated, or possibly anything inappropriately tempting.  (Mercury tridecile Pluto)

It will not be easy to describe the astrological influences affecting our affairs this week, there is so much going on.  I’m going to be a little bit more abbreviated than usual since I’m behind in a lot of things.

Relationships

This week Venus and Mars are moving very close to each other and finally making a conjunction on Friday the 20^th; which portends significant relationship developments.  Love can be an exciting pursuit, but once the object of the devotions is finally “captured” it’s not quite as exhilarating anymore and it may end soon.  It seems we don’t purse actually a person, but a dream conveniently superimposed over a person.  Once we find them, they are not a dream anymore but “reality”, and how exciting/stimulating/engaging is that?

So quickly we move on, chasing the dream, but leaving a trail of disgruntled “exes”.

Dealing with Delays

But at the same time Jupiter will be at exact opposition to Saturn on Monday, August 16^th; which can cause a long delayed effect to our projects, temporarily frustrating our aspirations and ambitions but hopefully prodding us to make them permanently real in our lives.  So, relationships as referenced above may have an undertone of delayed fulfillment or unresolved angst at work on them, but ideally pushing us to really work hard at achieving our real desires in relationships.

Mercury Retrograde

Mercury will also be turning retrograde on Friday, August 20^th.  I don’t anticipate much from this three week period, except on the 20^th itself; discussions, intellectual subjects, and communications in general may experience a “bump” in their normal course of affairs.  Like I always say, actual problems in communications and business matters are more apt to manifest directly under hard aspects of Mercury to malefic planets such as Mars, Saturn, and Neptune; as opposed to the effects of retrograde Mercury.

However Mercury does rule two houses in everyone’s chart, and those life areas represented by those houses in your chart will experience at some level that little “bump” I mentioned above.  For instance in my chart Mercury rules my eighth and eleventh houses, and I could anticipate some psychological turbulence, metaphysical stirrings, minor financial good luck, and developments with my circle of friends and associates.

Increased Intensity

THEN we also have the square of Saturn to Pluto on Sunday, August 21^st. Saturn is a first class malefic  and it connects stridently to the energy of another malefic and that should be interesting to say the least.  If Saturn represents areas of pathology and our worst fears, and Pluto much the same; it would be easy to anticipate some deeply entrenched and therefore disturbing energies brought up from our individual and collective subconscious this weekend.  These kinds of energies don’t just pop out on their own like a jack in the box, they are as much elicited by appropriate turns of events in our lives in a real-world context.

It’s sort of the chicken or the egg paradox: what causes the disturbance in our lives, the outer event, or the internal complex it activates within our psyches that magnetizes the event?  The answer of course is both.  So people may be feeling weird, which in turn causes weird things to happen in their lives (a variation on the so-called law of attraction); but also weird things happen in our lives which cause weirdness to grow and fester in our minds

Saturn during this time also makes a biquintile to Neptune, which will reinforce the issue of “weirdness” but also of the fears that emanate out of loss of control, loss of normal mental orientation, and the loss of faith.

World Situations

We’ve just gone through a lot over the past few weeks and months, the “stuff” is continuing in strange ways this week; it affects our minds, attitudes, and perceptions more than anything now.  Sure Obama has a plan, BP says they’ve “fixed” the leak in the Gulf, and those contestants on America’s Got Talent are really amazing; but we also have in the backs of our minds images forming in our minds of the future with millions of people with unemployment benefits running out, needed social services dwindling or disappearing, millions of homes going into foreclosure, the decimation of the economy of the southeaster US with the BP oil spill situation, the ramification of a war starting with Iran on the price of gasoline and worldwide lash back of the Muslim world.

Images like these poke holes in our sense of happiness and security like nothing else, it’s almost as if a part of our cherished reality is melting down into a pool of molten chaos and there is no concept of “the other side” that we’ll come out of because the situations are so big and deep.

Rule Your Mind, Rule Your World

Don’t start jumping out of windows yet, because things never usually turn out as bad as we fear them to.  The melting down is going on with the “bad guys” to; trying to rule the world is just as much a delusion as is the belief that you have no control over the world.  People talk about revolution, the revolution will be in the minds of the people.  Revolution also means the down fall of tyrants, and tyrants only rule by a perception of the mind.  Guns and soldiers mean nothing compared to the acquiescence of the people, or their rejection by non-acceptance.  Rule your mind, rule your world.

Curtis Burns
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Astrology the Week of August 2, 2010

The main issues this week indicated in the heavens above us is that of power, its spiritual roots, and how it will affect the psyche.  The planet Mars makes a square to Pluto, and simultaneously makes an opposition to Jupiter; and only a few days after having made major aspects to Saturn and Uranus this past weekend.  There will also be some amazing relationship/love developments over the upcoming weekend.

There is some heavy stuff going on in the skies right now, so it is not very surprising that a lot of heavy stuff has been going on in the affairs of us little humans on earth below.  Most people experience it as a certain level of intensity of the pace of affairs, but select others have been experiencing it as brushes with mortality.

Intensity is business as usual in places like Washington, DC, London, or Baghdad, and global power politics moves on apace; but the level of authoritarian chutzpah seems to be reaching new levels of audacity with the seizure of retirement funds, attacks on states rights, and moving ahead on potential war fronts in Iran and North Korea.

Logic says that affairs continue on with their momentum; i.e. an object in motion will tend to stay in motion.  The stars however point to a certain peaking of energy, at least as it is experienced on a visceral level, right as this is written in early August 2010.

So as I have been saying now for the past several months, the option is yours as to how you will choose to appropriate and secure for good the energies of this time period.  For every crisis in life there is an equally positive potential to gain from it; call it the law of relative duality, for every “bad” thing there is an equal “good” thing to be derived from any situation.

So as Mars connects to Pluto and Jupiter this week, action and intention (Mars) becomes dynamically connected to inspiration and a feeling of “crusading” (Jupiter), but the energy is compounded by deep psychological complexities (Pluto) that have a distorting but also powerfully transformative effect on the whole matter.

Interestingly, I just went over to CNN online and the headline reads “Obama: Sacrifice in Iraq Not Over”.  Sacrifice is a distinctly Piscean them, so basically Americans give their lives for the cause of Iraq; but how it’s given is by the body and mind shattering process of warfare.  Somehow it becomes palatable if our spiritual proclivities are touched on; and to the ruling elites, our paltry lives are nothing compared to their grand designs of world change.

(The truth is the US troops may be drawn down, but the number of independent civilian contractors will proportionally rise.)

The world is indeed changing, social orders, national boundaries, and economic lines of power are being re-written all over the place.  The Persian state of Iran looks about to get a military-style urban makeover; Iraq supposedly will be reformed into three separate states (Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni), and the world’s reserve currency is about to be switched over from US dollars to an international banking currency (SDR’s).

All of these things are like objects in motion, not about to stop their course.  Change is inevitable; it is a mysterious, awesome, and ultimately hard to predict process.

The next date to keep in mind: September 14, 2010, Pluto turns direct.  Pluto made a station on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, since most commentators are predicting something definitive (including an attack) by the US in the Iran situation, it could coincide with something catastrophic occurring.  Maybe British Petroleum will try to seal the oil leak with a nuke, which has the potential to break the breach wide open releasing 1000x times more oil into the Gulf.  An attack on Iran has the distinct possibility of escalating into a nuclear situation.  We live in happy times.  More on this configuration later.

Over the weekend of Aug 7 and 8, 2010, the planet Venus will come around to make multiple aspects to the larger configuration in force (which I've been talking about for so many months already), making distinct relationship developments to this week and weekend; and I think they should be significant.

Mon, August 2
No peaking influences

Tues, August 3
Motivation and intention may get pushed beyond normal boundaries, appropriateness and tact in interactions may go out the window.  A highly pathological sense of recklessness and arrogance may be set off, and things could blow up in someone’s face.  (Mars opposite Jupiter, square Pluto)

Wed, August 4
Relationships, passion, and love could be beautifully touched; however the potential for illusion and delusion to be behind it all is high.  What seems so ethereal and real today, may prove to be false tomorrow.  Energy and motivation may suffer mysterious ebbs and flows; crusading for causes may prove futile, hopeless, or embarrassing in the end. (Venus quincunx Neptune, Mars biquintile Neptune)

Thurs, August 5
No peaking influences

Friday, August 6
No peaking influences

Sat and Sun, August 7 & 8
Over this weekend unusual, difficult or complicated relationship situations may develop.  Deep incompatibilities may be laid bare, and the love impulse may reach a cold place.  Alternatively, the layers of resistance or bitterness that inhibit the flow of love can be tenderly put aside and a slow, but sure burn of passion can be fanned.  Relationship developments this weekend may have very deep roots in the past, bringing up long-harbored resentments and betrayals.  (Venus opposite Uranus, conjunct Saturn; Sun sesquiquadrate Uranus)

Mon, August 9
After a difficult start with some harsh emotions arising, things may mellow and sweeten between people.  Situations may brighten.  But there could be more compulsive or obsessive emotional dynamics coming out in people and situations, which feels intensely delightful. An hour of passion however may be at the expense of focusing on more valuable matters in life.  (Sun semisquare Saturn, Venus opposite Jupiter, square Pluto)

Curtis Burns
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Aspects of Mars and Saturn; Astrology for the Week of July 26, 2010

It’s a somewhat rare thing for Mars to conjunct Saturn, but it’s an even rarer thing for Mars to conjunct Saturn and make hard aspects to almost all the other outer planets at the same time like it will this week on Saturday, July 31.

Mars can be like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object, which is Saturn.  SCREEECH!  BANG!  CRASH!  Mars represents energy in motion, but Saturn represents for us the unshakeable framework of cosmic law.  It’s pretty clear who will win this fight.

For us mortals though, blundering our way on Earth, these energies existing inside of us are in a state of semi-luminosity and subject to breakdown and collapse; and many times in our bodies muscles and tendons tear, and bones crack and break.  There is a literal connection to bones and and muscles with Mars and Saturn;  i.e. people suffer strains, sprains, and breaks during such transits, progressions, or dasas (all in extreme cases).

In a larger context desires, aspirations, and human endeavors suffer setback, delay, and collapse; on the social scale emotions hemorrhage and hope seemingly is destroyed.

I may get slightly carried away sometimes describing things here on SWN, but I take various configurations going on in the sky and make them into teaching moments.  Things probably will not go that bad by and large, but some people definitely will feel it on a very personal level as I have described.

The bigger picture is not all that good, but there is Jupiter in Pisces sidereally in its rulership in the equation helping us along, possibly redeeming us from a far worse outcome.  Powerful forces however are on the move seeking to radically change economies, alter national boundaries, and re-write the rules for human thinking.

I’ll just name a few: wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and very possibly in Iran and North Korea; economic austerity measures put in place to pay off massive bank bailouts in Europe; the BP oil spill; the ability of the government to shut down the Internet being put into place; an invasion of US southern borders by drug mafias; and an increasingly fascistic federal police state.

Things are not as bad as I thought they could be at this time, but they are bad enough.  I won’t discount either a very powerful spiritual awakening in people around the world.  The seeds of our success and victory as a race are being fierily implanted in our worlds right now, and if we water and nurture them great things will come to pass in the coming decades.

A lot of surpassing miracles can be birthed out of a little pain and suffering.  If the power is cut off from our TVs, mp3 players, and computers; maybe we will start to reconnect in a uniquely personal way once again.  Our values might return to simpler, yet more real things.  It is then “the people” will be more powerful than ever; most especially so when the previous paradigms that ruled us: a weak Christianity; a medievalist Islam; a materialistic upward social mobility, and all previous measures of prestige and power will be seen to be brittle, empty, and delusory as they are.

All I can say right now is, keep your eyes open.  Take note of what is being taken away from you, and the opportunities now at hand which you may not have seen before because the cluttering other things.  The new paradigm is what is inside of you already, not what you have to acquire from without.

Overview

This week has a three day gap of no configurations becoming exact, so nothing to report there.  People will have their own personal cycles to deal with.  Then on Friday, July 30, Mars will oppose Uranus, and the following day it will conjunct Saturn (click on wheel at right).  Tension and frustration may be very high, don’t blame anybody, and remember that it is a particularly intense alignment of the stars above us at work.  Be careful; don’t let the worst parts of you lead you into situations that have a higher probability of going awry.  Injuries and accidents are at higher risk.  Patience may become very thin.

The fabulous astrology book, The Combination of Stellar Influences, which is one of my main resources for two decades (get it at right), speaks of the Mars/Saturn/Uranus configuration as:

“An act of violence, the occasionally wrong use of extraordinary energy, undergoing great effort and toil; a violent or forced release of tensions or strains; the stage of challenging others for a decisive contest or fight; injury, accident, deprivation of freedom:

The inclusion of Pluto into the configuration will keep things pretty intense.  As mentioned above, Jupiter will be a mitigating factor; but a word to the wise should be enough.  We have another week or two of intense stuff, and then things should calm down shortly thereafter.

Mon, July 26
The beginning of the week starts out equally as intensely as the preceding weekend.  Today it is important to keep the mind strongly attenuated to counteract influences that could cause neglectful, deceptive, and pathologically toxic behaviors.  Remember that things done seemingly innocently in one moment can have grave consequences down the road; be sure that your outlook is not overly rosy.  (Mercury opposite Neptune, Sun quincunx Pluto, Sun trine Jupiter, Mars quincunx Neptune, Saturn opposite Uranus)

Tues, July 27 thru Thurs, July 29
No peaking influences

Friday and Saturday, July 30 & 31
Excitement or hysteria could be very high, leading to some intense and volatile situations.  Try to take it easy, on others as well as yourself.  An intense feeling of alarm will quickly pass into something much more rationale, from there you can act.  (Mars opposite Uranus, conjunct Saturn)

Sun, Aug 1
Intensity continues with obsessive, compulsive, or destructive behaviors; some things may breakdown (electronics, mechanical, bodily); and relationship developments may come about.  (Sun biquintile Pluto, semisquare Venus)

Mon, Aug 2
No peaking influences

Curtis Burns
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