markspringle.com

Dear Friends,

Mercury went retrograde April 18^th @ 12:06a EST.  Whenever Mercury goes retrograde, it is a second chance to re-do, re-visit, re-think, and/or re-organize something that we have already done.  Mercury rules thinking, the mind, and communication, as well as all modes of technology which assist these activities.  Mercury Retrograde does not usually support new projects, but if you are doing something for the second time, then Mercury Retrograde is the perfect time to make your second, better effort.

The sign in which Mercury retrogrades is important, for it tells us what areas of life we should re-visiting.  It also directs our attention to the area of our lives ruled by that sign in our charts.  For this Mercury retrograde, the sign we need to understand is Taurus.  Taurus is the fixed earth sign of the zodiac, ruler of the 2^nd house.  Taurus is associated with resources.  What resources do you have? What resources do you take for granted?  Sometimes, we take our best resources for granted because they are second nature to us.  With Mercury retrograde in Taurus, this is a great time to spend some time thinking about our resources, how we use or abuse them, and how we can make better use of what we have.  Taurus also rules farming, which is a metaphor for how to use your talents in order to create sustenance.   If we are unsure of our resources, gardening may be an appropriate activity to help us meditate on the subject.  It will also help us to remember that resources must be cultivated in order for them to be productive for us.  Taurus also rules money, an important resource in our society.  During this Mercury retrograde, it would be a very good idea to get a handle on our finances.  Tax season is over, and perhaps now is the right time to review our budgets and make the necessary adjustments with respect to our refund or payment.

Taurus is ruled by Venus, so we definitely want to look at Venus and see what is going with her so that we can fully understand the message of Mercury in her sign.  When Mercury turned retrograde, Venus was in her own sign of Taurus, as well.  We call this a dignified position, because Venus is powerful in the sign she rules.  This also reiterates the importance of understanding how we are using our resources.  Venus is in a good and supportive position to Jupiter at the retrograde as well.  Jupiter is also dignified in Pisces, and Jupiter magnifies whatever it touches.  Some of us may getting some really good news with respect to our resources, others may be getting news that is not so good.  Either way, Jupiter in Pisces is reminding us that material resources don’t create spiritual wealth.  In fact, many spiritual masters ask their students to renounce their material wealth so that they can concentrate on cultivating spiritual wealth. Good news or bad, increasing resources or decreasing, it would be wise to make sure your spiritual resources are renewed and supportive.  Even poor men can be rich in love and Spirit.

Whatever house is ruled by Taurus in your chart will be that area of your life where these concepts are manifesting.  For example, Taurus rules my fifth house, and with the support of my friends and network in DC, I was able to give lectures and readings this past week which allowed me to express myself creatively in a way that I have been chasing for years.  Now that I have done it once, I can use this experience as grist to fuel the mill and support my desire to create more space for me to deliver my public talks.  If you have a group that you would like for me to address, please let me know.  I’m adding “Public Speaker” to my business card.

As this is happening, Saturn and Uranus are lining up for their final opposition on the Virgo-Pisces axis at 29 degrees on Monday, April 26.  The 29^th degree of any sign is a big deal, but Uranus at the last degree of Pisces is the biggest!  Michael Lutin taught me that 29 Pisces is the Weeping Degree.  Sounds heavy.  It is.  For the past 2.5 years, the Saturn-Uranus opposition has been asking us to release the status quo where it has made our lives stale and unfulfilling.  Uranus is the planet of awakening, revolution, and insight.  This energy is infusing our daily routines and habits with new, fresh, and innovative ideas in an effort to bring us more fully into our own lives.   Many of us have been embracing this change, letting things go that needed to go, and this week, we will finally feel like that separation is complete, or completing.  (Uranus will move forward into Aries late May and retrograde back in to 29 Pisces in the fall, showing where we may not have released as much as we thought.)  Nonetheless, this week is a big separation.  If we have been resisting this change, fighting the need to let go, then this week will be an especially difficult and volatile one, as the release will happen regardless of our attempts to stop it.  A therapist of mine, Rachel Levy, once told me that the pain was in the resistance.  Well, if you are resisting this release, then you know what she means.

We are all being called to a higher level of consciousness whether we like it or not.  The Age of Pisces is giving way to the Age of Aquarius.  We are moving from a dualistic society where the martyr-victim mentality is being replaced by the “We are One” mentality as evidenced in the huge popularity of the movie “Avatar.”  We are all connected, our actions affect the planet,  we are our brothers’ keepers, as well as keepers of the earth.  We cannot  afford to take for granted the things that sustain us, and this includes our resources.  Perhaps we need to release something that keeps us firmly rooted in the illusion that we are not connected, that we are independent from and that we have no responsibility to our fellow humans.  Pluto in Capricorn through 2025 will revolutionize our sense of responsibility and help us to understand our relation to the earth and our responsibilities to it and the family of Man.

Two days after this exact opposition of Saturn and Uranus, we will have a Full Moon in Scorpio.  Scorpio rules joint or shared resources and with the Sun still in Taurus, the focus will be on all of our resources, individual and shared.  A Full Moon shines light on the shadow, and we will get feedback on how in control or out of it we have been with regards to all of resources.  The news may not be good, but its only information.  What we do with the information is what is important.   (This Full Moon also heralds the Wesak Festival.  Please follow this link to a great explanation by Robert Wilkinson of the importance of this celebration.)

This is also the day that Mercury joins the Sun to start a new cycle.  The Sun and Mercury conjunct in Taurus opposing the Moon in Scorpio tells us that we need to evaluate our security with regards to all of the resources in our lives.  If we are not secure, then we can use the energy of the Sun (effort, work, focus) and Mercury (thinking, processing, and communicating) to develop a better a relationship (Venus rules relationships, as well) with our resources.  This cycle will be full in June at 6 Cancer when we will see the full effect of this cycle.  Cancer rules emotional security, so if we don’t like the feedback we are receiving, then we have 8 weeks or so to work on creating something we can feel good about.  Also, even if we are receiving feedback we like, this does not guarantee that we will feel good at the full phase in late June, because if we are only focused on material resources, we may see in June how our lack of cultivation (a Taurus word) of more spiritual resources has left us feeling vulnerable.

2010 will be  a year of change unlike any we have seen in a long time.  I hope that each and every person is really re-evaluating , re-leasing, and re-forming a plan to get them to where they want or need to be.  Of course, I know not every one is, and I have compassion for these folks, because even though the universe will give them more chances to work within the energy of the cosmos, they will have a price to pay this week, this month, and this year, as they cling to a loss which is not only inevitable, but the seed of their own progress.

We are still under the power of the most recent New Moon in Aries, so please consider how you would finish this phrase: I AM ___________.  If you are not satisfied with your answer, then now if the time to work on the creating an answer you can be happy with - an answer that expresses the totality of who you are, not just some hat that you wear for a few hours a day.  The next new Moon will be in Taurus, bringing us the seed energy to cultivate the resources that have been the focus of the Mercury retrograde this time around.

With love and hope that you will prosper and find find happiness.

mark

Dear Friends,

Sorry about last week!  The stationing retrograde of Pluto in Capricorn weighed me down like concrete in my veins.  For this Scorpio with Capricorn rising, I literally felt like I couldn’t move, my mind was inert, and my motivation was non-existent.  Luckily, I was expecting something along those lines, but I thought that by focusing (Pluto) and working hard (Capricorn),  I could plow through it.  I did manage to get some good work done with client readings, but the weekly update suffered.  How was this past week for all of you?  If it was rough, or slow, or unproductive, give yourself a break - you weren’t the only one!  If you were productive, gained valuable insight, or finally released something from which you have needed freedom, then YEE-HAW!  I am sure the pain of that experience will ease up as soon as you stop focusing in it.  Remember, panhandlers found gold in the mud.

Last week, we also saw Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, slip right back into Virgo the day after the Pluto station.  Yes, the Saturn-Uranus opposition is back, full on, and we all better be up for some change, because it is coming, whether we like it or not.  For almost 2.5 years, Uranus, the planet of higher mind, has been challenging Saturn, the planet of the status quo, to allow for some movement and growth to occur.  The status quo always gets stale and outdated at some point, and Uranus is the energy which brings new ideas and new ways of doing things into the dialogue.  Of course, the old guards fight vigorously to hold onto their perceived power, while the challengers insist on equality and the right to be heard.  We see this playing out in so many ways in the politics and popular culture of not only of the US, but the world at large.  Pay attention and you will see that underneath all of the headlines and EXTRA! reports is the tension between the old and the new.  With both Pluto and Saturn retrograde at the final Virgo-Pisces opposition on April 26th, we will all be forced to admit to ourselves that the time has come to make some changes, like them or not.

For the upcoming week, the big news is the Aries New Moon on Wednesday, April 14th.  Aries is the beginning of the zodiac.  It is the seed from which all things grow.  Aries represents the will to power, the instinct to survive, and the need for growth and expansion.  This mirrors the necessity inherent in the Saturn-Uranus opposition for growth and change to take place.  This Aries New Moon is the threshold of the next big chapter of our lives.  Uranus will enter Aries on May 28th, bringing a demand for growth and self-expression.  Some of us are so attached to the past and the people we used to be, for better or worse, that we cannot allow this growth to occur.  If we aren’t ready to expand, then the demand could cause us to break, to fall apart under the pressure.  This New Moon, following the Pluto station so quickly, is the perfect time to channel your inner Scorpio natures ( we all have them) and begin the process of shedding your external shell for the new and shiny one underneath.  The demand is not to be someone we are not, but to allow the person we have always been to express him or herself with more authenticity.

The ruler of Aries is Mars and he is in Leo, the sign that rules the heart.  This reminds us that we should be expressing our deepest truth, that about which we are passionate.  If we are not expressing the truth of who we are, we cannot have true experiences or true relationships.  Everything in our lives will have been built upon a lie that has no depth, no passion, and no love.  When things get difficult, as they always do in life, how can we survive, how can we get back on our feet if there is no passion, no love?  Mars is also quincunx to Pluto, a difficult aspect that Loretta Standley refers to as a “bend” or “break” aspect.  I love this description because it supports my own belief that we must all learn how to be authentic and express what is real and meaningful for us without fear of reproach or abandonment.  I have had my own problems with these fears, but let me tell you clearly that the more I express my passion for what I believe in, the more I allow myself to be who I truly am, the more loved and accepted I feel.  Of course, I have lost some good friends and some family along the way, but these people never loved me for who I was because they never knew that person.  And believe me, loosing a bad relationship only makes room for a better one!  This is the lesson of Pluto: we must loose something in order to gain something better.

Mars is also tri-octile to Jupiter in Pisces, presenting us with an aspect that requires us, as Dr. Standley puts it, to “chill out!”  Jupiter in Pisces asks us to melt with the universe, to be one with everyone and everything.  How can we if we are being called to express our unique passions?  Well, if we all doing the same thing, then we all have the same desire: to be loved and to love without fear of reproach.  If I have a right to express my passion, then you have that right as well.  If you and I have that right, then everyone else does too.  If we stopped worrying about fitting in and just allowed our heart energy to shine, the we could all benefit from the collective freedom of expression by sharing what we have in surplus and enjoying the generosity of others.  This wont sit well with control freaks or power hungry people who aren’t happy unless they can move us around like puppets.  It will also scare those lemmings among us who aren’t willing to do the hard work necessary to break the bondage of fear.  Both of these types of people will be relics in the Age of Aquarius.  Collective equality and collective acceptance, appreciation, and love are all hallmarks of the Age of Aquarius which is being born as we speak.  All of the pain and suffering in this world that we live in right now in is the birth pain of a new consciousness being born on Earth, and we all a part of it: whether we like it or believe in it, or not.

It strikes me as I look at the chart of the New Moon that there are 5 pairs of planets (if we count the North Node and Pluto both in Capricorn as a pair) around the chart.  This is rare for the planets to be paired up so tightly.  It is a beautiful reminder that as humans, we are meant to relate to one another.  Aristotle called us “social animals.”  We are not meant to live in solitary confinement or bubbles of anonymous consumption.  Our capacity to love and to be loved points to the fact that we need others in order to be whole, balanced, and happy.  This is why Saturn is exalted in Libra, because it brings us into balance with others.  Saturn was in Libra from Oct 2009 through early April 2010.  This gave us a sneak peak of where we need to work on getting along better with others.  In mid-July, Saturn will enter Libra and immediately enter back into the final opposition to Uranus on the Aries-Libra axis, which is the axis of relationship to both ourselves and to others.  This New Moon is the time to set our intentions on being honest with ourselves, so that we can be honest with others about who we are and what we need.  This will smooth the way for the volatile energies of this summer to bring us warmth instead of fire, to bring controlled energy instead of destruction, and to help build a future rather than to destroy a past.

Pluto is the higher octave of Mars, and Pluto retrograde in Capricorn is requiring all of us to be responsible (Capricorn) to ourselves (retrograde) and to those we love (Mars in Leo through the quincunx), as well as the world in general (Jupiter in Pisces through the trioctile).  This is a big order, but the message is clear.  We are ultimately responsible for the quality of our experiences.  Our choices affect everyone else.  What we put out comes back to us.  As above, so below.  All things change.

Be free and honest, ask for what you need, and love yourself and those around you.  Enjoy the blessings of this world and give back so that others can enjoy you.

with love

m

SAVE THESE DATES:

April 14 Zodiac Lounge: Aries New Moon                                Miami Beach, FL

April 18 Mercury Retrograde 2010                                            Washington, DC

April 22 Saturn vs Uranus: Will the Drama Ever End?                 Washington, DC

May 12 Zodiac Lounge: Taurus New Moon                                Miami Beach, FL

May 18 I’m at The Bodhi Tree in LA!
URANUS 2010: Tune IN and Turn ON                         West Hollywood, CA

I’ll be available for one-on-one sessions in all of the cities I visit this year, and of course, I am always available via phone or Skype anytime from my home in Miami.

You may not know this, but all of success depends on your word of mouth.  I do not advertise, except through this site and through my Facebook postings and tweets.

Please share this column with your friends and family who have an interest in astrology, who need a new way of looking at the world, or who simply may be in the areas I visit.

Many Thanks for your continued support.