finding ourselves

the march 2005 forecast

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jupiter and saturn are retrograde.

mercury squares pluto	24°20' pisces/sagittarius	march 1
mars squares jupiter	17°32' capricorn/libra	march 3
venus conjoins uranus	7°10' pisces	march 4
mercury enters aries	0°00' aries	march 5
mars opposes saturn	20°36' capricorn/cancer	march 7
new moon	19°54' pisces	march 10
mars squares the lunar nodes	24°33' capricorn/libra-aries	march 12
jupiter trines neptune	16°27' libra/aquarius	march 14
sun squares pluto	24°28' pisces/sagittarius	march 14
venus trines saturn	20°27' pisces/cancer	march 14
venus squares pluto	24°29' pisces/sagittarius	march 18
mercury reverses course (stationary retrograde)	13°20' aries	march 19
sun enters aries (spring equinox/eostar)	0°00' aries	march 20
mars enters aquarius	0°00' aquarius	march 20
saturn returns to forward motion (stationary direct)	20°24' cancer	march 21
venus enters aries	0°00' aries	march 22
mars conjoins chiron	1°59' aquarius	march 23
venus sextiles chiron	2°02' aries/aquarius	march 24
venus sextiles mars	3°20' aries/aquarius	march 25
full moon	5°18' aries/libra	march 25
pluto reverses course (stationary retrograde)	24°31' sagittarius	march 26
sun conjoins mercury	9°04' aries	march 29
mercury conjoins venus	8°55' aries	march 29
sun conjoins venus	10°31' aries	march 30

all dates are based on pacific time.

our break is over, and now it’s time to get down to planetary business. with three planets changing direction this month, slowdowns and shifts will mark our experiences, but this does not have to be a bad thing. sometimes a negative pattern is thrown off course and weakened, which we can only hope is the case with such things as insurgency in troubled nations and the proposed elimination of the filibuster in the us senate.

jupiter in libra brings support.

jupiter in libra brings grace, however, and the justice associated with the sign of the balance scales. this is evident in the recently announced supreme court decision that capital punishment of minors is cruel and unusual punishment; and in the court cases that have consistently found that the dept of justice’s incarceration of american citizens outside the jurisdiction of existing federal law is unacceptable. by the end of jupiter’s transit there on october 25^th, we may see a number of incursions into human and civil rights pushed back.

we should take advantage of jupiter in libra while we can. it is making a trine all year to neptune, which is periodically completed by planets in gemini or emphasized by planets in aquarius and libra. next year, jupiter forms part of a grand cross which will be continually triggered by other transits. there will be more obstacles to moving forward at that time. the good news about that kind of configuration is that it challenges us to be at our best and it tests our plans and projects to make sure they are in the best and highest form they can possibly assume. this year, while things are easier, we have to impose such restrictions on ourselves. if we are successful at doing so, next year’s limitations will affect us less.

saturn-in-cancer’s last hurrah

saturn returns to direct motion on the 21^st, ending a five-month retrograde that started on november 7 last year. now is a good time to mull over what you’ve been working on and what has been accomplished since then in your life. security issues are tied into your activities in some way. during a saturn retrograde, you may not be able to accomplish all that you wanted to, because it’s as much about learning what won’t work as in accomplishing what will. however, with the assistance of the other planets — the healing of chiron, innovation of uranus, inspiration of neptune, and transformation of pluto — we put all the pieces together to make it work. we don’t just have to rely on saturn, the structurer and limiter, to set our path.

saturn will leave cancer, not to return for 27 years, on july 16^th, entering leo. this will change our focus, and it may release us from the stranglehold that a fear-based perspective has on the american public, one that has tragic effects worldwide.

i have talked in previous forecasts about the downside of saturn in leo, but what about the upside? what can we accomplish? accomplishment comes from having a plan, and we make good plans through awareness. often our actions in one sign are spurred in reaction to what happened in the last. so, although the social squeeze may be put on the population by government, people may react to the isolationism of the past 3 years by reaching out to each other. we’ll be looking for what makes us truly happy, and it won’t be a gas-guzzling suv or our team winning their superbowl rings. it comes from doing what we feel inside is true and right, what is heart-expanding. we may see more people caring about each other again, if they take these lessons to heart. of course, there will be plenty seeking their last hurrah before the gasoline runs out. one last humvee on the road, one more off-road bike before a way of life becomes too chèr to follow. but many people will also respond with more enlightenment, and it is better to align our energies and focus with those people than to be repelled away from those who are desperately seeking gratification.

once saturn enters leo, it sets up challenging dynamics with other planets. this is not as bad as it seems. when saturn was on its own, untouched by other planets, people could not connect with its energies and integrate them into their consciousness. this plays out as not understanding why they do what they do and continuing to act in ways that they really don’t want to in another part of their awareness. while jupiter is in libra this year, there is a connection, and awareness is growing. next year, when saturn enters leo then, it will contact chiron (which it has been doing since 2003) and then neptune. it will remain in contact with jupiter while it is in scorpio, and mars’s retrograde in taurus, which starts october 1^st, will also transit saturn.

we will get our first sense of the challenges that start in the fall in july, but what we experience in the fall will be somewhat unfamiliar. that will set the tone for what comes in 2006, when we will have ample opportunity to work out these issues and circumstances.

when saturn makes its station, we’ll be called upon to work harder, and some projects may be temporarily slowed in the crunch that everyone is feeling. we will be focused on clearing out situations that we’ve been focused on since november. a related peak date is march 7^th, when mars opposes saturn. events then will feed into those around the 21^st.

mercury picks up the gauntlet

mercury begins its first of three retrogrades this year in fire signs. this one, in aries, begins two days before saturn turns direct. although mercury is in a sign which makes dynamic contact with the signs of jupiter and saturn, it will reach neither of them. however, it, as well as the sun and venus, will carry forward concerns into late april that seem poised to emerge in march. so it may seem like the retrograde is in april rather than march. the challenge of this mercury rx is to look more deeply inside to find who we really are. we will have the chance to discover a new understanding of our masks and guises, and life could bring us down a notch if we have too much pride.

the dynamic interplay between mercury in aries and jupiter in libra is one of leveling, of bringing relationships into a more even balance. however, we won’t get the full experience of that until april 2^nd, although the theme will be suggested earlier.

pluto’s new song and dance

pluto’s retrograde period starts on the 26^th and affects most those with planets in mutable signs — gemini, virgo, sagittarius, pisces, while fire signs (aries, leo, sagittarius) get a boost. this ties in with seeds planted last december 13^th and related events on january 3–4 and 28, and march 1^st and 14^th. pluto relates to transformative experiences through which we can empower ourselves. in sagittarius, we are liberated when we dedicate ourselves to knowing and living the truth. as saturn has made its way through gemini and cancer, our notions of truth have taken a beating. it was during this time that 9/11 occurred, and it opened the eyes of american citizens to the fact that they are as vulnerable as the rest of humanity. on a personal level, we will have our own stories of how we became dramatically more aware. once saturn goes into leo, there is a gentler contact between these two planets, and we will be better able to integrate pluto’s lessons into our lives. although this will not be completely fulfilled until 2007, we will begin the process in july, during this pluto retrograde. those of us who are sensitive will feel the shift in subtle ways and begin the process once saturn enters leo.

in the meantime, pluto does not have direct contact with any major planets this year, so there are no “value-added” events during its retrograde. that doesn’t mean that you won’t get plenty of bang for the buck if your chart is contacted, but you won’t have compound issues to deal with. other key dates in this cycle are june 13^th and september 2^nd and 14^th. with the lack of human ability to manage pluto’s energies, explosive world events often occur at the retrograde, including terrorist attacks. these will be experienced at locales that have pluto on the angle at the time of the station, or at the time of the spring ingress. these areas are the middle east (especially iraq and saudi arabia) and western russia, eastern south america, eastern asia (korea, the east coast of china, the philippines and australia). the mountain states of the us are also highlighted.

our ways of handling the events of march will set the stage for how the rest of 2005 goes. we can think of it as a leaping off point, a springboard for future successes. take time to look back a little and learn, but then it’s time to turn around and look ahead.